Ubuntu Manpage: aedist - remotely distribute a change

NAME

        aedist - remotely distribute a change

SYNOPSIS

        aedist -Send [ option...  ]
        aedist -Receive [ option...  ]
        aedist -REPlay [ option...  ] -f URL
        aedist -MIssing [ option...  ] -f URL
        aedist -PENding [ option...  ] -f URL
        aedist -Inventory [ option...  ]
        aedist -ARChive [ option...  ]
        aedist -List [ option...  ]
        aedist -Help
        aedist -VERSion

DESCRIPTION

        The  aedist  command  is  used  to send and receive change sets to facilitate geographically distributed
        development.  The expected transport mechanism is e-mail, however other mechanisms are equally possible.

        The basic function is to reproduce a change, so a command like
                aedist -send | aedist -receive
        may be used to clone a change, though less  efficiently  than  aeclone(1).   The  file  format  used  is
        designed to withstand mail servers, so activities such as
                aedist -send | e-mail | aedist -receive
        (where e-mail represents sending, transporting and receiving your e-mail) will reproduce the change on a
        remote system.  With suitable tools (such as PGP) is it possible to
                aedist -send | encrypt | e-mail | decrypt | aedist -receive
        The mechanism is also designed to allow web-based distribution such as
                aedist -send | web-server → web-browser | aedist -receive
        by the use of appropriate CGI scripts and mailcap entries.

        It  is  possible  to support both a “push” model and a “pull” model using this command.  For suggestions
        and ideas for various ways to do this, see the Aegis Users Guide.

SEND

The send variant takes a specified change, or baseline, and constructs a distribution package containing
all of the change attributes and source file attributes and source file contents. The result is
compressed, and encoded into a text format which can be sent as e-mail without being corrupted by the
mail transfer agents along the way.

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. Implies the
-Entire_Source option, unless over-ridden.

-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 aedist(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.

More compression algorithms may be added in the future.

-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.

-Content_Transfer_Encoding name
This option may be used to specify the content transfer encoding to be used. It may take one of
the following values:

None No content transfer encoding is to be performed.

Base64 The MIME base 64 encoding is to be used. This is the default.

Quoted_Printable
The MIME quoted printable encoding is to be used.

Unix_to_Unix_encode
The ancient unix-to-unix encoding is to be used.

These encodings may be abbreviated in the same way as comment line options.

-Ascii_Armor
This means the same as the “-cte=base64” option above.

-No_Ascii_Armor
This means the same as the “-cte=none” option above.

-DELta number
This option may be used to specify a particular delta in the project's history to copy the file
from, rather than the most current version. If the delta has been given a name (see aedn(1) for
how) you may use a delta name instead of a delta number. It is an error if the delta specified
does not exist. Delta numbers start from 1 and increase; delta 0 is a special case meaning
“when the branch started”.

-DELta_Date string
This option may be used to specify a particular date and time in the project's history to copy
the file from, rather than the most current version. It is an error if the string specified
cannot be interpreted as a valid date and time. Quote the string if you need to use spaces.

-DELta_From_Change number
This option may be used to specify a particular project delta from its change number.

-Description_Header
This option may be used to add an RFC 822 style header to the change description being sent,
with a From and Date line. This is the default.

-No_Description_Header
This option suppresses the description header.

-Entire_Source
This option may be used to send the entire source of the project, as well as the change source
files.

-Ignore_UUID
This option may be used to ignore the UUID, if present, of the outgoing change set.

-No_Ignore_UUID
This option forces the aedist command to use the outgoing change set's UUID information. This
is the default (unless the compatibility option will to avoid attributes).

-Mime_Headers
This option may be use to force the presence of mime headers in the output, in circumstances
they would usually be absent.

-No_Mime_Headers
This option may be use to force the absence of mime headers in the output, in circumstances
where they would usually be present.

-Partial_Source
This option may be used to send only source files of a change. This is the default, except for
the -BaseLine option.

