NAME¶
aegis build - build a change
SYNOPSIS¶
aegis -Build [
option... ][
filename... ]
aegis -Build -List [
option... ]
aegis -Build -Help
DESCRIPTION¶
The
aegis -Build command is used to build a project. The project
configuration file is consulted for the appropriate build command, and that
command is executed (see the
build_ command and
integration_build_command fields in
aepconf(5) for more
information.) Output of the command is automatically logged to the
aegis.log file at the root of the development directory tree. The build
command will be executed with its current directory being the root of the
development directory, irrespective of there the
aegis -Build command
was executed.
If the change is in the
being integrated state, references to the
development directory, above, should be read as the integration directory.
Integration build commands are executed with the user and group set to the
project's owning user and group. That is, it is not necessary for an
integrator to log in as someone else, the project account for instance, in
order to do an integration.
No Build Required¶
It is possible to configure your project so that no build is required. To do
this, set the following
build_command = "exit 0";
in the project configuration file.
Process Side Effects¶
This command will cancel any test registrations, because building the project
logically invalidates them. If the project configuration file was deleted, any
diff registration will also be canceled.
Notification¶
The actions of the command are controlled by the
build_ command and
integration_build_command fields of the project
config file. See
aepconf(5) for more information.
File Action Adjustment¶
When this command runs, it first checks the change files against the projects
files. If there are inconsistencies, the file actions will be adjusted as
follows:
- create
- If a file is being created, but another change set is integrated which
also creates the file, the file action in the change set still being
developed will be adjusted to "modify".
- modify
- If a file is being modified, but another change set is integrated which
removes the file, the file action in the change set still being developed
will be adjusted to "create".
- remove
- If a file is being removed, but another change set is integrated which
removes the file, the file will be dropped from the change set still being
developed.
PARTIAL BUILD¶
If files are named on the command line, these files are appended to the build
command. This is known as a partial build. Partial builds are not legal in the
being integrated state, but can often be useful in the
being
developed state. Partial builds are not recorded in the change status,
because builds are decoupled from aegis it is not possible for aegis to know
if any set of partial builds is equivalent to a full build.
Warning: no change state lock is taken for a partial build, only a baseline read
lock.
File Name Interpretation¶
The aegis program will attempt to determine the project file names from the file
names given on the command line. All file names are stored within aegis
projects as relative to the root of the baseline directory tree. The
development directory and the integration directory are shadows of this
baseline directory, and so these relative names apply here, too. Files named
on the command line are first converted to absolute paths if necessary. They
are then compared with the baseline path, the development directory path, and
the integration directory path, to determine a baseline-relative name. It is
an error if the file named is outside one of these directory trees.
The
-BAse_RElative option may be used to cause relative filenames to be
interpreted as relative to the baseline path; absolute filenames will still be
compared with the various paths in order to determine a baseline-relative
name.
The
relative_filename_preference in the user configuration file may be
used to modify this default behavior. See
aeuconf(5) for more
information.
SYMBOLIC LINKS¶
Many dependency maintenance tools, and indeed some compilers, have little or no
support for include file search paths, and thus for the concept of the
two-level directory hierarchy employed by Aegis. (It becomes multi-level when
Aegis' branching functionality is used.) To allow these tools to be used,
Aegis provides the ability to maintain a set of symbolic links between the
development directory of a change and the baseline of a project, so it appears
to these tools that all of the project's files are present in the development
directory.
Project Configuration¶
The
development_directory_style field of the project configuration file
controls the appearance of the development directory. See
aepconf(5)
for more information.
By using a setting such as
development_directory_style =
{
source_file_symlink = true;
during_build_only = true;
};
the user never sees the symbolic links, because they are added purely for the
benefit of the dependency maintenance tool during the execution of the
aeb(1) command.
By using a setting such as
development_directory_style =
{
source_file_symlink = true;
};
(the other will default to false) the symbolic links will be created at develop
begin time (see
aedb(1) for more information) and also maintained by
each
aeb(1) invocation. Note that the symbolic links are only
maintained at these times, so project integrations during the course of
editing change sourec files may leave the symbolic links in an inconsistent
state until the next build.
When files are copied from the baseline into a change, using the
aecp(1)
command, the symbolic link pointing into the baseline, if any, will be removed
before the file is copied.
