When other programs are invoked by the
aegis program,
it is usually via a command string in a configuration file.
This section describes the format of these command strings.
GENERAL FORM
The command strings are very similar to shell variables.
An example will illustrate this:
In this command definition,
the "${project}" part is a substitution:
the name of the project will be substituted
in the command at this point.
Substitutions may take several forms:
$name
This is the same as saying "${name}".
The name must start with an alphabetic,
and be followed by zero or more alphanumerics.
${name}
The name in this form may contain any non-blank characters,
and it may be subject to substitution.
${name arg...}
The name and the arguments in this form may contain any non-blank characters,
and it may be subject to further substitution.
Within the braces ({ and })
pairs of single quote characters ('blah blah')
may be used to insulate spaces and other special characters,
or you may use the back quote (\) to escape a single character.
$$
This is replaced by a single $ character.
It avoid RCS expansions, you can also use ${$}.
%%
This is replaced by a single % character.
Percent (%) followed by anything else is illegal.
$#...\n
This is a comment, usually found in template files
read in using the ${read_file} substitution.
It consumes all characters up to and including the next newline.
(See also ${comment}, below.)
As another example,
the
dirname substitution is replaced by the directory name of the argument,
rather like the
dirname(1) command.
In the command
the
Dirname and
Basename substitutions are used to construct a suitable path to the SCCS
file in the history directory.
ABBREVIATIONS
The names of the various substitutions may be abbreviated.
In the above examples,
and in the lists which follow,
the minimum abbreviation is the uppercase letters.
All substitution name are case insensitive.
Ambiguous abbreviations will result in a fatal error message.
SUBSTITUTIONS
There are many substitutions which are always understood,
and some which are specific to the command being substituted.
Specific entries will be defined in the relevant manual section.
The following lists contains those substitutions which are always understood:
Add_Path_Suffix
This substitution may be used to add a suffix to each element of a
colon-separated path list. The first argument is the suffix to use, the
second and subsequent arguments are the colon-separated paths to work on.
The result is a single colon separated path. Often used in combination
with the ${search_path} substitution, below.
Administrator_List
Space separated list of the project's administrators.
Takes an optional argument in the same form as the user substitution.
ARCHitecture
This substitution is replaced by the architecture name
appropriate for the current execution environment.
Requires no arguments.
See the
architecture field of
aepconf(5) for more information.
When used in commands, you may need to surround this substitution with
the quote substitution (see below), if any of your architecture
names contain shell special characters.
BaseLine
Absolute path of the the project's baseline.
Basename
This substitution takes one argument,
a pathname.
The value of the substitution will be the last element of the pathname.
This is similar to the
basename(1) command.
BAse_RElative
This substitution takes at least one pathname. The value of the
substitution is the base-relative filenames, with any change-specific or
project baseline specific leading path removed. The file does not have
to be a project source file.
(This is almost the inverse of the $source substitution, below.)
BINary_DIRectory
The absolute path of Aegis' architecture-specific binary (executables)
directory. This corresponds to the ``./configure -bindir''
option when Aegis was built. This is where most of the Aegis executable
programs are installed.
CAPitalize
This substitution takes at least one argument. The value of the substitution
will be the arguments with the first letter of each word forced to upper
case and the rest forced to lower case.
Change
This substitution provides various information about the change,
based on the argument it is given.
cause
This returns the cause of the change.
date format
This returns the completion date of the change.
See DATE section for additional arguments.
delta
This returns the delta number of the change.
description
This returns the brief description of the change.
developer
This returns the name of the developer of the change.
development_directory
This returns the development directory of the change.
integrator
This returns the name of the integrator of the change.
integration_directory
This returns the integration directory of the change.
number
This returns the number of the change.
(This is the default if no argument is given.)
reviewer
This returns the name of the reviewer of the change.
state
This returns the state of the change.
version
This returns the version of the change.
COMment
Inserts exactly nothing; any and all arguments are ignored.
Another form of comment is ``$#'' which extends to the end of the current line.
Copyright_Years
Inserts a comma separated list of copyright years from the project attributes.
This list of years is maintained by
aegis at integrate begin,
and so is only guaranteed to be up-to-date
in the'being integrated' state.
Do not use this substitution in new file templates,
it is not guaranteed to be up-to-date in the 'being developed' state;
use the ${date %Y} substitution in new file templates.
This list contains spaces, so if you use it to build commands, you will
probably need to quote, it as well.
DATa_DIRectory
The absolute path of Aegis' architecture-neutral library directory.
This corresponds to the ``./configure -datadir'' option
when Aegis was built.
This is where most of the scripts included with Aegis are installed.
DAte
With no arguments,
the output is the current date.
If there are arguments,
they form a format string.
This is similar to the
date(1) command on many UNIX systems.
For a description of the date formats,
see the
DATE section,
below.
DELta
The delta number of the change.
This is only available when the change is in the
"being integrated" state or the
completed state.
DEVeloper
The name of the developer.
Takes an optional argument in the same form as the user substitution.
DEVeloper_List
Space separated list of the project's developers.
Takes an optional argument in the same form as the user substitution.
