Imported Upstream version 1.4~svn361

docs/HACKING

@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+General:
+
+* docs/* exists for a reason, especially docs/CHANGELOG
+  * Changes should match commit messages, barring mistakes
+  * "Bug fix:" should be used to identify minor changes due to
+    coding errors
+  * docs/CHANGELOG should reference filename of changed files
+* Quote correctly
+  * Use double-quotes, not single-quotes
+* Variable names should be descriptive
+* Reference variables as ${variablename}
+* "printf --" unless you have reason not to
+* Avoid unnecessary cats, never use two commands if one will do
+* No unnecessary new lines, the only blocks should be those
+  introduced by code: if/then/else/fi etc
+* Redirects take the form >/path/to/redirect/to (i.e. no space)
+
+lib/misc/*:
+
+* Changes to existing APIs used by lib/checks/* must be discussed
+  prior to implementation
+  * Such changes to the APIs used by lib/checks/* must be minimised
+* New APIs can be freely added
+* Code in here is meant to be ported to new platforms
+  * OS specific code should be minimised
+* Don't read _ if there's a chance the data may be useful later
+* Validate your input using lib/misc/validate
+
+lib/checks/*:
+
+* Code in here is meant to be portable, it should inherit new
+  capabilities by way of changes to lib/misc/*
+  * Avoid OS specific code, the APIs should fail sane