                             dist 4.0
                       **  Alpha version **

                   Copyright (c) 1988, Larry Wall
                Copyright (c) 1990-1992, Harlan Stenn
              Copyright (c) 1991-1997, Raphael Manfredi
              Copyright (c) 2004-2006, Raphael Manfredi

------------------------------------------------------------------------
    This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
    it under the terms of the Artistic License, a copy of which can be
    found with this package.

    This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
    but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
    MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
    Artistic License for more details.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

This version of dist requires you to have at least perl 4.0 PL36.
It has also been ported to work with perl 5.0 PL0, provided you have
at least integrated patches 0a-0h, issued by Andy Dougherty and made
available at the following ftp sites:

	ftp.demon.co.uk:/pub/perl/db/perl5.000-p0a-p0h.tar.gz
	ftp.funet.fi:/pub/languages/perl/ports/perl5/perl5.000-p0a-p0h.tar.gz

Please read all the directions below before you proceed any further, and
then follow them carefully.

After you have unpacked your kit, you should have all the files listed
in MANIFEST.

========================================================================
                           It's not the way I wrote it, but the
                           way you play it makes it sound a lot better.
                                -- Camille Saint-Saens (French composer)

The dist package consists of four parts:

    1) The Configure generator (metaconfig) and its supporting files.
    2) The distribution kit maker (makedist) and its supporting files.
    3) The patch distribution system (pat*) and its supporting files.
    4) The Makefile generator (jmake) and its supporting files.

Each of these can be used separately from the others.  Before you can
use any of those, however, the directory containing your package (not this
package) must be initialized by putting a .package file into it.  This
can be done by running packinit in that directory.

There is a mailing list hosted in Japan and set up by Shigeya Suzuki
<shigeya@foretune.co.jp>, for discussion about the dist package as a
whole. It's a good place to ask questions (or answer them) and to
send your patches. I will post official patches to the net, as well
as to the dist-users list.

To send a mail to the list, address it to <dist-users@foretune.co.jp>.
To subscribe, send a mail to <majordomo@foretune.co.jp>. If you don't
know how to use majordomo, the syntax of the subscribe command is:

	subscribe dist-users [address]

where the address part is optional. You may unsubscribe automatically
at any time by sending:

	unsubscribe dist-users

If you have a problem with this version of dist, it is recommended that
you subscribe to the list, then send a description of your problem to it.
If you send mail to me personally, I may not be able to answer in a
timely fashion.

This mailing list has low traffic (a few articles per week, typically),
and it is expected to remain so, with a high signal/noise ratio.

Notes:

    If you are running on a system with <= 14 char filenames, don't
    distribute any files with filenames longer than 12 chars (with the
    exception of patchlevel.h), so that there will be room for a
    2-digit extension indicating patch number in your bugs direcory.
    This includes .SH files, so any shell script built by a .SH file
    should be 9 characters or less.  On systems with flexfilenames you
    don't have to worry about it.

    This package has been designed on top of dist 2.0, which has been
    written by Larry Wall <lwall@netlabs.com>.
========================================================================

INSTALLATION

1) Run Configure. This will figure out various things about your
system. After it has completed, it will produce config.h and config.sh.

You might possibly have to trim # comments from the front of Configure
if your shell doesn't handle them, but all other comments will be taken
care of.

2) Run make.

3) If make succeeded, you may wish to do "make install install.man". Be
sure your rights are correct (if you install manual pages, you may need
super-user privileges). By not running "make install.man", you avoid the
installation of the manual pages.

4) Read the manual entry before running.

5) IMPORTANT!  Communicate any problem and suggested patches to me,
ram@hptnos02.grenoble.hp.com (Raphael Manfredi), so we can keep this
distribution in sync.  If you have a problem, there will be someone else
who had it or will have it too...

If possible, send me patches such that the patch program will apply
them.  Context diffs are the best, then normal diffs.  Do not send ed
scripts, I have probably changed my copy since the version you got.

6) After everything is installed, you can do make clobber. This will
clean up everything and let you re-distribute this kit, without
carrying useless files. You should keep this distribution intact, so
that future patches will be applyable.

7) I have an automatic patch sender. Send me the following mail:

	Subject: Command
	@SH mailhelp PATH

and you'll get instructions (PATH stands for YOUR e-mail address, either
in INTERNET or in bang notation). I would recommend you to get all the
issued patches before you start making some modifications on this
package.

8) If you wish to deinstall the package, you may run "make deinstall".
A separate "make deinstall.man" will remove the manual pages. Be sure
the makefiles are correctly set before running any deinstall target.
On USG systems, some executable have a chance to remain despite the
deinstall (text file busy...).

	Raphael Manfredi <Raphael_Manfredi@grenoble.hp.com>