Note: Using this functionality in either form has implications for how
the rules file of the dependency maintenance tool is written. Rules must
remove their targets before creating them (usually with an
rm -f
command) if you use any of the link sub-fields (both hard links and symbolic
links). This is to avoid attempting to write the result on the symbolic link,
which will point at a read-only file in the project baseline. This is similar
to the same requirement for using the
link_integration_directory field
of the project configuration file.
User Configuration¶
There is a
symbolic_link_preference field in the user configuration file
(see
aeuconf(5) for more information). This controls whether
aeb(1) will verify the symbolic links before the build (default) or
whether it will assume they are up-to-date. (This field is only relevant if
development_directory__style.source_file_symlink is true.)
For medium-to-large projects, verifying the symbolic links can take as long as
the build itself. Assuming the symbolic links are up-to-date can be a large
time-saving for these projects. It may be advisable to review your choice of
DMT in such a situation.
The
aedb(1) command
does not consult this preference. Thus, in
most situations, the symbolic links will be up-to-date when the build is
performed. The only Aegis function which may result in the symbolic links
becoming out-of-date is the integration of another change, as this may alter
the presence or absence of files in the baseline. In this situation, the
default
aeb(1) action is to ignore the user preference and the verify
symbolic links.
There are two command line options which modify
aeb(1) behavior further:
the
-Verify-Symbolic-Links option says to verify the symbolic links;
and the
-Assume-Symbolic-Links option says to assume the symbolic links
are up-to-date. In each case the option over-rides the default and the user
preference.
It is possible to obtain behaviour similar to Tom Lord'a Arch by using a setting
such as:
development_directory_style =
{
source_file_link = true;
source_file_symlink = true;
};
It is possible to obtain behaviour similar to CVS by using a setting such as:
development_directory_style =
{
source_file_copy = true;
};
There are many more possible configurations of the
development_directory_style, usually with helpful build side-effects.
See
aepconf(1) and the
Depenedency Maintenance Tool
chapter of the User Guide for more information.
The symbolic link command line options and preferences apply equally to hard
links and file copies (the names have historical origins).
THE BASELINE LOCK¶
The baseline lock is used to ensure that the baseline remains in a consistent
state for the duration of commands which need to read the contents of files in
the baseline.
The commands which require the baseline to be consistent (these include the
aeb(1),
aecp(1) and
aed(1) commands) take a baseline
read lock. This is a non-exclusive lock, so the concurrent development
of changes is not hindered.
The command which modifies the baseline,
aeipass(1), takes a baseline
write lock. This is an exclusive lock, forcing
aeipass(1) to
block until there are no active baseline read locks.
It is possible that one of the above development commands will block until an
in-progress
aegis -Integrate_PASS completes. This is usually of short
duration while the project history is updated. The delay is essential so that
these commands receive a consistent view of the baseline. No other integration
command will cause the above development commands to block.
When aegis' branch functionality is in use, a read (non-exclusive) lock is taken
on the branch baseline and also each of the "parent" baselines.
However, a baseline write (exclusive) lock is only taken on the branch
baseline; the "parent" baselines are only read (non-exclusive)
locked.
METRICS¶
Aegis is capable of recording metrics as part of the file attributes of a
change. This allows various properties of files to be recorded for later trend
analysis, or other uses.
The specific metrics are not dictated by Aegis. It is expected that the
integration build will create a metrics file for each of the source files the
change. These metrics files must be in the format specified by
aemetrics(5).
The name of the metrics file defaults to “
filename,S”, however it may be varied, by setting the
metrics_filename_pattern field of the project
config file. See
aepconf(5) for more information.
If such a metrics file exists, for each source file in a change, it will be read
and remembered at integrate pass time. If it does not exist, Aegis assumes
there are no relevant metrics for that file, and proceeds silently; it is not
an error.
OPTIONS¶
The following options are understood:
- name=value
- Command line arguments of this form are assumed to be variable assignments
for the build tool. They are passed through unchanged. They imply a
partial build.
- -BAse_RElative
- This option may be used to cause relative filenames to be considered
relative to the base of the source tree. See aeuconf(5) for the
corresponding user preference.
- -CUrrent_RElative
- This option may be used to cause relative filenames to be considered
relative to the current directory. This is usually the default. See
aeuconf(5) for the corresponding user preference.
- -Change number
- This option may be used to specify a particular change within a project.
See aegis(1) for a complete description of this option.
- -Help
-
This option may be used to obtain more information about how to use the
aegis program.
- -List
-
This option may be used to obtain a list of suitable subjects for this
command. The list may be more general than expected.
