NAME

        aegis - meta-data file format

DESCRIPTION

        The  files  used  by  the  aegis  program all have the same format.  Some of the files used by aegis are
        created and maintained by humans, and some are created an  maintained  by  aegis  itself.   The  various
        manual entries say which is which.

LEXICAL CONSIDERATIONS

        Names  are  any  C  identifier.   Comments are C-style comments (or C++ or shell).  Numbers are decimal,
        octal or hexadecimal, as for C constants.  Whitespace (spaces, tabs and newlines) are ignored except  in
        strings or as they serve to separate tokens.

        Strings  are  C-style  strings,  and  similar  to  C, sequential string constants are silently catenated
        together.

        In addition, there is a style of @string@ which use at-signs (@) for quoting.  Unlike  the  C  style  of
        string,  newlines  are allowed within these strings.  To get an at-sign in such a string, double the at-
        sign.  There is no other escape mechanism available.

GRAMMAR

        The format of all aegis files is described by a yacc (1) grammar.
                %%
                file
                        : field_list
                        ;
        A file contains a field list.
                field_list
                        : /* empty */
                        | field_list field
                        ;
        A field list is zero or more fields.
                field
                        : NAME '=' value ';'
                        ;
        A field is set by giving a name and a value.
                value
                        : NAME
                        | INTEGER
                        | STRING
                        | structure
                        | list
                        ;
        A value may be a member of an enumeration (NAME), or an integer constant, or  a  literal  string.   More
        complex values may be constructed from these simple values.
                structure
                        : '{' field_list '}'
                        ;
        A structure is a grouped list of fields.
                list
                        : '[' list_body ']'
                        ;
                list_body
                        : /* empty */
                        | value_list
                        | value_list ','
                        ;
                value_list
                        : value
                        | value_list ',' value
        A  list  is a sequential list of values separated by commas.  It may be empty, or it may have a trailing
        comma.

SEMANTICS

        The types of the values must match those in the definition of the file.  See the relevant man pages  for
        more information.

        Files  which are rewritten by aegis will lose any comments placed in them.  When time fields are emitted
        by aegis they are usually followed by a human readable date in a comment.

SEE ALSO

        aegis(1)
                a project change supervisor

        aecattr(5)
                change attribute file format

        aecstate(5)
                change state file format

        aedir(5)
                directory structures

        aegstate(5)
                aegis state file

        aepattr(5)
                project attribute file format

        aepconf(5)
                project configuration file format

        aepstate(5)
                project state file format

        aesub(5)
                available command substitutions

        aeuconf(5)
                user configuration file format

        aeustate(5)
                user state 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

        Peter Miller   E-Mail:   millerp@canb.auug.org.au
        /\/\*             WWW:   http://www.canb.auug.org.au/~millerp/

Reference Manual                                      Aegis                                             aegis(5)