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|
<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<title>Additional Information for CTAN Uploaders</title>
<!--
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="tugstyle.css" />
-->
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="https://www.tug.org/tugstyle.css" />
<meta name="author" content="Petra Rübe-Pugliese" />
<meta name="date" content="2021-09-26" />
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii" />
<style type="text/css">
.highlight { color:navy;}
.abstandoben { margin-top:1em;}
.kleinerabstandoben { margin-top:0.8ex;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<!-- ======================================================== -->
<h1>
Additional Information for CTAN Uploaders
</h1>
<p>
Before studying these <em>additional</em>
notes,
you should have read and understood
the following
<a id="basictexts">basic texts</a>:
</p>
<ol style="list-style-type:lower-alpha;">
<li>
CTAN's help page
“<a href="https://ctan.org/help/upload-pkg">How can I upload a package?</a>”,
</li>
<li>
the
<a href="https://tug.org/texlive/pkgcontrib.html">
TeX Live instructions</a>, and
</li>
<li>
the corresponding
<a href="https://www.texfaq.org/FAQ-uploads.html">
article of the UK TeX FAQ</a>.
</li>
</ol>
<p>
The following paper tries to give some
<a href="#backgroundinfo">background information about CTAN itself</a>,
followed by a list of more aspects we ask you keep in mind when
<a href="#uploadpreparation">preparing your upload</a>,
some hints about
<a href="#uploading">how to use the upload form</a>
and finally information about
<a href="#furtherprocessing">what will happen to your
submission</a>
once it has arrived at our place.
</p>
<!-- ======================================================== -->
<hr/>
<h2>
<a id="backgroundinfo">Some background information</a>
</h2>
<h3>
<a id="networkstructure">Structure of the network</a>
</h3>
<p>
The
<span class="highlight">Comprehensive TeX Archive Network</span>
consists of
<a id="centralserver">
<span class="highlight">a central server</span>
</a>
at Cologne in Germany and a great number of
<a href="https://ctan.org/mirrors/mirmon/">mirrors</a>
all over the world.
</p>
<p>
All these servers should in principle present
the same content
–
an ideal that is of course regularly disturbed
with every installation of a new upload;
but every mirror should synchronize with
the central server once every day,
so that the approximation to that ideal is
indeed quite close.
</p>
<h3>
<a id="archivestructure">Structure of the archive</a>
</h3>
<p>
The greater part of the archive
is taken up by what we refer to as the
<a id="unpackedtree"></a>
“<a href="https://mirrors.ctan.org/">unpacked tree</a>”.
It is meant for being visited by means of a
<span class="highlight">browser</span>.
To make this not too painful an experience,
the individual subtrees of this part of the
archive are required to be
<a id="flatstructure">
<em>as “flat” as possible</em>,
</a>
i.e. they should contain as few directory levels
as possible,
regardless of the position of the individual files
in a “real” TeX system.
</p>
<p>
We do however not impose any definite
upper limit on the number of directory levels
in a package's layout
as there seems to be no upper bound to
packages' complexity.
Please <a href="#ctanemail">contact</a> the CTAN team
for advice if your package is very complex
and you are in doubt about how best to arrange
your material.
</p>
<p>
In addition to this there is what we call the
<a id="installtree"></a>
“<a href="https://mirrors.ctan.org/install/">install tree</a>”,
which is a collection of
<a href="https://tug.org/texlive/pkgcontrib.html#advanced">
<tt>.tds.zip</tt> files</a>.
</p>
<p>
Please note that
<a id="unpackednecessary">
every package on the archive
<em>must</em> be present in the
“unpacked” part.
</a>
The <tt>.tds.zip</tt> files are optional additions
that may be useful for big and complex packages,
but are in no way required by the CTAN team,
whereas we <em>do not accept</em>
uploads that contain nothing but
a <tt>.tds.zip</tt> file.
</p>
<h3>
<a id="urls">URLs</a>
</h3>
<p>
There are many ways of referring to
CTAN packages on the internet,
but our <em>preferred</em>,
<a id="canonicalurls1">
“canonical” ones
</a>
are of the following form:
</p>
<ol style="list-style-type:lower-alpha;">
<li>
<tt style="font-weight:bold;">https://ctan.org/pkg/…</tt>
(where the “…” equal the
“<a href="#packageids">package id</a>”)
if you are interested in <em>information about</em>
the package, and
</li>
<li>
<tt style="font-weight:bold;">https://mirrors.ctan.org/…</tt>
(where the “…” equal the “path”
to the package's files on the archive)
if you are interested in the package itself.
</li>
</ol>
<p>
<a id="tex-archive-deprecated">
In particular, URLs containing the string
“<tt>tex-archive</tt>”
are generally “suspicious”,
</a>
because they usually refer to the
<a href="#centralserver">central server</a>,
and we try desperately to redirect
download demands from the
central server to the mirrors.
Moreover, the individual servers and their addresses
may change over the times,
whereas these “canonical URLs”
are intended to be permanent.