- -MINImum
- This option may be used to request a source-only
development_directory_style. This is useful if you want to simulate
something like aeib -minimum in the development directory. This
option is only meaningful if development_directory_style is being
used. If the change is in the being integrated state, and the
developer specified -MINImum when issuing the aegis
-Integrate_Begin command, then this option is set by default.
- -Not_Logging
-
This option may be used to disable the automatic logging of output and
errors to a file. This is often useful when several aegis commands are
combined in a shell script.
- -Project name
- This option may be used to select the project of interest. When no
-Project option is specified, the AEGIS_PROJECT environment
variable is consulted. If that does not exist, the user's
$HOME/.aegisrc file is examined for a default project field (see
aeuconf(5) for more information). If that does not exist, when the
user is only working on changes within a single project, the project name
defaults to that project. Otherwise, it is an error.
- -TERse
-
This option may be used to cause listings to produce the bare minimum of
information. It is usually useful for shell scripts.
- -Verbose
- This option may be used to cause aegis to produce more output. By default
aegis only produces output on errors. When used with the -List
option this option causes column headings to be added.
- -Verify_Symbolic_Links
- This option may be used to request that the symbolic links, or hard links,
or file copies, in the work area be updated to reflect the current state
of the baseline. This is controlled by the
development_directory_style field of the project configuration
file. Only files which are not involved in the change are updated. See
also the “symbolic_links_preference” field of
aeuconf(5). This option is the default, if meaningful for your
configuration. The name is an historical accident, hard links and file
copies are included.
- -Assume_Symbolic_Links
- This option may be used to request that no update of baseline mirror files
take place. This options is useful when you definitely know the
files' up-to-date-ness isn't important right now; incorrect use of this
option may have unanticipated build side-effects. See also the
“symbolic_links_preference” field of aeuconf(5). This
option is the default, if not meaningful for your configuration. The name
is an historical accident, hard links and file copies are included.
- -Wait
- This option may be used to require Aegis commands to wait for access
locks, if they cannot be obtained immediately. Defaults to the user's
lock_wait_preference if not specified, see aeuconf(5) for
more information.
- -No_Wait
- This option may be used to require Aegis commands to emit a fatal error if
access locks cannot be obtained immediately. Defaults to the user's
lock_wait_preference if not specified, see aeuconf(5) for
more information.
See also
aegis(1) for options common to all aegis commands.
All options may be abbreviated; the abbreviation is documented as the upper case
letters, all lower case letters and underscores (_) are optional. You must use
consecutive sequences of optional letters.
All options are case insensitive, you may type them in upper case or lower case
or a combination of both, case is not important.
For example: the arguments "-project, "-PROJ" and "-p"
are all interpreted to mean the
-Project option. The argument
"-prj" will not be understood, because consecutive optional
characters were not supplied.
Options and other command line arguments may be mixed arbitrarily on the command
line, after the function selectors.
The GNU long option names are understood. Since all option names for
aegis are long, this means ignoring the extra leading '-'. The "
--option=value" convention is also
understood.
RECOMMENDED ALIAS¶
The recommended alias for this command is
csh% alias aeb 'aegis -b \!* -v'
sh$ aeb(){aegis -b "$@" -v}
ERRORS¶
It is an error if the change is not assigned to the current user.
It is an error if the change is not in one of the
being developed or
being integrated states.
It is an error if a partial build is requested and the change is in the
being
integrated state.
EXIT STATUS¶
The
aegis command will exit with a status of 1 on any error. The
aegis command will only exit with a status of 0 if there are no errors.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES¶
See
aegis(1) for a list of environment variables which may affect this
command. See
aepconf(5) for the project configuration file's
project_specific field for how to set environment variables for all
commands executed by Aegis.
SEE ALSO¶
- aedb(1)
- begin development of a change
- aecp(1)
- file copy also takes a baseline read lock (non-exclusive)
- aeib(1)
- begin integration of a change
- aeipass(1)
- integrate pass takes a baseline write lock (exclusive)
- aet(1)
- run tests
- aemetrics(5)
- metrics values file format
- aepconf(5)
- project configuration file format
- aeuconf(5)
- user configuration file format
COPYRIGHT¶
aegis version 4.24.3.D001
Copyright (C) 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001,
2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 Peter Miller
The aegis program comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details use the '
aegis -VERSion License' command. This is free software and you are
welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions; for details use the '
aegis -VERSion License' command.
AUTHOR¶