-Output filename
This option may be used to specify the output file. The output is sent to the standard output
by default.

-PATch This option is deprecated. Please use the -COMPATibility option instead.

-No_PATch
This option is deprecated. Please use the -COMPATibility=4.6 option instead.

-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.

-Signed_Off_By
This option may be used to have a Signed-off-by: line appended to the change set description.

-No_Signed_Off_By
This option may be used to prevent a Signed-off-by: line from being appended to the change set
description.

RECEIVE

        The receive variant takes a change package created by the send variant and creates an Aegis change  (see
        aenc(1))  to  implement the change within.  Files are added to the change (see aerm(1), aecp(1), aenf(1)
        and aent(1)) and then the file contents are unpackaged into the development directory.

        The change is then built (see aeb(1)), differenced (see aed(1)), and tested (see  aet(1)).   If  all  of
        this  is  successful,  development  of the change is ended (see aed(1)).  The automatic process stops at
        this point, so that a local reviewer can confirm that the change is desired.

   Notification
        The aedist 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
                This option may be used to specify a particular delta in the project's history to copy the  file
                from, just as for the aecp(1) command.  You may also use a delta name instead of a 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.

        -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.)

        -PATch  This  option  may be used to apply patches from the input, if available.  This generally results
                in fewer merge problems, but it requires the two repositories to be well synchronized.  This  is
                the default.

        -No_PATch
                This option may be used to ignore patches in the input, if any are present.

        -Ignore_UUID
                This option may be used to ignore the UUID, if present, of the incoming change set.

        -No_Ignore_UUID
                This option force the aedist command to use the change set's UUID.  This is the default.

        -Project name
                This  option  may  be  used  to set the project name.  If not specified, the project name in the
                input package will be used, rather than the usual project name defaulting mechanism.

        -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
        Receiving changes by e-mail, and automatically committing them to the baseline  without  checking  them,
        would be a recipe for disaster.  A number of safeguards are provided:

        • The  format  of  the  package  is  confirmed  to  be  correct,  and  the package verified for internal
          consistency, before it is unpacked and acted upon.

        • The automatic portion of the process stops when development ends.  This ensures that a local  reviewer
          validates the change before it is committed, preventing accidental or malicious damage.

        • If  the  change  seeks  to update the project config file, the automatic process terminates before the
          build or difference occurs.  This is because this file could contain trojans for these operations,  so
          a human must examine the file before the change proceeds any further.

        • There  is  a  potential_trojan_horse  =  [  string ]; field in the projectconfig file.  Nominate build
          configuration files, shell scripts, code generators, etc here to specify  files  in  addition  to  the
          project configuration file which should cause the automatic processing to halt.

        • The  use  of  e-mail  authentication  and  encryption  systems,  such  as PGP and GPG, are encouraged.
          However, it is expected that this processing will  occur  after  aedist  --send  has  constructed  the
          package  and  before aedist --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  aedist
          command.  It is expected that the aedist 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.

   Duplicate Storms
        In  a distributed development environment, it is common for change sets to eventually be propagated back
        to the originator.  There are situations (particularly in some star topologies) where several copies  of
        the package will return to the originator.

        If  these  change  sets are not detected at the review stage, and are propagated out yet again, there is
        the possibility of an exponential explosion of redundant packages being distributed again and again.

        To combat this, changes are checked after the files are unpacked, but before and build or difference  or
        test  is  performed.   The  “aecpu  --unchanged”  command  is  used  to exclude all files that the local
        repository already has in the desired form.  If no change files remain after this, the change is dropped
        entirely (see aedbu(1) and aencu(1)).

REPLAY

If you are tracking a remote site which makes a project available via the aeget(1) web interface, you
can automatically synchronize with the remote site using the aedist -replay command.