</p>
<h3>
<a id="ctanteam">The CTAN team</a>
</h3>
<p>
At the moment, the following persons
(in alphabetical order)
take care of CTAN:
</p>
<ul>
<li>
<strong>Erik Braun</strong>
(upload management and system administration),
</li>
<li>
<strong>Ina Dau</strong>
(upload management),
</li>
<!--
<li>
<strong>Robin Fairbairns</strong>
(Catalogue specialist),
</li>
-->
<li>
<strong>Manfred Lotz</strong>
(upload management),
</li>
<li>
<strong>Gerd Neugebauer</strong>
(web developer),
</li>
<li>
<strong>Petra Rübe-Pugliese</strong>
(upload management).
</li>
<!--
<li>
<strong>Rainer Schöpf</strong>
(system administration
and supervision of mirrors),
</li>
<li>
<strong>Joachim Schrod</strong>
(system administration).
</li>
-->
</ul>
<p>
All these people are acting
as <em>volunteers</em>
in their spare time;
so please do not get impatient
if your request does not receive
an immediate answer:
they may be held up by
“real life” problems
or a sudden inrush of other uploads.
</p>
<h3>
<a id="ctanemail">Email address</a>
</h3>
<p>
All CTAN-related correspondence should
be directed
<em>in English</em>
to
<tt style="font-weight:bold;">ctan (at) ctan (dot) org</tt>,
the common email address of
all “CTAN people”,
<!--
concerned with upload management or system administration,
-->
rather than to an individual maintainer.
This way
(a) the whole team is informed about what is going on
and
(b) you are more likely to receive a fairly <em>quick</em>
response to your enquiry.
(Always consider that no CTAN member can be available
all the time.)
</p>
<p>
<a id="nohtmlmails">
Please take care
that the emails you send to this address
are
</a>
<strong>plain text</strong> only,
<strong>without</strong> any
<strong>HTML</strong> part,
because
HTML mails are held in CTAN's spam filter
and it may take some time until
a postmaster comes along to set them free.
(If you are using gmail,
you can select
“plain text mode”
clicking on the “more options”
triangle in the bottom right corner of the window
where you are composing your message.
Also, your “gmails” will <em>always</em>
be sent in plain text mode when you access
google's webmail via the “basic HTML view”
interface.)
</p>
<p>
<a id="alwaysusetheuploadform">
<strong>Never </strong>try to
</a>
<strong>upload</strong>
(or re-upload)
<strong>by email</strong>,
<strong>
always use the
<a href="https://ctan.org/upload">upload form</a></strong>,
for the following reasons:
(a)
The many recipients of these emails
are generally not happy to see their
mailboxes bloated with software contributions,
(b)
email attachments end up on the wrong computer
and we have to perform an
additional file transfer,
and
(c)
uploads via the
<a href="https://ctan.org/upload">upload form</a>
very conveniently generate a number of automated mails
that help us with the documentation of our activities
and can be easily converted to acknowledgement mails
and announcements.
</p>
<p>
<a id="nobigattachments"></a>
More generally,
<strong>no big attachments</strong>
should be sent to this email address,
mainly because of argument (a)
in the preceding paragraph.
</p>
<!-- ======================================================== -->
<hr/>
<h2>
<a id="uploadpreparation">
More requirements on your upload …
</a>
</h2>
<ol>
<li>
<a id="filenames">
<strong>
Conditions on filenames:
</strong>
</a>
<ol style="list-style-type:lower-alpha;">
<li class="kleinerabstandoben">
Filenames should
<span class="highlight">no</span>t
contain any
<a id="nospaces">
<span class="highlight">spaces</span>,
</a>
<span class="highlight">tabs</span>,
<span class="highlight">newlines</span>,
or other whitespace characters
because filenames with whitespaces in them
can make work on a UNIX command line
extremely awkward.
</li>
<li class="kleinerabstandoben">
Filenames should
<span class="highlight">no</span>t
contain any
<a id="onlyascii">
<span class="highlight">non-ascii</span>
</a>
characters, for portability reasons.
</li>
<li class="kleinerabstandoben">
Filenames should
<span class="highlight">no</span>t
contain any characters that have a
<a id="nounixspecialcharacters">
<span class="highlight">special meaning
for UNIX shells</span>
(or other systems),
</a>
such as question, exclamation, and quotation marks,
asterisks, ampersands,
apostrophes,
slashes, backslashes, pipe symbols,
dollar signs,
any sort of brackets, and parentheses.
</li>
<li class="kleinerabstandoben">
Filenames should
<a id="noinvisiblefiles">
<span class="highlight">not start with a dot</span>
</a>
(“invisible files” in UNIX-like
operating systems).
</li>
<li class="kleinerabstandoben">
<a id="uniquefilenames">
<span class="highlight">
Unique filenames:
</span>
</a>
This topic has been dealt with in detail
in two of the three
“<a href="#basictexts">basic texts</a>”
mentioned above, especially with regard to
“runtime files”.
—
Let's add here
(a)
that uniqueness of filenames over the whole archive
would indeed be our ideal
(that is of course impossible to achieve –
think of standardised names like “README”
and “Makefile”!);
but nevertheless that ideal should
at least be <em>approached</em> as closely as possible.
