Merge pull request #1995 from TheAspiringHacker/stdlib-contrib-docs

Add documentation for contributing to the stdlib

1 files changed, 37 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/stdlib/HACKING.adoc b/stdlib/HACKING.adoc
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+= Contributing to the standard library
+
+For guidelines about standard library content, see
+link:../CONTRIBUTING.md#contributing-to-the-standard-library[].
+
+Note: All paths are given relative to the root of the repository.
+
+First, build the compiler. Run `./configure`, then `make world.opt`. See
+link:../HACKING.adoc[].
+
+To add a new module, you must:
+
+* Create new `.mli` and `.ml` files for the modules, obviously.
+
+* Define the module in `stdlib/stdlib.mli`, `stdlib/stdlib.ml`, and
+  `otherlibs/threads/stdlib.ml` in the section of the code commented,
+  "MODULE ALIASES". Please maintain the same style as the rest of the code, in
+  particular the alphabetical ordering and whitespace alignment of module
+  aliases. Note that `otherlibs/threads/stdlib.mli` is a symbolic link to
+  `stdlib/stdlib.mli`.
+
+* Add `$(P)module_name.cmo` to the definition of `OTHERS` in `stdlib/Makefile`.
+
+* Add `$(LIB)/$(P)module_name.cmo` to the definition of `LIB_OBJS` in
+  `otherlibs/threads/Makefile`.
+
+* Add `$(P)module_name` to the definition of `STDLIB_MODULES` in
+  `stdlib/StdlibModules`. Please maintain the alphabetical order.
+
+* Run `make alldepend` to update all the `.depend` files. These files are not
+  edited by hand.
+
+* Run `make clean` or `make partialclean`, then `make world.opt`.
+
+If you are adding multiple modules, follow the steps above and rebuild the
+compiler after adding each module. If you add multiple modules before
+rebuilding, the build may fail.