Development_Directory
The absolute path of the change's development directory.
Only available when the change is between the
"being developed" state and the
"being integrated" state.
Dirname
This substitution takes at least one argument,
a pathname.
The value of the substitution will be everything but
the last element of the pathname.
This is similar to the
dirname(1) command.
Dirname_RELative
This substitution takes at least one argument,
a pathname.
The value of the substitution will be everything but
the last element of the pathname.
This is similar to the
dirname substitution, except that if there are no directory components, it
returns dot (``.'').
DownCase
This substitution takes at least one argument.
The value of the substitution will be the argument with
any upper case letters mapped to lower case.
ENVironment
This substitution takes at least one argument.
The value of the substitution is the value of the corresponding
environment variable, or empty of undefined.
ERrno
This substitution takes no arguments.
The value of the substitution will be
the value if the errno variable provided by the system,
as mapped through the strerror function.
Thus you may give the users informative system error messages.
EXpression
This substitution evaluates simple arithmetic expressions.
Addition, subtraction, division, multiplication, modulo
and negation are understood.
The 6 basic comparison operators are available.
The usual C syntax and precedence are used.
The arguments must constitute a valid expression,
white space and word boundaries are ignored.
History_Directory
This substitution takes zero arguments.
It is replaced by the absolute path of the history directory of the
project.
IDentifier
This substitution takes at least one argument.
The value of the substitution will be the argument with
all characters but alpha numerics mapped into an underscore (_),
so as to form a legal C identifier.
INTegration_Directory
The absolute path of the change's integration directory.
Only available when the change is in the
"being integrated" state.
INTegrator
The name of the change's integrator.
Only available when the change is in the
"being integrated" state or the
"completed" state.
Takes an optional argument in the same form as the user substitution.
INTegrator_List
Space separated list of the project's integrators.
Takes an optional argument in the same form as the user substitution.
LEFt
This substitution
extracts the left hand side of strings.
It takes two arguments:
the first is the string, the second is the number of characters.
LENgth
This substitution
determines the length of strings,
the result is a number.
It takes one argument:
the string to be measured.
LIBrary
The absolute path of Aegis' library directory.
This corresponds to the ``./configure -datadir'' option
when Aegis was built.
This substitution is deprecated - please use ${datadir} instead.
LIBrary_DIRectory
The absolute path of Aegis' architecture-specific library directory.
This corresponds to the ``./configure -libdir'' option
when Aegis was built.
Name_Maximum
This substitution is used to get the maximum file name length
within a file system.
It takes at least one argument:
the name of a directory within the file system.
Frequently used with ${left} to crop filenames
to the file system maximum.
PERL
This function requires zero arguments.
It is replaced by the absolute path of a Perl interpreter.
PLural
This function requires 2 or 3 arguments.
The first argument is evaluated as a number,
if it is plural (not equal to 1) the second argument is the result,
otherwise the third argument is the result (or empty if not given).
This is mostly used to pluralize sentences in Germainic error messages.
PLural_Forms
The plural_forms substitution is similar to the
${plural} substitution, except that it reads and understands the
<[>CW]Plural-Forms: header in the message catalogue. This means that
it understands a greater range of pluralization mechanisms than the simple
${plural} substitution.
(For a description of the <[>CW]Plural-Forms: header,
see the GNU Gettext manual.)
The first argument is the number. Second is the singular form
(corresponding to the <[>CW]Plural-Forms: expression evaluating to
zero), the third and subsequent arguments are the various plural forms
(corresponding to the <[>CW]Plural-Forms: expression evaluating to 1,
2, 3, etc.
The <[>CW]Plural-Forms: expression is required evaluate to less than
<[>CW]nplurals. If it does not, the second arguement (the singular
form) is used. If there are too few arguments to this substitution,
the second argument (the singular form) is again used.
Note that in the default case (used for English and other Germanic
languages), the arguments are the reverse of those expected by
the ${plural} substitution.
Project
This substitution provides various information about the project, based
on the argument it is given.
name
This returns the name of the project.
(This is the default if no argument is given.)
description
This returns the description of the project (the one which appears in
the project listing).
trunk_name
This returns the name of the trunk of the project (i.e. no branch
numbers included).
trunk_description
This returns the description of the trunk of the project.
Project_Specific
This substitution takes exactly one argument. This argument is a name
to be found in the project config file's project_%specific
field (see aepconf(5) for more information).
This returns the value listed in the project config file.
QUote
This substitution may be used to quote shell special characters. If no
quoting is required, not quotes will be inserted. This is used to
insulate shell special characters in filenames when forming commands.
Read_File
Read a file and substitute the contents of the file.
Requires exactly one argument, the pathname of the file to be read.
If the pathname is a project source file,
you will need to use the
source substitution to resolve the path.
It is a fatal error if the file does not exist,
or is not readable.
It is a fatal error if the pathname is not absolute
(because the current directory is undefined).
Read_File_Simple
Read a file and without substituting the contents of the file.
Requires exactly one argument, the pathname of the file to be read.
If the pathname is a project source file,
you will need to use the
source substitution to resolve the path.