In particular,
we strongly recommend uniqueness of filenames
<em>within every single package</em>.
Ambiguity is never a good thing,
and it may prove harmful in unexpected situations.
—
(b) Let us remind you that there are operating
systems unable to distinguish between
<tt>myfile</tt> and
<tt>MyFile</tt>.
That's why we check for “identical filenames”
after converting everything to “lowercase”.
</li>
<li class="kleinerabstandoben">
You may however be pleased
to learn that we have not been asking for
MS-DOS-style
<a id="eightplusthree"></a>
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8.3_filename">
8.3 filenames</a>
for a long time <tt>;-)</tt>
</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li class="abstandoben">
<a id="packageids">
<strong>
Conditions on package ids:
</strong>
</a>
<p>
Every CTAN package is uniquely identified by its
“<span class="highlight">package id</span>”,
which appears, for instance, as the last part in URLs
like
<a href="https://ctan.org/pkg/geometry">https://ctan.org/pkg/geometry</a>
(here “geometry” is the package's
<em>id</em>.)
</p>
<ol style="list-style-type:lower-alpha;">
<li class="kleinerabstandoben">
<a id="packageidslikefilenames"></a>
Of course, all the
<a href="#filenames">conditions on filenames</a>
described above
also apply to package ids.
</li>
<li class="kleinerabstandoben">
<a id="packageidrestriction"></a>
<p>
Moreover, package ids have to be all
<span class="highlight">lowercase</span>,
and they must
<span class="highlight">not start with a digit</span>.
</p>
<p>
(To ease some of the harshness of this particular rule,
<span class="highlight">package <a id="packagenames"><em>names</em></a></span>
have been introduced which can be seen
at the beginning of the title line of their
“CTAN home page”.
For instance, at the top of
<a href="https://ctan.org/pkg/arsclassica">https://ctan.org/pkg/arsclassica</a>
you see “ArsClassica”,
at the top of
<a href="https://ctan.org/pkg/mathtype">https://ctan.org/pkg/mathtype</a>
you see “MathType”,
at the top of
<a href="https://ctan.org/pkg/one2many">https://ctan.org/pkg/one2many</a>
you see “12many”, etc.
Of course, the CTAN team <em>prefer</em>,
for the sake of simplicity, to have
“package name = package id”,
but small variants like CamelCase are accepted
for the “names”.)
</p>
</li>
<li class="kleinerabstandoben">
CTAN and TeX Live have a preference for
<a id="hyphenvsunderscore"><span class="highlight">hyphens</span></a>
in package ids, rather than underscores.
There are at the moment (September 2021)
1316 Catalogue entries with a hyphen in their name vs.
10 with an underscore.
You will therefore have to give <em>very</em> good reasons
if you want us to accept the 11th package
with an underscore in its id <tt>;-)</tt> .
</li>
<li class="kleinerabstandoben">
<a id="l3names">
Package ids starting with
“<tt><span class="highlight">l3</span></tt>”
</a>
are reserved for official LaTeX Project
<tt>expl3</tt> packages.
Package authors are encouraged to consider using
“<tt>l<u>t</u>3...</tt>” for third-party
<tt>expl3</tt> packages.
</li>
<li class="kleinerabstandoben">
New packages and bundles should
<a id="noauthornames">
<span class="highlight">not</span> be
<span class="highlight">named after their authors</span>,
</a>
but after the purpose they are serving,
because they may later be taken over by
other maintainers.
(We know that there are a few
well established CTAN packages
that do not fulfill this rule;
but that comes under
“protection of vested rights”,
and we have now learned from history.)
</li>
<li class="kleinerabstandoben">
In the same way,
<a id="nocrypticids">
“<span class="highlight">cryptic</span>”
</a>
package ids like
“acs”,
“mxd”,
“tpx”, or
“tcvn”
are nowadays strongly
<span class="highlight">discouraged</span>.
Modern package ids should as best as possible
convey to the average user an idea of what
the package is about.
</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li class="abstandoben">
<a id="versionnumber"></a>
<a id="versionidentifier">
<strong>
Version identifier:
</strong>
</a>
<p>
Every submission of every CTAN package has to contain a
“<span class="highlight">version identifier</span>”
that permits to distinguish this version
of the package from earlier or later ones.
(Mind that what counts here are the actual
<em>installations</em> on the archive;
submissions that were for some reason refused
and never installed may be neglected.)
This identifier should of course coincide
with the one you will later enter into
the “Version” field of the
<a href="https://ctan.org/upload">upload form</a>.
</p>
<p>
This version identifier may consist of
</p>
<ol style="list-style-type:lower-roman;">
<li>
Either (only) a version
<span class="highlight">number</span>,
i.e. something like
“1.0”, or
“3.0.17”, or
“2.1a”,
</li>
<li>
or (only) a version
<span class="highlight">date</span>
(i.e.: the <span class="highlight">release date</span>),
preferably in YYYY-MM-DD or YYYY/MM/DD notation, like
“2018-12-06” or
“2018/12/06”,
</li>
<li>
or a string consisting of <em>both</em>
the aforementioned data.
