aecattr - change attributes file

A change attributes file is used to describe the modifiable portion of a change.

A change attributes file contains the following fields:

description = string;

This field contains a detailed description of the change.

brief_description = string;

This field contains a brief description of the change.

cause = ( ... );

This field describes the cause which motivated the change.

external_bug

The change was created in response to a bug report from outside the development team. This repairs existing functionality.

external_enhancement

The change was created in response to an enhancement request from outside the development team. This adds new functionality.

external_improvement

The change was created in response to an improvement request from outside the development team. This improves existing functionality.

internal_bug

The change was created in response to a bug report from inside the development team. This repairs existing functionality.

internal_enhancement

The change was created in response to an enhancement request from inside the development team. This adds new functionality.

internal_improvement

The change was created in response to an improvement request from inside the development team. This improves existing functionality.

chain

This cause is where you have a fix to fix a fix; tracking these is an interesting quality metric.

test_exempt = boolean;

This field is true if it is not necessary to test the change. It is, in general, desirable to test all changes, whether new functionality or a bug fix. This is, however, a project management issue.

test_baseline_exempt = boolean;

This field is true if it is not necessary to test the change against the baseline before it is changed. The test of the baseline is required to fail; this is to establish that the test has isolated the bug, and that the change has fixed that isolated bug.

regression_test_exempt = boolean;

This field is true if it is not necessary to perform a full regression test on the change. If absent, defaults to true for all causes except improvements.

architecture = [ string ];

This field is a list of names of system and machine architectures on which the change must successfully build and test.

copyright_years = [ integer ];

This field details the years in which the change was worked on. This field is present in trunk, branch and leaf nodes.

As a change is edited, years in which the change was worked on accumulate in this field automatically. Branches accumulate years as integrations occur. You may need to manually edit this, though it should be rare.

version_previous = string;

This field records the "previous" version, mostly to simplify patch generation. It is only meaningful for trunks and branches. It is set automatically when a branch is started or integrated.

attribute = [ { ... } ];

This is a list of (name,value) pairs, defining user specified attributes.

name = string;

The name of the attribute. By convention, names which start with an upper-case letter will appear in listings, and lower-case will not. Attribute names are case-insensitive.

value = string;

The value of the attribute.

Arguably, most change attributes which may be altered by the user (and some that can't) should be of this form. Due to an accident of history, this is not the case.

aenc(1)

create a new change

aeca(1)

modify the attributes of a change

aegis(5)

file format syntax

aecstate(5)

change state file format

aepattr(5)

project attributes file format

version

Copyright Peter Miller; All rights reserved.

The program comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details use the ' -VERSion License' command. This is free software and you are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions; for details use the ' -VERSion License' command.

tab(;); l r l. Peter Miller;E-Mail:;millerp@canb.auug.org.au CW/\/\*;WWW:;http://www.canb.auug.org.au/~millerp/