NAME¶
aegis remove file - add files to be deleted to a change
SYNOPSIS¶
aegis -ReMove_file file-name... [
option... ]
aegis -ReMove_file -List [
option... ]
aegis -ReMove_file -Help
DESCRIPTION¶
The
aegis -ReMove_file command is used to add files to be deleted
to a change. The file will be added to the list of files in the change, and
will be removed from the baseline at integration time.
This command may be used to remove tests, not just source files. Tests are
treated just like any other source file, and are subject to the same process.
A file will be created in the development directory containing 1KB of random
text. The random text is sufficiently revolting that most compilers will give
error messages, should the file be referenced accidentally. This is often very
helpful when removing include files.
You may specify a directory name to remove all files in the named directory
tree. It is an error if there are no relevant files.
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.
Process Side Effects¶
This command will cancel any build or test registrations, because adding a file
logically invalidates them.
When the change files are listed (
aegis -List Change_Files -TERse) the
removed files will not appear in the terse listing. Similarly, when the
project files are listed with an explicit change number (
aegis -List
Project_Files -TERse -Change N) none of the change's files, including the
the removed files, will not appear in the terse listing. These two features
are very helpful when calling aegis from within a DMT to generate the list of
source files.
Changing the Type of a File¶
If you want to change the type of a file (say, from a test to a source file, or
vice versa) you could do it as two changes, by first using
aerm(1) in one change and then using
aenf(1) or
aent(1)
in a second change, or you can combine both steps in the same change. Remember
to use the
aerm -nowhiteout option or you will get a most peculiar new
file template.
Notification¶
The
remove_file_command in the project
config file is run, if set.
The
project_file_command is also run, if set, and if there has been an
integration recently. See
aepconf(5) for more information.
WHITEOUT¶
Aegis provides you with what is often called a “view path” which
indicates to development tools (compilers, build systems,
etc) look
first in the development directory, then in the branch baseline, and so on up
to the trunk baseline.
The problem with view paths is that in order to remove files, you need some kind
of "whiteout" to say “stop looking, it's been
removed.”
When you user the
aerm(1) or
aemv(1) commands, this means
"add information to this change which will remove the file from the
baseline when this change is integrated".
I.e. while the change is
in the
being developed state, the file is only "removed" in
the development directory - it's still present in the baseline, and will be
until the change is successfully integrated.
When you use the
aerm(1) or
aemv(1) commands, Aegis will create a
1K file to act as the whiteout. It's contents are rather ugly so that if you
compile or include the "removed" file accidentally, you get a fatal
error. This will remind you to remove obsolete references.
When the change in integrated, the removed file is
not copied/linked from
the baseline to the integration directory, and is
not copied from the
development directory. At this time it is physically gone (no whiteout). It is
assumed that because of the error inducing whiteout all old references were
found and fixed while the change was in the
being developed state.
File Manifests¶
When generating list of files to be compiled or linked, it is important that the
file manifest be generated from information known by Aegis, rather than from
the file system. This is for several reasons:
- (a)
- Aegis knows exactly what (source) files are where, whereas everything else
is inferring Aegis' knowledge; and
- (b)
- looking in the file system is hard when the view path is longer that 2
directories (and Aegis' branching method can make it arbitrarily long);
and
- (c)
- The whiteout files, and anything else left “lying around”,
will confuse any method which interrogates the file system.
The easiest way to use Aegis' file knowledge is with something like an
awk(1) script processing the Aegis file lists. For example, you can do
this with
make(1) as follows:
# generate the file manifest
manifest.make.inc: manifest.make.awk
( aegis -l cf -ter ; aegis -l pf -ter ) | \
awk -f manifest.make.awk > manifest.make.inc
# now include the file manifest
include manifest.make.inc
Note: this would be inefficient of you did it once per directory, but there is
nothing stopping you writing numerous assignments into the
manifest.make.inc file, all in one pass.
It is possible to do the same thing with Aegis' report generator (see
aer(1) for more information), but this is more involved than the
awk(1) script. However, with the information "straight from the
horse's mouth" as it were, it can also be much smarter.
This file manifest would become out-of-date without an interlock to Aegis' file
operations commands. By using the
project-file_command and
change_file_command fields of the project
config file (see
aepconf(5) for more information), you can delete this file at strategic
times.
/* run when the change file manifest is altered */
change_file_command = "rm -f manifest.make.inc";
/* run when the project file manifest is altered */
project_file_command = "rm -f manifest.make.inc";
The new file manifest will thus be re-built during the next
aeb(1)
command.
Options and Preferences¶
There is a
-No-WhiteOut option, which may be used to suppress whiteout
files when you use the
aerm(1) and
aemv(1) commands. There is a
corresponding
-WhiteOut option, which is usually the default.
There is a
whiteout_preference field in the user preferences file (see
aeuconf(5) for more information) if you want to set this option more
permanently.
Whiteout File Templates¶
The
whiteout_template field of the project
config file may be used
to produce language-specific error files. If no whiteout template entry
matches, a very ugly 1KB file will be produced - it should induce compiler
errors for just about any language.
If you want a more human-readable error message, entries such as
whiteout_template =
[
{
pattern = [ "*.[ch]" ];
body = "#error This file has been removed.";
}
];
can be very effective (this example assumes
gcc(1) is being used).
If it is essential that
no whiteout file be produced, say for C source
files, you could use a whiteout template such as
whiteout_template =
[
{ pattern = [ "*.c" ]; }
];
because an absent
body sub-field means generate no whiteout file at all.
You may have more than one whiteout template entry, but note that the order of
the entries is important. The first entry which matches will be used.
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.
OPTIONS¶
The following options are understood:
- -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.
- -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.
- -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.
- -WhiteOut
- This option may be used to request that deleted files be replaced by a
“whiteout” file in the development directory. The idea is
that compiling such a file will result in a fatal error, in order that all
references may be found. This is usually the default.
- -No_WhiteOut
- This option may be used to request that no “whiteout” file
be placed in the development directory.
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 aerm 'aegis -rm \!* -v'
sh$ aerm(){aegis -rm "$@" -v}
ERRORS¶
It is an error if the change is not in the
being developed state.
It is an error if the change is not assigned to the current user.
It is an error if the file does not exist in the baseline.
It is an error if the file is already part of the change.
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¶
- aecp(1)
- copy files into a change
- aedb(1)
- begin development of a change
- aemv(1)
- rename a file as part of a change
- aenf(1)
- add files to be created to a change
- aermu(1)
- remove files to be deleted from a change
- 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¶