</li>
</ol>
<p>
For
<span class="highlight">simple LaTeX packages</span>,
the optional argument of
the <tt>\ProvidesPackage</tt>
or <tt>\ProvidesClass</tt>
command of the <tt>.sty</tt> or <tt>.cls</tt> file
should be a good place
where to put this information.
</p>
<p>
For <span class="highlight">bundles</span>
that consist of various files
with possibly different version identifiers
of their own,
the whole bundle should be marked
with a “bundle version identifier” referring to
the bundle <em>as a whole</em>.
A good way to achieve this
is “tagging”
the bundle with the date of the latest
change of <em>any</em> of its files.
Put this “tag”
into a place where it is easy to find,
such as
the latest entry of a <tt>Changes</tt> file,
a <tt>VERSION</tt> file,
or an easily accessible place
(preferably: the top part)
in the
<a href="#readme"><tt>README</tt></a> file.
</p>
<p>
Please note that in our mind the
<span class="highlight">documentation</span>
is considered <em>part of</em> the “package”.
So even if “only” a tiny detail of
the documentation
(and nothing whatever in the “runtime files”!)
has changed,
the version number, if it is part of the version identifier,
has to increase at least slightly.
</p>
</li>
<li class="abstandoben">
<a id="lowredundancy">
<strong>
Low redundancy:
</strong>
</a>
<p>
Because of the well known disadvantages
of redundancy
–
especially the risk of inconsistency!
–
we try to keep it as low as possible
on the unpacked archive.
In particular …
</p>
<ol style="list-style-type:lower-alpha;">
<li class="kleinerabstandoben">
<p>
…
we do not wish to hold
identical copies of one and the same file
<a id="noduplicatefiles">
(“<span class="highlight">duplicate files</span>”)
</a>
in different places,
such as for instance
<tt>README</tt> and <tt>doc/README</tt>.
</p>
<p>
If you <em>really</em> think you need
copies of a file in other places,
then please replace these copies
with symbolic links (a.k.a. symlinks or softlinks)
pointing to the “original” file.
—
Beware:
When packing your upload file with <tt>zip</tt>,
you will have to call it
with the <tt>--symlinks</tt> option
(or something equivalent, depending on
your particular zip program)
if you do not want the symlink to be replaced
by a copy of the original file again!
</p>
<p>
(Mind that this request concerns only the
<a href="#unpackedtree">unpacked part</a>
and that a similar recommendation does <em>not</em>
hold for the contents of <tt>.tds.zip</tt> files:
<tt>.tds.zip</tt> files are supposed to be unpacked
without problems on <em>arbitrary</em> platforms, and this
cannot be guaranteed if they contain symbolic
links!)
</p>
</li>
<li class="kleinerabstandoben">
<p>
…
we do not wish to hold files
that can be easily
<a id="nogeneratedfiles">
“<span class="highlight">generated</span>”
(“<span class="highlight">derived</span>”)
</a>
from other files contained in the submission.
</p>
<p>
The standard examples of this are
<tt>.cls</tt>, <tt>.sty</tt>, <tt>.clo</tt>,
<tt>.fd</tt> or similar LaTeX files,
when they can be generated from their
<tt>.dtx</tt> source in a straightforward way.
</p>
<p>
<!--
Exceptions to this rule , when they cannot
be generated in a straightforward way;
example: <tt>jsclasses</tt>,
which needs a specially customized TeX system.
-->
There are however some <i>exceptions</i> to this rule:
</p>
<ul>
<li>
<a id="keeppdffiles"></a>
The
<span class="highlight">
PDF files of the documentation</span>:
We do indeed wish to keep these,
ready for immediate access by visitors,
alongside with their sources.
</li>
<li>
<p>
<a id="readmeunpacked"></a>
<a href="#readme">README files</a>:
Even in cases where they
can be generated from other sources,
we want to keep them unpacked,
as a convenient starting point
for inspecting the package.
</p>
<p>
<a id="readmegenerated"></a>
Please note that we do <em>not</em> recommend,
and in fact would like to discourage,
“generated” README files,
mainly because we have observed that such
“generated” README files are often
stale with respect to their source <tt>.dtx</tt>
files; it is easy to forget to update them.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<a id="generatedinsfiles"></a>
The same holds for generated
<span class="highlight"><tt>.ins</tt> files</span>.
