aecstate - change state file

projectCW/info/change/[0-9]CW/[0-9][0-9][0-9]

A change state file is used to store information about a change. These files are created and maintained by . These files should not be edited by humans. These files is owned by the project owner and group.

The change number is at least 3 digits, zero padded if necessary. (More digits will be used if a project has a thousand or more changes in any one release, although this is rare.) The files are spread across a directory tree, 100 per subdirectory, to improve the directory search times, and to avoid various systems' directory length limitations.

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.

state = ( ... );

This field is used to describe what state the change is in. The state determines what operations may be performed on the change.

awaiting_development

The change has been created, but has yet to be worked on.

being_developed

The change is being developed.

awaiting_review

The change has been developed, and is waiting to be review. (Optional, controlled by the develop end action project attribute.)

being_reviewed

The change has been developed, and is being reviewed. (Optional, controlled by the develop end action project attribute.)

awaiting_integration

The change has passed review, and is queued ready for integration.

being_integrated

The change is being integrated.

completed

The change has been completed and is now part of the baseline. Changes in this state can not be reversed.

given_test_exemption = boolean;

This field is the value of test_exemption (see aecattr(5)) when the change was created.

given_regression_test_exemption = boolean;

This field is the value of regression_test_exemption (see aecattr(5)) when the change was created.

delta_number = integer;

This field records the delta number for this change. It is only present if the change is in one of the being_integrated or completed states.

delta_uuid = string;

This field records a universally unique identifier for this configuration. It is supplements the delta_number field in that it is unique across all replicas of the project, whereas the delta number is ambiguous across replicas. It is only present in the being_integrated and completed states.

minimum_integration = boolean;

This field records whether the change was placed into the being_integrated state using the -minimum option (or that option was implicitly set due to a file being removed). It is only present if the change is in the being_integrated state.

project_file_command_sync = integer;

This field records the last change integrated into the project. If it disagrees with the project, a 'project_file_command' (from pconf) needs to be executed at the next build.

test_time = time;

This field records the time the last successful -Test command was run for all architectures. It is only present in the being_developed and being_integrated states.

test_baseline_time = time;

This field records the time the last successful -Test -BaseLine command was run for all architectures. It is only present in the being_developed and being_integrated states.

regression_test_time = time;

This field records the time the last successful -Test -REGression command was run for all architectures. It is only present in the being_developed and being_integrated states.

build_time = time;

This field records the last time the last successful -Build command was run for all architectures. It is only present in the being_developed and being_integrated states.

architecture_times = [{ ... }];

This field records the time of various operations for each variant named in the architecture field. It is only present in the being_developed and being_integrated states.

variant = string;

This field is one of the patterns named in the architecture field.

node = string;

This field is the computer on which the command was run which last changed this structure.

test_time = time;

This field records the last time the last successful -Test command was run for this specific pattern instance.

test_baseline_time = time;

This field records the last time the last successful -Test -BaseLine command was run for this specific pattern instance.

regression_test_time = time;

This field records the last time the last successful -Test -REGression command was run for this specific pattern instance.

build_time = time;

This field records the last time the last successful -Build command was run for this specific pattern instance.

development_directory = string;

This field is the absolute path of a change's development directory. It is only present of the change is in a state between being_developed and being_integrated inclusive.

However, branches are treated slightly differently to changes. The directory is relative to the root of the project tree, in order to facilitate moving the project without rewriting any of the database. Note that its doesn't point to the branch baseline, but one level up; just as the project root doesn't point to the trunk baseline, but rather one level up.

integration_directory = string;

This field is the absolute path of the change's integration directory. It is only present of the change is in the being_integrated state.

history = [ { ... }, ... ];

This field records the history of the change, in the form of state transitions. The history records have the form

when = time;

This field records the time the state transition occurred.

what = ( ... );

This field records what happened. Valid value names echo the various functions.

who = string;

This field records the user name of the user who caused the state transition.

why = string;

This field is optional. It is a comment of some sort. In the cases of review_fail and integrate_fail, this field will contain why the change failed.

uuid = string;

This field provides a globally unique identifier for the change set, even when geographically distributed development is happening.

branch = { ... };

This field is only present for branches (long transactions).

umask = integer;

File permission mode mask. See umask(2) for more information. This value will always be OR'ed with 022, because aegis is paranoid.

developer_may_review = boolean;

If this field is true, then a developer may review her own change. This is probably only a good idea for projects of less than 3 people. The idea is for as many people as possible to critically examine a change.