For example, Aegis developers can track the master project with a command of the form:
aedist -p aegis.4.24.3 --replay -f aegis.sourceforge.net
This command is internally rewritten as
aedist --replay -p aegis.4.24.3 -f \
http://aegis.sf.net/cgi-bin/aeget/aegis.4.24.3/?inventory
If your cgi-bin directory is somewhere else, you will need to use the long form.

The change set inventory page is human readable if you want to see what it contains. The links on this
page provide all the information necessary to download any of the change sets listed.

This command reads the list of change set UUIDs from the remote repository, and compares it with the
list of change set UUIDs in the local repository, and fetches any that are not present locally.

Each of the change sets required are downloaded and unpacked by issuing a command such as
aedist -rec -f \
http://aegis.sf.net/cgi-bin/aeget/aegis.4.19.C010/?aedist
If this completes successfully (and it is possible it won't, either because of trojan warnings, or some
conflict between local changes and the incoming remote changes), and your project has its develop_end_‐
action set to goto_awaiting_integration, the change will be integrated using a command such as:
aeintegratq -p aegis.4.24.3 -c 10
and then starts over again for the next missing change set.

This command will attempt to use the same change number as in the remote repository, if it is available.

Options
The following options are understood by this variant:

-EXclude_UUID UUID
This option may be used to exclude some change sets from being downloaded and unpacked. This
option may be used more than once.

-No_EXclude_UUID UUID
This option may be used to explicitly list change sets to be downloaded and unpacked, to the
exclusion of all others. This option may be used more than once.

-EXclude_VERsion pattern
This option may be used to explicitly exclude some change set from being downloaded and
unpacked. The pattern is matched against the version as displayed in the inventory. This
option may be used more than once.

-INclude_VERsion pattern
This option may be used to explicitly list change sets to be downloaded and unpacked, to the
exclusion of all others. The pattern is matched against the version as displayed in the
inventory. This option may be used more than once.

-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.)

-MAXimum
This option may be used to download as many changes as possible by excluding the maximum number
of local changes sets, by excluding both local change sets UUIDs (the default) but also
excluding UUIDs mentioned in change "original-uuid" attributes.

-PErsevere
This option may be used to specify that all relevant change sets should be downloaded, even if
some fail. Defaults to the user's persevere_preference if not specified, see aeuconf(5) for
more information.

-No_PErsevere
This option may be used to specify that the downloading of change sets should stop after the
first failure. Defaults to the user's persevere_preference if not specified, see aeuconf(5) for
more information.

-Trojan This option is passed to any aedist(1) commands spawned by this command.

-No_Trojan
This option is passed to any aedist(1) commands spawned by this command.

-Not_Compatibility
This option must be used when using aedist --replay against a file based inventory.

MISSING

If you want to see the change sets that aedist -replay may download before it goes ahead and does it,
you can use a command such as:
aedist --missing -f aegis.sf.net
In particular, this allows you to select appropriate UUIDs for the aedist -replay -exclude or -no-
exclude options.

Options
The following options are understood by this variant:

-EXclude_UUID UUID
This option may be used to exclude some change sets from being listed. This option may be used
more than once.

-No_EXclude_UUID UUID
This option may be used to explicitly list change sets to be listed, to the exclusion of all
others. This option may be used more than once.

-EXclude_VERsion pattern
This option may be used to explicitly exclude some change set from being listed. The pattern is
matched against the version as displayed in the inventory. This option may be used more than
once.

-INclude_Version pattern
This option may be used to explicitly list change sets to be listed, to the exclusion of all
others. The pattern is matched against the version as displayed in the inventory. This option
may be used more than once.

PENDING

        If  you  want  to see the change sets that a remote repository is missing with respect to yours, you can
        use a command such as:
                aedist --pending -f aegis.sf.net

   Options
        The following options are understood by this variant: -EXclude_UUID UUID This  option  may  be  used  to
        exclude some local change sets from being listed.  This option may be used more than once.