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li class="abstandoben">
<a id="noauxfiles">
<strong>
No auxiliary files:
</strong>
</a>
<p>
This concerns operating system specific
data (like <tt>__MACOSX</tt> directories and
<tt>.DS_Store</tt> files),
<tt>.git</tt>,
<tt>.gitignore</tt>,
<tt>.hgignore</tt>,
<tt>.hgtags</tt>,
editor backup files
(<tt>.backup</tt>,
<tt>.bak</tt>,
<tt>.sav</tt>,
<tt>.~</tt>,
…),
as well as “leftovers”
from TeX & friends and other programs
( <tt>.aux</tt>
<tt>.log</tt>
<tt>.acn</tt>
<tt>.acr</tt>
<tt>.alg</tt>
<tt>.bbl</tt>
<tt>.bcf</tt>
<tt>.blg</tt>
<tt>.brf</tt>
<tt>.cb2</tt>
<tt>.cb</tt>
<tt>.cpt</tt>
<tt>.dvi</tt>
<tt>.ent</tt>
<tt>.fdb_latexmk</tt>
<tt>.fff</tt>
<tt>.fls</tt>
<tt>.fmt</tt>
<tt>.fot</tt>
<tt>.gaux</tt>
<tt>.glg</tt>
<tt>.glo</tt>
<tt>.glog</tt>
<tt>.gls</tt>
<tt>.glsdefs</tt>
<tt>.gtex</tt>
<tt>.hd</tt>
<tt>.idv</tt>
<tt>.idx</tt>
<tt>.ilg</tt>
<tt>.ind</tt>
<tt>.lg</tt>
<tt>.loa</tt>
<tt>.lod</tt>
<tt>.lof</tt>
<tt>.lol</tt>
<tt>.los</tt>
<tt>.lot</tt>
<tt>.lox</tt>
<tt>.maf</tt>
<tt>.mlf</tt>
<tt>.mlt</tt>
<tt>.mtc</tt>
<tt>.nav</tt>
<tt>.nlg</tt>
<tt>.nlo</tt>
<tt>.nls</tt>
<tt>.o</tt>
<tt>.obj</tt>
<tt>.out</tt>
<tt>.pdfsync</tt>
<tt>.pre</tt>
<tt>.pyg</tt>
<tt>.run.xml</tt>
<tt>.snm</tt>
<tt>.soc</tt>
<tt>.spl</tt>
<tt>.sta</tt>
<tt>.swp</tt>
<tt>.synctex</tt>
<tt>.synctex.gz</tt>
<tt>.tdo</tt>
<tt>.thm</tt>
<tt>.tmb</tt>
<tt>.tmp</tt>
<tt>.toc</tt>
<tt>.tpt</tt>
<tt>.trc</tt>
<tt>.ttt</tt>
<tt>.tuc</tt>
<tt>.upa</tt>
<tt>.upb</tt>
<tt>.url</tt>
<tt>.vrb</tt>
<tt>.w18</tt>
<tt>.xdv</tt>
<tt>.xref</tt>
<tt>.4ct</tt>
<tt>.4tc</tt> ).
<!-- This is indeed a user-supplied config file:
<tt>.ist</tt>
-->
</p>
<p>
And there are surely more that we have not yet encountered.
Please leave them all out of your upload!
</p>
<p>
<a id="howtoavoidrubbish"></a>
Note for <tt>git</tt> users wishing to keep exported
<tt>.zip</tt> files “git rubbish free”:
This can be achieved by creating, adding and committing
a <tt>.gitattributes</tt> file containing lines like
the following:
</p>
<pre>
.gitignore export-ignore
.gitattributes export-ignore
</pre>
<p>
Hints for Mac OSX users:
(a) The zip program from
<a href="https://www.yellowmug.com/yemuzip/">
YemuZip</a> and the standard command line <tt>zip</tt>
program both permit to create MacOSX-rubbish-free
zipfiles. (Mind that for
<a href="https://www.yellowmug.com/yemuzip/">
YemuZip</a> you have to choose the appropriate option!)
(b) A user told us that “it is possible to tell
Mac OSX's <tt>tar</tt> command line executable
to avoid polluting the archive with OSX specific
files, by setting the environment variable
<tt>COPYFILE_DISABLE</tt> (to whatever value).”
<!-- Didier Verna, Tue, 07 Mar 2017 13:48:01 +0100 -->
</p>
</li>
<li class="abstandoben">
<a id="noemptyfiles">
<strong>
No empty files or directories:
</strong>
</a>
<p>
We tend to consider empty files and
directories as “rubbish”.
If you feel otherwise and wish to conserve
such files for systematic reasons,
we recommend filling them with some
comment (in the case of “regular files”)
or a placeholder file (in the case of directories)
explaining their purpose.
</p>
<p>
If this is not possible
because the program using these files would get
disturbed by comments or “dummy files”,
please mention this in the
“Administrative notes” field
of the
<a href="https://ctan.org/upload">upload form</a>
so that we can make a note of this exception
and do not bother you with unnecessary complaints.
</p>
</li>
<li class="abstandoben">
<a id="filepermissions">
<strong>
File permissions:
</strong>
</a>
<ol style="list-style-type:lower-alpha;">
<li class="kleinerabstandoben">
Only files that are truly
<span class="highlight">executable</span>
(like Shell, Perl, Python, Ruby, and other scripts)
should be marked as such.
An “executable”
README or <tt>.tex</tt> file does not make any sense.
</li>
<li class="kleinerabstandoben">
Files submitted to CTAN are obviously meant
for <em>publication</em>.
This implies that they should be
“<span class="highlight">world readable</span>”.
(In fact, exaggerated “privacy”
of file permissions can lead to serious
complications in the installation process.)
