Development project files.

Additional reading.
Essential project files.
README file.
ABOUT/OVERVIEW/SUMMARY file.
ABOUT-NLS file.
NOTES/NOTICE file.
FEATURES file.
MIRRORS/WHERE file.
PLATFORMS file.
AUTHORS/MAINTAINERS file.
CONTRIBUTORS/THANKS/CREDITS file.
DEDICATION file.
FEEDBACK file.
FORK file.
COMMANDS file.
PROGLIST file.
UPGRADE/UPGRADING/CONVERSION file.
SERVICE/SUPPORT file.
INSTALL/BUILD file.
CUSTOMIZE file.
License files.
- DISCLAIMER file.
- PATENTS file.
- TRADEMARK file.
- COPYING/LICENSE/LEGAL file.
- COPYRIGHT file.
- AFL file.
- Apache file.
- PHP file.
- MIT file.
- BSD file.
- GPL file.
- LGPL file.
Developer files.
- HACKING/DEVELOPERS/PORTING file.
- CONTENTS file.
- CONTRIBUTE file.
- DEBUG/DEBUGGING file.
- DESIGN/INTERNALS/PROTOCOL file.
- TESTS/CHECK_NOTES file.
- BINDINGS file.
- Coding style files.
- CODING file.
- CONVENTIONS file.
Project changes files.
- ChangeLog file.
- COMPAT/COMPLIANCE file.
- NEWS/OLDNEWS/ONEWS file.
- CHANGES/WHATSNEW file.
- ANNOUNCE file.
Todo files.
PROGRESS file.
Version info files.
- VERSION file.
- RELDATE/RELEASE-DATE file.
- ANNOUNCE file.
HISTORY file.
FUTURE file.
Documentation files.
- USAGE file.
- Refcard files.
- FAQ files.
- TIPS/HINTS file.
- HOWTO file.
PROBLEMS/KNOWNBUG/WARNINGS file.
Bug report instructions.
BINDINGS file.
Reference.
Unknown files.
Reference.

Additional reading.

Essential project files.

README
INSTALL
COPYING/LICENSE
AUTHORS
CHANGES

This files can have suffixes to represent formating syntax:

.txt - plain text
.rst - reStructuredText
.md - Markdown
.rd, .rdoc - RDtool

and optionally compressed - .gz.

README file.

Assumed that users first read this file before start using project.

Project name.
Project goal/purpose.
Point to license statements.
Point to build instructions.
Point to documentations.
Use README-xxx for specific topic.

ABOUT/OVERVIEW/SUMMARY file.

About project.
Use ABOUT-xxx for specific topic.

ABOUT-NLS file.

Notes on the Free Translation Project.

NOTES/NOTICE file.

FEATURES file.

MIRRORS/WHERE file.

Where get src/build, mirrors list.

PLATFORMS file.

Supported platforms and compilers.

AUTHORS/MAINTAINERS file.

AUTHOR  AUTHORS  MAINTAINERS

Was maintained for legal reasons.
Regular contributor list.
List of project members with contact info (email, phone, home page, address, etc).

CONTRIBUTORS/THANKS/CREDITS file.

CONTRIBUTORS THANKS CREDITS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Casual/non-regular contributor list.
Wasn't maintained for legal reasons.
Thanks for hardware/hosting/money etc.

DEDICATION file.

FEEDBACK file.

FORK file.

Why this project is fork of another project.

COMMANDS file.

brief list of commands for built-in language

PROGLIST file.

UPGRADE/UPGRADING/CONVERSION file.

How upgrade to new version.

SERVICE/SUPPORT file.

about support services for software

INSTALL/BUILD file.

List of supported platform.
Build dependencies/prerequisites.
Build/installation instructions.

CUSTOMIZE file.

Customize the compilation.

License files.

DISCLAIMER file.

PATENTS file.

TRADEMARK file.

COPYING/LICENSE/LEGAL file.

COPYING usually used for GNU GPL like license. Another license put in LICENSE file.

If some component comes with different license put it into file with name like:

LICENSE.libmy LICENSE.regex LICENSE.doc
COPYING-DOCS  COPYING-GPL   COPYING-LGPL  COPYING-LIBS  COPYING-TEMPLATES
COPYING.LESSER

COPYRIGHT file.

copyright
COPYRIGHT
copyright-artwork
copyright-notice

AFL file.

