NAME¶
aegis develop begin - begin development of a change
SYNOPSIS¶
aegis -Develop_Begin change-number [
option... ]
aegis -Develop_Begin -List [
option... ]
aegis -Develop_Begin -Help
DESCRIPTION¶
The
aegis -Develop_Begin command is used to commence development
of a change.
The development directory for the change will be created automatically; below
the directory specified in the default_development_directory field of
aeuconf(5), or if not set below the directory specified in the
default_development_directory field of
aepattr(5), or if not set below
the current user's home directory. It is rare to need to know the exact
pathname of the development directory, as the
aecd(1) command can take
you there at any time.
Successful execution of this command will move the specified change from the
awaiting development state to the
being developed state. boxwid
= 1 down S1: box "awaiting" "development" arrow "
develop" ljust " begin" ljust S2: box "being"
"developed" T1: spline -> from S2.w then left 0.75 then up 11/12
then to 1/3<S1.sw,S1.nw> " develop" ljust " begin"
ljust " undo" ljust at T1.c - (0.75,0)
Notification¶
The
develop_begin_command in the project configuration file (see
aepconf(5) for more information) will be run, if specified. This is run
after the aegis locks are released, so additional aegis commands may be run
from here, if used with care. The symbolic links (see below) have
not
yet been created.
Development Directory Location¶
Please Note: Aegis also consults the underlying file system, to determine
its notion of maximum file size. Where the file system's maximum file size is
less than
maximum_filename_length, the filesystem wins. This can
happen, for example, when you are using the Linux UMSDOS file system, or when
you have an NFS mounted an ancient V7 filesystem. Setting
maximum_filename_length to 255 in these cases does not alter the fact
that the underlying file systems limits are far smaller (12 and 14,
respectively).
If your development directories (or your whole project) is on filesystems with
filename limitations, or a portion of the heterogeneous builds take place in
such an environment, it helps to tell Aegis what they are (using the project
config file's fields) so that you don't run into the situation where
the project builds on the more permissive environments, but fails with
mysterious errors in the more limited environments.
If your development directories are routinely on a Linux UMSDOS filesystem, you
would probably be better off setting
dos_filename_required = true, and
also changing the
development_directory_template field. Heterogeneous
development with various Windows environments may also require this.
ADMINISTRATOR OVERRIDE¶
It is possible for project administrators to use the
-User option to
force a developer to start developing a change. Some sites prefer to work this
way. Note that developers still have the ability to use the
aedbu(1)
command.
Warning: capricious use of this command will rapidly alienate developers. The
defaulting rules, particularly for the change number, depend on aegis and the
developer agreeing on what the developer is currently working on.
The
forced_develop_begin_notify_command project attribute (see
aepattr(5) for more information) will be run when an administrator uses
the
-User option, in an attempt to minimize the surprises for
developers. A suitable command is
forced_develop_begin_notify_command =
"$datadir/db_forced.sh $p $c $developer";
This command will send e-mail to the developer, informing her that the change
has been assigned to her.
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).
OPTIONS¶
The following options are understood:
- -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.
- -DIRectory path
This option may be used to specify which directory is to
be used. It is an error if the current user does not have appropriate
permissions to create the directory path given. This must be an absolute path.
Caution: If you are using an automounter do not use `pwd` to make an absolute
path, it usually gives the wrong answer.
- -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.
- -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.
- -REAson text
- This option may be used to attach a comment to the change history
generated by this command. You will need to use quotes to insulate the
spaces from the shell.
- -TERse
-
This option may be used to cause listings to produce the bare minimum of
information. It is usually useful for shell scripts.
- -User name
-
This option is used to specify the user who is to develop the change. This
option may only be used by a project administrator.
- -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.
- -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 aedb 'aegis -db \!* -v'
sh$ aedb(){aegis -db "$@" -v}
ERRORS¶
It is an error if the change does not exist.
It is an error if the change is not in the
awaiting development state.
It is an error if the current user is not a developer of the specified project.
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¶
- aeb(1)
- build a change
- aecd(1)
- change directory
- aecp(1)
- copy files into a change
- aed(1)
- find differences between a change and the baseline
- aedbu(1)
- undo the effects of aedb
- aede(1)
- complete development of a change
- aemv(1)
- rename a file as part of a change
- aenc(1)
- add a new change to a project
- aend(1)
- add a new developer to a project
- aenf(1)
- add new files to a change
- aent(1)
- add a new test to a change
- aepa(1)
- modify the attributes of a project
- aerm(1)
- add files to be deleted to a change
- aet(1)
- run tests
- aepattr(5)
- project attributes 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¶