</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li class="abstandoben">
<a id="crlf">
<strong>
Line terminators of text files:
</strong>
</a>
<p>
This paragraph is about
<a id="textfiles">
“<span class="highlight">text files</span>”
</a>
(like
<tt>.txt</tt>,
<tt>.tex</tt>,
<tt>.sty</tt>,
<tt>.cls</tt>,
<tt>.dtx</tt>,
<tt>.fd</tt>,
<tt>.bib</tt>,
<tt>.c</tt>,
or any other file that can be edited
with a text editor)
as opposed to
“<span class="highlight">binary files</span>”
(such as
<tt>.gif</tt>,
<tt>.jpg</tt>,
<tt>.wav</tt>,
<tt>.mp3</tt>,
<tt>.ogg</tt>,
<tt>.tfm</tt>,
<tt>.pdf</tt>,
<tt>.doc</tt>,
<tt>.xls</tt>,
<tt>.exe</tt>,
and a multitude of others).
</p>
<p>
The problem with such text files is
that different operating systems have different ways
of marking the
<span class="highlight">line endings</span>
within them:
Whereas Microsoft systems describe a line ending
in the good old typewriter fashion
by a “carriage return” character
followed by a “line feed” character,
UNIX type operating systems have always omitted
the “carriage return”,
and modern Mac OS X systems do it the same way.
</p>
<p>
As CTAN's servers are running on
UNIX-like operating systems,
the CTAN team have decided
that all text files on the archive
should have suitable “linefeed only”
line terminators.
</p>
<p>
Now, if you are a Windows user,
you need not be alarmed,
as there is an easy way to comply with this wish,
with hardly any inconvenience for yourself:
If you pack your upload file with a
<a id="goodzipprogram">
<span class="highlight">“good zip program”</span>,
</a>
this will mark all text files with a special
“flag” (or “tag”)
that will permit CTAN's <tt>unzip</tt> program
to recognize these text files and perform the
necessary conversions
(in this case: omitting the unwanted
“carriage return” characters)
<em>automatically</em> <tt>:-)</tt>
</p>
<p>
<a id="badzipprograms"></a>
Unfortunately, not all zip programs are
“good zip programs” <tt>:-(</tt>
</p>
<p>
In particular,
<span class="highlight">7zip</span>,
the GNOME archive manager,
the <tt>Compress</tt> facility
accessible via the <tt>File</tt> menu
in Mac OS X's <tt>Finder</tt>,
and the feature that permits
to export zip files directly from
<span class="highlight">git</span>
repositories
do not seem to have the desired property.
(Please correct us if there has been recently
some positive development we are not aware of
by writing us an <a href="#ctanemail">email</a>!)
</p>
<p>
<a id="gitandcrlf"></a>
However,
<span class="highlight">git</span>
users may want to have a look at the
<tt>.gitattributes</tt> file
for the configuration of file types
and line endings!
</p>
<p>
<span class="highlight">
Known
<a id="goodzipprogramnames">
“good zip programs”
</a>
</span>
are
the Windows7ff. builtins,
WinZip,
Windows “Total Commander”,
and the zippers from
<a href="http://www.info-zip.org/">
info-zip.org</a>.
</p>
<p>
Mac users in need of a “good zip program”
may either turn to
<a href="https://www.yellowmug.com/yemuzip/">
YemuZip</a>
or the standard <tt>zip</tt> command on their
command line
(which is in fact the info-zip tool that is
also present in Linux systems).
The command line <tt>zipinfo</tt> utility
is extremely useful for checking
zip archives once they have been created.
</p>
<p>
<a id="tarnotxtvsbintags"></a>
Unfortunately, <b><tt>tar</tt></b> does <em>not</em>
offer the “tagging” feature in question.
</p>
<p>
Finally, there are two
<span class="highlight">exceptions</span>
to what has been said before:
</p>
<ol style="list-style-type:lower-alpha;">
<li class="kleinerabstandoben">
<em>If</em> your upload contains any
<tt>.bat</tt> or
<tt>.cmd</tt> or
<tt>.nsh</tt> or
other typical DOS/Windows files,
and <em>if</em> you wish to preserve
their CR+LF line endings,
please drop us a line to that effect
in the “Administrative notes
(to the CTAN maintainers)” field
of our
<a href="https://ctan.org/upload">upload page</a>,
and we will take care that this is done.
</li>
<li class="kleinerabstandoben">
<a id="nocrlfintdszip"></a>
All the <tt>.tds.zip</tt> files
we offer on the archive
are supposed to have nothing but
UNIX style line terminators inside
as well as the necessary .zip flags
for unpacking them in the best possible
way on any operating system.
That's why we wish <tt>.tds.zip</tt> files
to be submitted in exactly that way.
(<em>If</em> there should really be a problem
that prevents you from complying with this
requirement, we <em>may</em> find a way
to correct this shortcoming at our end,
but we would of course much prefer not
to have to resort to any such manipulations.)