Academic Free License:

AFL-1.1
AFL-1.2
AFL-2.0
AFL-2.1

Apache file.

Apache-1.0
Apache-1.1
Apache-2.0

PHP file.

PHP-3.0

MIT file.

MIT  LICENSE_MIT

BSD file.

BSD  LICENSE_BSD

GPL file.

GPL-2    GPL2
GPL-2.0
GPL-3.0  GPL3
LICENSE-GPL

LGPL file.

LGPL-2   LGPL-2.0  LGPL-2.1  LGPL-3.0  LICENSE_LGPL
COPYING.LESSER

Developer files.

HACKING/DEVELOPERS/PORTING file.

Notes for developers.

CONTENTS file.

Description which file for which comes.

CONTRIBUTE file.

Guidelines to contribute to the project.

CONTRIB
CONTRIBS
CONTRIBUTE
Contributing
HOW-TO-CONTRIBUTE

DEBUG/DEBUGGING file.

How debug sources, useful macros/function/tips.

DESIGN/INTERNALS/PROTOCOL file.

TESTS/CHECK_NOTES file.

How run/add tests, requirements to run.
How and when test passed by which platform/configuration.

BINDINGS file.

Known bindings of library to different langs/frameworks.

Coding style files.

C++STYLE
CodeStyle

CODING file.

project policy and recommendation on coding

CONVENTIONS file.

Project changes files.

Here goes news and descriptions of user visible changes:

Important project news.
New features.
Obsolescense/deprecation of UIs/APIs/protocols/formats.

ChangeLog file.

Changes made to program source files.
Explains how earlier versions were different from the current version.
Each directory can have its own change log.
Useful for RCS/CVS. Don't needed with modern VCS (SVN, Git, Mercurial, Bazaar).

changelog  Changelog  ChangeLog
CHANGELOG
ChangeLog-1996-1999   ChangeLog-2000
ChangeLogOld

COMPAT/COMPLIANCE file.

Compatibility with previous versions.

NEWS/OLDNEWS/ONEWS file.

User-visible changes.
In each new release, add items to the front of the file and identify the version they pertain to.
Don't discard old items.
NEWS file gets very long, move some of the older items into a file named ONEWS and put a note at the end referring the user to that file.

CHANGES/WHATSNEW file.

Changes  CHANGES  CHANGES-release
RELEASE_NOTES  ReleaseNotes  RELEASENOTES  RELEASE-NOTES
RELNOTES
SHORTLOG
WHATSNEW

ANNOUNCE file.

Todo files.

List of high level wanted, general project roadmap.
Discussion about product limitations and how to modify product to resolve them.

Similar:

BACKLOG
CHECKLIST
TODO
PROJECTS

PROGRESS file.

Version info files.

VERSION file.

Package version.
Package name (optional).
Release naming schema and version number semantics (optional).
Release names and version relations (like starts, toys, animals, etc, optional).

RELDATE/RELEASE-DATE file.

ANNOUNCE file.

ANNOUNCE
ANNOUNCEMENT

Only current release changes and notes. No history. Same text was sent to mail lists as announce.

HISTORY file.

Project history in long perspective.

FUTURE file.

Documentation files.

USAGE file.

Refcard files.

cheatsheet
refcard

FAQ files.

List of frequency asked questions with answers.

TIPS/HINTS file.

HOWTO file.

PROBLEMS/KNOWNBUG/WARNINGS file.

PROBLEMS
KNOWNBUG  KNOWN_BUGS  KNOWN-BUGS
WARNINGS

Bug report instructions.

BUGFORM
REPORTING-BUGS
BUG-REPORTING
BUG-REPORTS
BUGS

BINDINGS file.

Reference.

/usr/share/doc/common-licenses/*: From Cygwin 'base-files' package, list of licence files.

Unknown files.

AUDIT
DETAILS
FILE-FORMAT
Fixes
FIXES
FORMAT
MAIL
NEEDED
PGPKEYS
PKG-INFO - http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0241/ http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0314/
PLACES
ROADMAP
TRACING

Reference.

GNU Coding Standards
Gnits Standards