It is a fatal error if the file does not exist,
or is not readable.
It is a fatal error if the pathname is not absolute
(because the current directory is undefined).
Reviewer
The name of the change's reviewer.
Only available when the change is between the
"awaiting integration" state and the
"completed" state.
Takes an optional argument in the same form as the user substitution.
Reviewer_List
Space separated list of the project's reviewers.
Takes an optional argument in the same form as the user substitution.
RIght
This substitution
extracts the right hand side of strings.
It takes two arguments:
the first is the string, the second is the number of characters.
Search_Path
The Search_Path substitution is replaced by a
colon separated list of absolute paths to search when building a
change, it will point from a change to its branch and so on up
to the project trunk.
Search_Path_Executable
The Search_Path_Executable substitution is usually the same as the
Search_Path substitution. However, during an ``aegis -Test
-BaseLine'' command, it contains the baseline as the first element,
rather then the development directory or the integration directory.
This is of most use when looking for executables and executable support
files while running tests.
SHell
The absolute path of a Bourne shell
which understands functions.
Requires exactly zero arguments.
Source
Resolve the argument filename into a pathname.
It is an error if the file is not a source file.
An optional second argument may be "Absolute" or "Relative",
and may be abbreviated.
Relative will attempt to provide a development-directory-relative pathname
whenever possible,
absolute will always result in an absolute path.
The default is "Relative".
(For the inverse mapping, see ${BAse_RElative}, above.)
SPLit
This substitution may be used to split strings are specified separators.
The first argument is the separator character to be used, subsequent
arguments are strings to be split. The result is the collection is
split strings of the second a follwoing arguments, separated by spaces.
STate
The state the current change is in.
It is an error if the substitution does not refer to a change.
SUBSTitute
Regular expression substitution. The first argument is the pattern to
match, the second argument is the replacement string. The third and
subsequent arguments are modified as specified by the first two arguments.
The search is not anchored, and the replacement will happen
as many times as possible.
Use ``^'' to match the beginning, and ``$'' to match the end.
SUBSTRing
This substitution extracts a substring from the middle of strings.
It takes three arguments: the first is the string, the second is the star
character (counting from zero), the third is the number of characters.
SWitch
Select amongst a set of values.
The first argument is expected to be a number.
If the number is zero, the second argument is used;
if the number is one, the third argument is used; etc.
If the number is negative, or exceeds the available arguments,
the last argument is used.
Trim_DIRectory
This substitution takes one or two arguments. If given one argument,
one directory component (if present) is removed from the argument,
which is assumed to be a file name. If two arguments are present,
the first is a directory count; at most this many directory components
(if present) will be removed. The base file name is always left.
Trim_EXTension
This substitution takes one argument. Any file name extension (a dot
characters and the characters following) will be removed from the final
filename section of the argument.
UNSplit
This substitution may be used to reverse the effects of the split
substitution. The first arguments is a seaparator character, the second
and following arguments are strings to be joined together using the
separator character. The result is a single string.
UpCase
This substitution takes at least one argument.
The value of the substitution will be the argument with
any lower case letters mapped to upper case.
USer
This substitution provides various information about the user who executed
the command, based on the argument it is given.
login
The login name of the user.
(This is the default if no argument is given.)
name
The full name of the user.
email
The email address of the user.
quoted_email
The email address of the user, quoted to avoid shell special characters.
home
The home directory of the user.
Version
The version of the change.
If the change is in the
"being integrated" state or the
"completed" state,
the version will be of the form "a.b.Dddd",
where "a" is the project's major version number,
"b" is the project's minor version number, and
"ddd" is the change's delta number.
If the change is in any other state,
the version will be of the form "a.b.Cccc",
where "ccc" is the change number.
Zero_Pad
This substitution is used to zero pad a string on the left.
It takes two arguments:
the first is the string to be padded, the second is the minimum string width.
DATE
This section describes the format specifiers accepted by the
date substitution.
These are the same specifiers as defined
by the ANSI C standard
for the strftime function.
%%
The percent character (%)
%a
the abbreviated weekday name
%A
the full weekday name
%b
the abbreviated month name
%B
the full month name
%c
the date and time
%d
the day of the month,
zero padded
%H
the hour of the 24-hour day
%I
the hour of the 12-hour day
%j
the day number of year,
zero padded, one based
%m
the month of the year,
zero padded, one based
%M
the minute of the hour,
zero padded
%p
meridian indicator,
AM or PM as appropriate
%S
the second of the minute
%U
the Sunday week of the year
%w
the day of the week,
Sunday is 0
%W
the Monday week of the year
%x
the date,
as mmm dd yyyy
%X
the time,
as hh:mm:ss
%y
the year of the century
%Y
the year including the century
%Z
time zone abbreviation
Using an undefined format specifier will
produce random results,
depending on the version of UNIX you are on.
(n) version (V)
Copyright (C) (Y) Peter Miller;
All rights reserved.
The (n) program comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY;
for details use the '(n) -VERSion License' command.
This is free software
and you are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions;
for details use the '(n) -VERSion License' command.
