Developers' guide

Quick links for everyone, plus a rough guide mostly for hledger contributors and developers.

Quick links

Support
Users and developers: how to get help
IRC channel: irc.freenode.net/#ledger
Mail list: list.hledger.org
Bug tracker: bugs.hledger.org (also bugs.hledger.org/NNN, bugs.hledger.org/new, bugs.hledger.org/grid)

join and use the hledger mail list. Your email:
chat Simon (sm) on the #ledger irc channel which we share, or
for issues relevant to the wider *ledger community, you can also use or cc ledger's mail list
don't forget the installation tips, Troubleshooting section, and bug tracker

review and test our documentation and web presence
download and test the binaries on your platform
test installing via cabal
use the tools and test functionality, usability, browser compatibility, ui layout etc.
check that hledger test reports no failures
run the developer tests
discuss/report problems via irc/mail list/bug tracker

get an up-to-date ghc, at least 6.12.3 but preferably 7
there's probably no need to install the haskell platform now, but you could
it's probably worth getting the latest and best cabal: cabal update; cabal install cabal-install
get an up-to-date darcs, at least 2.x and preferably newer: use a binary package or cabal install darcs

get the hledger repo:

darcs get --lazy http://joyful.com/repos/hledger
cd hledger

install packages required to build hledger and add-ons, or as many of them as possible:
```
cabal update
make install
```
This will also try to cabal install development builds of the hledger executables, so ghc-pkg unregister those afterwards if you don't want that.
try building with make:
```
make bin/hledger
```
This is usually quicker and simpler than fiddling with multiple cabal packages during development.
try auto-building with sp:
```
darcs get http://joyful.com/repos/searchpath
searchpath$ make, add sp to your path
hledger$ make autotest
```
This is how I do most hledger development. It will recompile whenever you save changes to source files. You'll need to install sp as shown.
test patch sending. Make a dummy change:
```
echo >>README.markdown; darcs record README.markdown -a -m 'my test patch'
```
send it to yourself:
```
darcs send --to me@my.address
```
and make sure you receive it. If not, your system may not be configured to send email from the command line. Try to fix that. As a last resort, you can darcs send -O and mail the resulting patch file to the list. Finally, clean up:
```
darcs obliterate -p 'my test patch'
```

send it
you should receive a reply shortly. If in doubt, follow up at any time.
respond to any code review feedback, submitting new patches if needed, until you receive a "patch applied" acknowledgement
to verify the patch is in the main repo: listen for it on irc or look for it in darcsweb

research, discuss, validate the issue/feature on irc/list/bug tracker
look for related tests, run the tests and check they are passing
add a test ?
develop a patch
include any related issue numbers in the patch name, eg: "fix for blah blah (#NNN)"
get it committed

after getting one or more patches committed, read and sign the contributor list & agreement
or, ask to be added

watch for and read new patches on the mail list, irc, darcsweb patch feed, or darcsweb patch log
set up for development and test new patches in your own repo
read the existing code docs and source
send feedback or discuss via irc or list

This will grow into an overall description/blueprint for the hledger project.

The hledger project aims to produce:

a practical, accessible, dependable tool for end users
a useful library and toolbox for finance-minded haskell programmers
a successful, time-and-money-solvent project within a thriving ecosystem of financial software projects.

website
user manual
developer guide
code documentation: haddock
various developer reports
developer notes outline
blurbs: in cabal files, module headers, google project, repo message of the day..

I have a few older bits and pieces here
John Wiegley's ledger inspired hledger.
Tim Docker's ledger-reports builds on hledger to generate html reports
beancount is another ledger clone, in python
h/ledger inspired Uwe Hollerbach's umm
http://darcsden.com/alex/bill, http://darcsden.com/alex/bill-atomo, http://darcsden.com/alex/bill-scheme - a time-tracking and billing app
http://darcsden.com/ozamosi/debts - Silly debt tracking webapp
http://darcsden.com/housetab-multi, housetab.org - a webapp to manage expenses between a group of friends.