        -No_EXclude_UUID UUID
                This  option  may be used to explicitly list local change sets to be listed, to the exclusion of
                all others.  This option may be used more than once.

        -EXclude_VERsion pattern
                This option may be used to explicitly exclude some local change  set  from  being  listed.   The
                pattern  is  matched against the version as displayed in the inventory.  This option may be used
                more than once.

        -INclude_VERsion pattern
                This option may be used to explicitly list local change sets to be listed, to the  exclusion  of
                all  others.   The  pattern  is matched against the version as displayed in the inventory.  This
                option may be used more than once.

INVENTORY

The inventory variant can be used as an alternative to aeget to generate the inventory used by the
replay, missing and pending variants. The idea is to run the inventory variant on the development
machine and then upload its output to the public repository. In order to generate the inventory you can
use a command such as:
aedist --inventory -proj project > inventory.html

Options
The following options are understood by this variant:

-AEGET This option is used by aeget to require the original aeget(1) behavior.

-All This option is used to require the inclusion of the UUIDs contained in the original-UUID
attribute of each change.

-EXclude_Version pattern
This option may be used to explicitly exclude some change set to be added to the inventory file.
The pattern is matched against the version as displayed in the inventory. This option may be
used more than once.

-INclude_Version pattern
This option may be used to explicitly list change sets to be added to the the inventory file, to
the exclusion of all others. The pattern is matched against the version as displayed in the
inventory. This option may be used more than once.

-path_prefix_add
This option is used to add a path prefix to the URLs generated in the inventory.

LIST

        The list variant can be used to list the contents of a package without actually unpacking it first.  The
        output is reminiscent of the aegis -list change-details output.

   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
                This option may be used to obtain more information about how to use the aedist program.

        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 aedist are long, this means
        ignoring the extra leading '-'.  The "--option=value" convention is also understood.

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 aedist is unavailable.

        • The source files and other information is stored as a cpio(1) archive.

        • The archive is compressed using the bzip2(1) format.  Typically primary source files are  ASCII  text,
          resulting in significant compression.

        • The  compressed result is encoded using the MIME base64 encoding.  This makes the result approximately
          33% larger than the compressed binary would be, but still smaller than the primary sources.

        The cpio archive is used to store

        etc/project-name
                This contains the project name to apply the package to,  unless  over-ridden  by  the  --project
                command line option.

        etc/change-number
                This  contains  the  change number of the original change, this may be preserved if available on
                the target repository unless over-ridden by the --change command line option.

        etc/change-set
                This contains the change attributes and the list of source  files  and  usages,  in  aecstate(5)
                format.

        patch/filename
                Each  modified  or renamed file in the package (named in etc/change-set) appears under the patch
                directory.  The file may be empty unless some edits was done on the source repository.

        src/filename
                Each source file in the package (named in etc/change-set) appears under the src/ directory.

        Extra files, or files out of order, are a fatal error.

EXIT STATUS

        The aedist command will exit with a status of 1 on any error.  The aedist 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

        aedist 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 aedist program comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details  use  the  'aedist  -VERSion  License'
        command.   This  is  free  software and you are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions; for
        details use the 'aedist -VERSion License' command.

AUTHOR

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

CREDITS

        This program evolved through discussion with a number of people.  If I have forgotten anyone, it  wasn't
        intentional.
        Ralf Fassel       <ralf@akutech.de>              Catching trojan horses.
        Walter Franzini   <walter.franzini@sys-net.it>   coding -replay download
        Florian Xhumari   <Florian.Xhumari@inria.fr>     On the need for pull interfaces.
        Graham Wheeler    <gram@cdsec.com>               HTTP pull interfacing.

Reference Manual                                      Aegis                                            aedist(1)

NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

SEND

RECEIVE

REPLAY

MISSING

PENDING

INVENTORY

ARCHIVE

LIST

OPTIONS

FILE FORMAT

EXIT STATUS

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

COPYRIGHT

AUTHOR

CREDITS