gaim

PGP Signing

All of the files we release are digitally signed. What does this mean? It means that you can check the file against the digital signature and know that the file hasn't been tampered with.

To verify the signature of an RPM:

1. Import the PGP key of the signer. For Mandrake RPMs this is Mark Doliner. For Red Hat RPMs this is Ethan Blanton. For Fedora Core this is Stu Tomlinson. If you're using RPM 4.1.x or later:

   $ rpm --import "http://kingant.net/MarkDoliner.pgp"

   Or, if you're using 4.0.x:

   $ wget http://kingant.net/MarkDoliner.pgp
   $ su -c 'gpg --import MarkDoliner.pgp'

2. Verify the RPM.

   $ rpm -K gaim-1.3.0-0.mdk10.0.i586.rpm

To verify the signature of a .tar.gz or .tar.bz2 file:

$ gpg --verify gaim-0.80.tar.bz2.asc gaim-0.80.tar.bz2

Subversion (aka SVN)

Subversion is a way of storing and tracking changes in the code between releases. The Gaim source is kept in a Subversion repository. Because this is the central location for all Gaim development, it always has the latest code and bug fixes. However, this means it also has the latest bugs.

We encourage you to use the releases as much as possible. You can obtain the Gaim source from the Subversion repository, but doing so puts unnecessary load on the Subversion servers. The code in Subversion is never guaranteed to work correctly, and if something is obviously broken you should not complain about it, this only slows the development process. However, if you desire to hack on the Gaim source, you should use Subversion. Please be sure to read this before using Subversion.

Here's step-by-step instructions for how to check out and build gaim from Subversion. Before you begin, make sure you have libtool, gettext, automake, and autoconf installed. If you normally install gaim from RPM, make sure you also have devel packages of glib 2.0 and gtk 2.0 (but at least glib and gtk 2.4 are recommended) installed, as well as gcc and gmake. You also need a Subversion client installed. If you're using a Unixy operating system you can usually install a Subversion client using your operating system's package management tools. Or you can download a client from the Subversion website.

Step 1. Check out the source

Run the following command in a directory that you have write access to (such as your home directory):

svn co https://svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/gaim/trunk gaim 

You should see it listing all the source files.

Step 2. Build again

Once you've checked Gaim out of Subversion, run the follwing commands:

cd gaim
./autogen.sh 

If you see any errors here, you haven't installed everything you need. autogen.sh will also run ./configure for you once it's created, if it's created successfully. If you see any errors related to GLib or GTK, you haven't installed the devel packages.

gmake
gmake install 

Step 3. Update gaim

When there are changes to gaim's code, you'll want to update your local copy. You don't have to remove the entire directory that you checked out and redo the whole thing; instead, from inside the directory, run:

svn update
gmake
gmake install 

The update will merge all the changes into the current files, and then gmake will rebuild gaim.

And that should be everything. Please note you need to use gmake; BSD make will not work. Also, gmake is installed simply as 'make' on some systems - if gmake isn't found, use make instead. Please be sure that you are using the correct version before submitting bug reports - gaim is installed in /usr/local/bin by default, and you may have an older copy in /usr/bin. ./configure should warn you if that is the case.

Subversion Commits Mailing List

We also have a mailing list set up that will notify you when new commits are made. Join gaim-commits@lists.sourceforge.net by telling us your email address at http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/gaim-commits. Then you'll know when to update.