ident - identify RCS keyword strings in files
ident [ -q ] [ -V ] [ file ... ]
ident searches for all instances of the pattern
$keyword: text $ in the named
files or, if no files are named, the standard input.
These patterns are normally inserted automatically by the RCS
command co(1), but can also be inserted manually. The option
-q suppresses the warning given if there are no patterns in a file.
The option -V prints ident's version number.
ident works on text files as well as object files and
dumps. For example, if the C program in f.c contains
- #include <stdio.h>
static char const rcsid[] =
"$Id: f.c,v 5.4 1993/11/09 17:40:15 eggert Exp $";
int main() { return printf("%s\n", rcsid) == EOF; }
and f.c is compiled into f.o, then the command
- ident f.c f.o
will output
-
f.c:
$Id: f.c,v 5.4 1993/11/09 17:40:15 eggert Exp $
f.o:
$Id: f.c,v 5.4 1993/11/09 17:40:15 eggert Exp $
If a C program defines a string like rcsid above but does
not use it, lint(1) may complain, and some C compilers will optimize
away the string. The most reliable solution is to have the program use the
rcsid string, as shown in the example above.
ident finds all instances of the
$keyword: text $ pattern,
even if keyword is not actually an RCS-supported keyword. This gives
you information about nonstandard keywords like $XConsortium$.
Here is the list of keywords currently maintained by co(1). All times are
given in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC, sometimes called GMT) by default,
but if the files were checked out with co's -zzone
option, times are given with a numeric time zone indication appended.
- $Author$
- The login name of the user who checked in the revision.
- $Date$
- The date and time the revision was checked in.
- $Header$
- A standard header containing the full pathname of the RCS file, the
revision number, the date and time, the author, the state, and the locker
(if locked).
- $Id$
- Same as $Header$, except that the RCS filename is without a
path.
- $Locker$
- The login name of the user who locked the revision (empty if not
locked).
- $Log$
- The log message supplied during checkin. For ident's purposes, this
is equivalent to $RCSfile$.
- $Name$
- The symbolic name used to check out the revision, if any.
- $RCSfile$
- The name of the RCS file without a path.
- $Revision$
- The revision number assigned to the revision.
- $Source$
- The full pathname of the RCS file.
- $State$
- The state assigned to the revision with the -s option of
rcs(1) or ci(1).
co(1) represents the following characters in keyword values
by escape sequences to keep keyword strings well-formed.
char escape sequence
tab \t
newline \n
space \040
$ \044
\ \\
Author: Walter F. Tichy.
Manual Page Revision: 5.4; Release Date: 1993/11/09.
Copyright © 1982, 1988, 1989 Walter F. Tichy.
Copyright © 1990, 1992, 1993 Paul Eggert.
ci(1), co(1), rcs(1), rcsdiff(1), rcsintro(1), rcsmerge(1), rlog(1), rcsfile(5)
Walter F. Tichy, RCS--A System for Version Control, Software--Practice &
Experience 15, 7 (July 1985), 637-654.