table of contents
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- jessie 4.24.3-3
aetar(1) | aetar(1) |
NAME¶
aetar - remotely distribute a change via tarSYNOPSIS¶
aetar -Send [ option... ]DESCRIPTION¶
The aetar command is used to send and receive change sets via tar(1) to facilitate geographically distributed development. The basic function is to reproduce a change, so a command likeaetar -send | aetar -receive
may be used to clone a change, though less efficiently than aeclone(1).
The file format used is an ordinary gzip(1) compressed tar(1)
archive.
SEND¶
The send variant takes a specified change, or baseline, and constructs a distribution package containing all of the source file contents. No change meta-data is included. It is not necessary for the recipient to have the aetar(1) command. It is possible to use the regular tar xzf command to extract the files from the archive.Options¶
The following options are understood by the send variant:- -BaseLine
- This option may be used to specify the source of a project, rather than a change.
- -Add_Path_Prefix string
- This option may be used to specify a path prefix to be added to every filename in the archive. This means that when the archive is unpacked, it will all be placed in the one directory.
- -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.
- -COMPATibility version-number
- This option may be used to specify the version of aetar(1) which will be receiving this change set. This information is used to select which features to include in the data, and which to omit. By default, the latest feature set will be used.
- -compression-algorithm name
This option may be used to specify the compression to be
used. They are listed on order of compression effeciency.
- none
- Use no compression (not always meaningful for all commands).
- gzip
- Use the compression used by the gzip(1) program.
- bzip2
- Use the compression used by the bzip2(1) program.
- -COMPress
- This option is deprecated in favour of the -comp-alg=gzip or -comp-alg=bzip2 options.
- -No_COMPress
- This options is deprecated in favour of the -comp-alg=none option.
- -DELta number
-
- -DELta_Date string
-
- -DELta_From_Change number
-
- -Entire_Source
- This option may be used to send the entire source of the project, as well as the change source files. This is the default.
- -Partial_Source
- This option may be used to send only source files of a change.
- -Include_Build
- This option may be used to send also build files.
- -Not_Include_Build
- This option may be used to send only source (source, test, config but not build) files. This is the default.
- -Output filename
- This option may be used to specify the output file. The output is sent to the standard output by default.
- -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.
RECEIVE¶
The receive variant takes a tarball and creates an Aegis change (see aenc(1)) to implement the change within. Files are added to the change (see aenf(1), aecp(1), aerm(1), aent(1)) and then the file contents are unpackaged into the development directory. It is not necessary for the sender to have the aetar(1) command. It is possible to use the regular tar czf command to create the the tarball. You may want to use the tardy(1) command to manipulate the filenames before extraction.File Names¶
It is common for tar files generated to distribute open source projects to contain a path prefix.- -Remove_Path_Prefix string
- This option may be used to explicitly specify path prefixes to be removed, if present. It may be specified more than once.
- -Remove_Path_Prefix number
- Strip the smallest prefix containing num leading slashes from each file name found in the patch file. A sequence of one or more adjacent slashes is counted as a single slash.
- -Add_Path_Prefix string
- This option may be used to specify the path of a project sub-directory in which to apply the tarball.
Notification¶
The aetar command invokes various other Aegis commands. The usual notifications that these commands would issue are issued.Options¶
The following options are understood by the receive variant:- -Change number
- This option may be used to choose the change number to be used, otherwise one will be chosen automatically.
- -DELta number
-
- -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.
- -EXCLude
This option may be used to exclude certain files in the
tarball from consideration.
You can also add more exclusions using the project_specific field of the
project configuration, using the aetar:exclude attribute listing file names to
exclude separated by spaces.
- -Exclude_Auto_Tools
This option may be used to exclude files common to
tarballs of open source projects which used GNU Autoconf or GNU Automake. This
is triggered by the presence of configure.ac, configure.in or
Makefile.am files. This only works for simple projects, more complex
projects will need to use the project exclude attributes.
You can set this automatically using the boolean aetar:exclude-auto-tools
attribute in the project_specific field of the project configuration
file.
- -Exclude_CVS
This option may be used to exclude files common to CVS
repositories, which implement the repository functions, rather than contain
source code. It will also look inside .cvsignore files for additional files to
ignore.
You can set this automatically using the boolean aetar:exclude-cvs attribute in
the project_specific field of the project configuration file.
- -File filename
Read the change set from the specified file. The default
is to read it from the standard input. The filename `-' is understood to mean
the standard input.
If your system has libcurl(3), and Aegis was configured to use it at
compile time (this is the default if it is available) you will also be able to
specify a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) in place of the file name. The
relevant data will be downloaded. (The -Verbose option will provide a
progress bar.)
- -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.
- -Trojan
- This option may be used to treat the change set as if it had a Trojan horse attack in it.
- -No_Trojan
- This option may be used to treat the change set as if it definitely does not have a Trojan horse attack in it. Use with extreme care. You need to have authenticated the message with something like PGP first and know the the author well.
Security¶
Downloading a tarball and automatically committing it to the baseline without checking it would be a recipe for disaster. A number of safeguards are provided:- •
- The file sare unpacked into a new change. You need to edit the change description. You need to uncopy unchanged files. You need to difference the change. You need to build and test the change. This ensures that a local reviewer validates the change before it is committed, preventing accidental or malicious damage.
- •
- The use of authentication and encryption systems, such as PGP and GPG, are encouraged. However, it is expected that this processing will occur after aetar --send has constructed the package and before aetar --receive examines and acts on the package. Verification of the sender is the surest defense against trojan horses.
- •
- Automatic sending and receiving of packages is supported, but not implemented within the aetar command. It is expected that the aetar command will be used within shell scripts customized for your site and its unique security requirements. See the Aegis User Guide for several different ways to do this.
- •
- The more you use Aegis' test management facilities (see aent(1) and aet(1)) the harder it is for an inadequate change to get into the baseline.
LIST¶
The list variant can be used to list the contents of a tarball without actually unpacking it first.Options¶
The following options are understood by the list variant:- -File filename
Read the change set from the specified file. The default
is to read it from the standard input. The filename `-' is understood to mean
the standard input.
If your system has libcurl(3), and Aegis was configured to use it at
compile time (this is the default if it is available) you will also be able to
specify a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) in place of the file name. The
relevant data will be downloaded. (The -Verbose option will provide a
progress bar.)
- -Output filename
- This option may be used to specify the output file. The output is sent to the standard output by default. Only useful with the -List option.
OPTIONS¶
The following options to this command haven't been mentioned yet:- -Help
-
FILE FORMAT¶
The file format re-uses existing formats, rather than introduce anything new. This means it is possible to extract the contents of a package even when aetar is unavailable.- •
- The source files and other information is stored as a normal Unix tar(1) archive.
- •
- On sending, the tarball is compressed using the GNU gzip format. Typically
primary source files are ASCII text, resulting in significant compression.
(This is optional.)
EXIT STATUS¶
The aetar command will exit with a status of 1 on any error. The aetar 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.COPYRIGHT¶
aetar version 4.24.3.D001AUTHOR¶
Peter Miller | E-Mail: | millerp@canb.auug.org.au |
/\/\* | WWW: | http://www.canb.auug.org.au/~millerp/ |
Aegis | Reference Manual |