GNU Coding Standards

• Referring to Proprietary Programs
• Accepting Contributions
• Change Logs
• Compatibility with Other Implementations
• Makefile Conventions
  • General Conventions for Makefiles
  • Utilities in Makefiles
  • Standard Targets for Users
  • Variables for Specifying Commands
  • Variables for Installation Directories
• How Configuration Should Work
• Using Languages Other Than C
• Formatting Your Source Code
• Commenting Your Work
• Clean Use of C Constructs
• Naming Variables and Functions
• Using Non-standard Features
• Calling System Functions
• Program Behavior for All Programs
• Formatting Error Messages
• Library Behavior
• Portability As It Applies to GNU
• Standards for Command Line Interfaces
• Documenting Programs
• Making Releases