</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li class="abstandoben">
<a id="canonicalurls2">
<strong>
“Canonical” URLs in documentation:
</strong>
</a>
<p>
Please make sure when writing (or revising)
your documentation
that TeX software on CTAN archives
is referred to using our
<a href="#urls">preferred “canonical” URLs</a>
described
<a href="#urls">above</a>
rather that URLs pointing to individual CTAN servers.
</p>
</li>
<li class="abstandoben">
<a id="readme">
<strong>
Rules about <tt>README</tt> files:
</strong>
</a>
<ol style="list-style-type:lower-alpha;">
<li>
Every package shall be accompanied
by a README file giving a short
introduction to the package's purpose
as well as significant data like
author's name and contact,
license etc.
</li>
<li>
Its name can be either
<tt>README</tt> or
<tt>README.txt</tt> or
<tt>README.md</tt>,
but no other variants are permitted
at the moment.
</li>
<li>
Its contents must be easily readable using
the UNIX <tt>more</tt> or <tt>less</tt> commands
or an arbitrary editor.
</li>
<li>
It should be written in
<span class="highlight">English</span>
or at least comprise a short
abstract in English.
</li>
<li>
The encoding should be
<span class="highlight">ascii</span>
or
<span class="highlight">utf-8</span>
without BOM (byte order mark).
</li>
<li>
It has to be placed at the top level
of the
<a href="#unpackedtree">unpacked package</a>
(but in the <tt>doc/…/</tt> directory of
a possible <tt>.tds.zip</tt> file).
</li>
</ol>
</li>
<!--
I think we will omit the following part altogether,
at least for the time being ...
<li class="abstandoben">
<a id="tdsequalunpacked">
<strong>
Identical files in <tt>.tds.zip</tt> and outside:
</strong>
</a>
<br />
Some general remarks …
<br />
-->
<!--
In particular, Vincent Belaïche, in an
email dated Mon, 15 Sep 2014 22:35:43 +0200,
Subject: Re: Lettre,
asks me to add the following sentence to
these additional instructions:
-->
<!--
If you do not use DTX, and you are documenting your
sty/cls files with docTeX comments, then unpacked zip
and .tds.zip may contain either the files with docTeX
comments included, or with them stripped out ; you
must however be consistent and have the same files in
both the unpacked zip and in the .tds.zip.
-->
<!--
But I do not really understand this at the moment.
His problems seem to be due to a very idiosyncratic
way of packaging his files ...
-->
<!--
<br />
Needs a good zip program, see above!
</li>
-->
<!--- template
<li class="abstandoben">
<a id="aaaa">
<strong>
AAAA
</strong>
</a>
<br />
</li>
-->
</ol>
<!-- ======================================================== -->
<hr/>
<h2>
<a id="uploading">Uploading to CTAN</a>
</h2>
<p>
When you feel convinced that you have done
all you can to comply with the requirements
described up to now,
you may go on to package your submission
using either <tt>zip</tt> or <tt>tar</tt>,
as described on our
<a href="https://ctan.org/help/upload-pkg">help page</a>.
–
<a id="topdirofzipfile"></a>
Do not forget the
<span class="highlight">top level directory</span>
of the upload file
(“<tt>my-package/</tt>” in the examples).
It simplifies our installation process
and makes it more secure.
–
<a id="zippreferred"></a>
Please opt for a
<a href="#goodzipprogram">good zip program</a>
(instead of <tt>tar</tt> or <em>any</em>
zip program)
if you are not one hundred percent sure
that none of your
<a href="#textfiles">text files</a>
contains any
“Microsoft style” line terminators!
</p>
<p>
<a id="hintforupdates"></a>
If you want to submit an
<span class="highlight">update</span> to
a package that is already on CTAN,
we recommend you to go first to its
“CTAN homepage”
(<tt>https://ctan.org/pkg/<package_id></tt>)
and <em>then</em> click on the “Upload”
button.
You will find that
some of the more tedious fields
have already been filled in
with information from our Catalogue
<tt>:-)</tt>
But please do not forget to
<span class="highlight">
update the version field!
</span>
</p>
<p>
<a id="authorsemail"></a>
Please pay also particular attention
to what you enter into the
<span class="highlight">
“Your email”
</span>
field:
In fact,
we ask maintainers to use
<span class="highlight">
always the same email address
</span>
when contacting the CTAN team.
In particular, given
the (improbable, but not completely unreal)
danger of
unauthorized uploaders
overwriting “good” packages,
we will refuse to install an update
if it is not submitted using
an email address known to the CTAN team.
—
BTW:
Whenever you plan to <em>change</em>
your “CTAN upload email address”,
do not forget to drop a line to
<a href="#ctanemail">ctan (at) ctan (dot) org</a>,
still using the <em>old</em> address,
and asking us to register the new one.
</p>
<!-- ======================================================== -->
<hr/>
<h2>
<a id="furtherprocessing">What will happen next …</a>
</h2>
<ul style="list-style-type:circle;">
<li class="kleinerabstandoben">
Every upload will be
<span class="highlight">unpacked</span> and
<span class="highlight">checked</span>
by an upload manager.
