Re: A problem with tags vs. revisions

[Todd Denniston]

Pete Klammer wrote:
> Todd wrote (as I have seen many others recommend many times):
>
> """
> Ignore the cvs _revision_ information, it is for CVS's use only. By changing
> the cvs revision information you may run the risk of breaking assumptions
> the cvs code has about things being on the 1.x revision set[2] and no those
> assumptions are not documented any where. Use tags (symbolic names [3])for
> the humans, i.e. if you want the set of files in a sand box versioned for
> 2.1
>  cvs tag VERSION_2_1
> """
>
> Are tags embeddable in source via $keywords ?
>
> I have code like this:
>
> char strRevision[] = "$Revision: 13.80 $" ;
> char strLocker[] = "$Locker: $" ;
> char strCompilationDate[] = __DATE__ ;
> char strCompilationTime[] = __TIME__ ;
>
> ... and this ...
[SNIP]
> ... So my code is version-aware at execution time, can communicate and
> compare its major or minor version with other programs, etc.
>
> Can you do that with tags?

Unfortunately I do not know of any RCS keywords that put the tag in the 
checked out file.  There might be something lurking about in the new cvs 
1.12.x version, that I am unaware of though.

however, I have done pretty much what you want by other means in the past.
My baselines are tagged using a script, which happens to write either one or 
two files, the first file is a listing of all the tags and the reasons the 
tags were placed, the second file (when it is written) is a header file 
generally named version_number.h with the format:

-----begin version_number.h
/* THIS FILE IS AUTOMATICALLY GENERATED!!!  DO NOT MODIFY!!!
 *
 */
char VersionNumber[]="MY_PROG version:  3.4  MY_TAG_3_4 controlled date - 22 
May 2001";
-----end version_number.h

and that file is included by any program that needs it.

Because the script writes (and commits) these just before applying the tag, I 
get the added benefit of having a record, within a second or two, of when tags 
are applied.

--
Todd Denniston
Crane Division, Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC Crane)
Harnessing the Power of Technology for the Warfighter