Note that the develop_%end_%action field may not contradict the developer_%may_%review field. If developers may not review their own work, then their changes may not goto directly to the being integrated state (as this means much the same thing).

developer_may_integrate = boolean;

If this field is true, then a developer may integrate her own change. This is probably only a good idea for projects of less than 3 people. The idea is for as many people as possible to critically examine a change.

reviewer_may_integrate = boolean;

If this field is true, then a reviewer may integrate a change she reviewed. This is probably only a good idea for projects of less than 3 people. The idea is for as many people as possible to critically examine a change.

developers_may_create_changes = boolean;

This field is true if developers may created changes, in addition to administrators. This tends to be a very useful thing, since developers find most of the bugs.

forced_develop_begin_notify_command = string;

This command is used to notify a developer that a change requires developing; it is issued when a project administrator uses an aedb -User command to force development of a change by a specific user. All of the substitutions described in aesub(5) are available. This field is optional.

Executed as: the new developer. Current directory: the development directory of the change for the new developer. Exit status: ignored.

develop_end_notify_command = string;

This command is used to notify that a change is ready for review. It will probably use mail, or it could be an in-house bulletin board. This field is optional, if not present no notification will be given. This command could also be used to notify other management systems, such as progress and defect tracking. All of the substitutions described by aesub(5) are available.

Executed as: the developer. Current directory: the development directory of the change. Exit status: ignored.

develop_end_undo_notify_command = string;

This command is used to notify that a change had been withdrawn from review for further development. It will probably use mail, or it could be an in-house bulletin board. This field is optional, if not present no notification will be given. This command could also be used to notify other management systems, such as progress and defect tracking. All of the substitutions described by aesub(5) are available.

Executed as: the developer. Current directory: the development directory of the change. Exit status: ignored.

review_begin_notify_command = string;

This command is used to notify that a review has begun. It will probably use mail, or it could be an in-house bulletin board. This field is optional, if not present no notification will be given. This command could also be used to notify other management systems, such as progress and defect tracking. All of the substitutions described by aesub(5) are available.

Executed as: the reviewer. Current directory: the development directory of the change. Exit status: ignored.

review_begin_undo_notify_command = string;

This command is used to notify that a review is no longer in progress, the reviewer has withdrawn. It will probably use mail, or it could be an in-house bulletin board. This field is optional, if not present no notification will be given. This command could also be used to notify other management systems, such as progress and defect tracking. All of the substitutions described by aesub(5) are available.

Executed as: the reviewer. Current directory: the development directory of the change. Exit status: ignored.

review_pass_notify_command = string;

This command is used to notify that a review has passed. It will probably use mail, or it could be an in-house bulletin board. This field is optional, if not present no notification will be given. This command could also be used to notify other management systems, such as progress and defect tracking. All of the substitutions described by aesub(5) are available.

Executed as: the reviewer. Current directory: the development directory of the change. Exit status: ignored.

review_pass_undo_notify_command = string;

This command is used to notify that a review has passed. It will probably use mail, or it could be an in-house bulletin board. This field is optional, if not present no notification will be given. This command could also be used to notify other management systems, such as progress and defect tracking. Defaults to the same action as the develop_end_notify_command field. All of the substitutions described by aesub(5) are available.

Executed as: the reviewer. Current directory: the development directory of the change. Exit status: ignored.

review_fail_notify_command = string;

This command is used to notify that a review has failed. It will probably use mail, or it could be an in-house bulletin board. This field is optional, if not present no notification will be given. This command could also be used to notify other management systems, such as progress and defect tracking. All of the substitutions described by aesub(5) are available.

Executed as: the reviewer. Current directory: the development directory of the change. Exit status: ignored.

integrate_pass_notify_command = string;

This command is used to notify that an integration has passed. It will probably use mail, or it could be an in-house bulletin board. This field is optional, if not present no notification will be given. This command could also be used to notify other management systems, such as progress and defect tracking. All of the substitutions described by aesub(5) are available.