</li>
<li class="kleinerabstandoben">
<span class="highlight">Small deficiencies</span>
will be
<span class="highlight">corrected</span>
immediately by that person.
You will receive
<span class="highlight">feedback</span>
about this and be asked to apply
the same sort of change(s) to your own file(s)
before your next upload.
</li>
<li class="kleinerabstandoben">
If there is a
<span class="highlight">non-trivial problem</span>
we cannot or do not
want to resolve on our own, we will ask back and the
installation process will be momentarily stalled until
we receive an answer to our question.
In some cases even a re-upload may become necessary.
</li>
<li class="kleinerabstandoben">
After installation of the package on the archive
(i.e.: on our
<a href="#centralserver">central server</a>)
the corresponding <tt>.xml</tt> source file of the
<span class="highlight">Catalogue entry</span>
will either have to be created
“from scratch” (for new packages)
or be updated (in all other cases;
mostly only the version field,
sometimes the copyright line(s) or details
about the pointers to the documentation).
Please use the “Administrative notes
(to the CTAN maintainers)” field
in the
<a href="https://ctan.org/upload">upload form</a>
if you wish us to perform any other changes.
</li>
<li class="kleinerabstandoben">
When all of this has been done,
we will send an
<span class="highlight">email</span>
to the
<a href="#authorsemail">address</a>
you entered into the
“Your email” field of the
<a href="https://ctan.org/upload">upload form</a>.
</li>
<li class="kleinerabstandoben">
It may take a few hours until the
<span class="highlight">Catalogue page</span>
of the website
has been regenerated from the source file,
and up to 24 hours
until the new files have arrived
on all the
<span class="highlight">mirrors</span>
worldwide.
</li>
<li class="kleinerabstandoben">
If your upload is a new one or
if you have requested an announcement,
the message to
<span class="highlight">CTAN-Announce</span>
will be posted
if possible shortly after
the end of that 24 hour delay.
There may however be a further delay due to
the maintainer's working hours
or other engagements at that time.
If the message has not appeared
after more than 48 hours,
you should write a message to
<tt>ctan (at) ctan (dot) org</tt>
to enquire if anything has gone wrong.
</li>
<li class="kleinerabstandoben">
It is always helpful if you
<span class="highlight">check</span> what you see
at the URLs indicated in the acknowledgement mail
around 24 hours after installation and
<span class="highlight">inform us</span>
about any possible flaws in the presentation.
</li>
</ul>
<p>
<a id="patience"></a>
Please
<span class="highlight">
do not re-upload when you do not hear from us
<em>at once</em>!
</span>
There may have been a sudden inrush of uploads
and/or maintainers may have been kept from
attending to your upload by
“real” work,
family matters,
technical problems,
holidays,
illness,
or other causes.
If you still haven't heard from us after let's say
three or four days,
<em>and</em> have checked your spam folder to no avail,
you may enquire by email to
<tt>ctan (at) ctan (dot) org</tt>
(remember: No HTML mail please, because of the spam trap!).
</p>
<p>
<span class="highlight">Thanks</span>
for your perseverance
and <span class="highlight">good luck</span>
with your submission!
</p>
<!-- ======================================================== -->
<hr/>
<h2>
<a id="authoridanduseraccount" style="font-size:smaller">
Some additional information about author ids and user accounts</a>
</h2>
<p>
Every author/maintainer of a CTAN package is registered
in the database that is used for the administration
of <em>the archive itself</em>
with an <span class="highlight">author id</span>
that is assigned in the following way:
</p>
<p>
As a general rule,
the author id equals the author's family name,
downcased and with non-ascii characters
converted to ascii.
For instance, new author Benjamin Blümchen
would receive the author id “bluemchen”.
</p>
<p>
If however another author of the same family name
is already registered, the newer author's id will be modfied
using the first letter(s) of his or her given name.
For instance, if at a later time <em>Hildegard</em> Blümchen
were to join us as an author, she would be registered
as “bluemchen-h”.
</p>
<p>
These <em>author</em> ids must not be confused with the names
of the <span class="highlight"><em>user</em> accounts</span>
on the CTAN <span class="highlight"><em>website</em></span>:
The names of these user accounts can be chosen relatively
freely, as long as uniqueness is assured.
</p>
<p>
A relation between a person's author id and their
CTAN website user account can be established via the
<a href="#authorsemail">email address</a>.
In our webmaster's own words:
</p>
<blockquote>
<p>
Once you are logged into the CTAN site and visit the page
<a href="https://ctan.org/user/settings">https://ctan.org/user/settings</a>
(link in the upper right corner), you will find the section
“CTAN Contributor Confirmation” where you can
confirm the relation between the author id and the
current account by setting the check-mark.
In the same way you can remove the relation by unchecking.
</p>
<p>
This feature is offered when one of the known email addresses
in the author database matches the email address of the account
(which can be edited on the same page).
</p>
</blockquote>
<!-- ======================================================== -->
<hr/>
<!-- To be activated when file is put into SVN:
<p>
$LastChangedDate$
</p>
Until then: -->
Last updated: 2021-09-26
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