Some compilers bury absolute path names into object files and executables. The renaming of the integration directory to become the new baseline breaks these paths. This command is passed an environment variable called AEGIS_%INTEGRATION_%DIRECTORY so that the appropriate symlink may be placed, if desired.

Executed as: the project owner. Current directory: the new project baseline. Exit status: ignored.

integrate_fail_notify_command = string;

This command is used to notify that an integration has failed. It will probably use mail, or it could be an in-house bulletin board. This field is optional, if not present no notification will be given. This command could also be used to notify other management systems, such as progress and defect tracking. All of the substitutions described by aesub(5) are available.

Executed as: the integrator. Current directory: the development directory of the change. Exit status: ignored.

default_test_exemption = boolean;

This field contains what to do when a change is created with no test exemption specified.

default_test_regression_exemption = boolean;

This field contains what to do when a change is created with no regression test exemption specified.

history = [{ ... }];

This field contains a history of integrations for the project. Updated by each successful ' -Integrate_Pass' command.

delta_number = integer;

The delta number of the integration.

change_number = integer;

The number of the change which was integrated.

name = [ string ];

The names by which this delta is known.

change = [integer];

The list of changes which have been created on this branch to date.

sub_branch = [integer];

The list of branches which have been created on this branch to date. This will be a subset of the above (possibly empty, possibly complete, never larger).

administrator = [string];

The list of administrators of the branch.

developer = [string];

The list of developers of the branch.

reviewer = [string];

The list of reviewers of the branch.

integrator = [string];

The list of integrators of the branch.

currently_integrating_change = integer;

The change currently being integrated. Only one change (within a branch) may be integrated at a time. Only set when an integration is in progress.

default_development_directory = string;

The pathname of where to place new development directories. The pathname must be absolute. This field is only consulted if the field of the same name in the user configuration file is not set.

minimum_change_number = integer;

The minimum change number for aenc(1), if no change number is specified. This allows the low-numbered change numbers to be used for branches later in the project. Defaults to 10 if not set, may not be less than 1.

reuse_change_numbers = boolean;

This controls whether the automatically selected aenc(1) change numbers ``fill in'' any gaps. Defaults to true if not set.

minimum_branch_number = integer;

The minimum branch number for aenbr(1), if no branch number is specified. Defaults to 1 if not set.

skip_unlucky = boolean;

This field may be set to true if you want to skip various unlucky numbers for changes, branches and tests. Various traditions are avoided, both Eastern and Western. Defaults to false if not set.

compress_database = boolean;

This field may be set to true if you want to compress the database on writing. (It is always uncompress on reading if necessary.) Defaults to false if not set.

Unless you have an exceptionally large project, coupled with fast CPUs and high network latency, there is probably very little benefit in using this feature. (The database is usually less than 5% of the size of the repository.) On slow networks, however, this can improve the performance of file-related commands.

develop_end_action = (...);

This field controls the state the change enters after a successful aede(1) action.

goto_being_reviewed

This means that the change goes from the being_%developed state to the being_%reviewed state. The aerb(1) command only sends informative email.

goto_awaiting_review

This means that the change goes from the being_%developed state to the awaiting_%review state. The aerb(1) command is now mandatory.

goto_awaiting_integration

This means that the change goes from the being_%developed state into the awaiting_%integration state. Code review is skipped entirely.

Note that the develop_%end_%action field may not contradict the developer_%may_%review field. If developers may not review their own work, then their changes may not goto directly to the being integrated state (as this means much the same thing). A contradictory setting will be replaced with goto_%being_%reviewed.

Obsolete Fields

When attempting to access these fields from within the report generator, you need a code fragment similar to the following:

auto ps;
ps = project[project_name()].state;
auto cs;
cs = ps.branch.change[change_number()];

If this change state refers to a branch, when you access a member of the branch.change field, you are given access to the change state data of that change on the branch.

When you index the src field by a filename string, you may obtain access the the relevant file state (see aefstate(5) for more information).

aenc(1)

create a new change

aegis(5)

file format syntax

aecattr(5)

change attributes file format

aefstate(5)

file state 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/