NAME

        aecattr - aegis change attributes file

DESCRIPTION

        A change attributes file is used to describe the modifiable portion of a change.

CONTENTS

        A change attributes file contains the following fields:

        description = string;
                This field contains a detailed description of the change.

        brief_description = string;
                This field contains a brief description of the change.

        cause = ( ... );
                This field describes the cause which motivated the change.

                external_bug
                        The  change  was  created in response to a bug report from outside the development team.
                        This repairs existing functionality.

                external_enhancement
                        The change  was  created  in  response  to  an  enhancement  request  from  outside  the
                        development team.  This adds new functionality.

                external_improvement
                        The  change  was  created  in  response  to  an  improvement  request  from  outside the
                        development team.  This improves existing functionality.

                internal_bug
                        The change was created in response to a bug report from  inside  the  development  team.
                        This repairs existing functionality.

                internal_enhancement
                        The change was created in response to an enhancement request from inside the development
                        team.  This adds new functionality.

                internal_improvement
                        The change was created in response to an improvement request from inside the development
                        team.  This improves existing functionality.

                chain
                        This  cause  is  where  you  have  a  fix to fix a fix; tracking these is an interesting
                        quality metric.

        test_exempt = boolean;
                This field is true if it is not necessary to test the change.  It is, in general,  desirable  to
                test  all  changes,  whether  new  functionality  or  a  bug  fix.   This is, however, a project
                management issue.

        test_baseline_exempt = boolean;
                This field is true if it is not necessary to test the change against the baseline before  it  is
                changed.   The  test of the baseline is required to fail; this is to establish that the test has
                isolated the bug, and that the change has fixed that isolated bug.

        regression_test_exempt = boolean;
                This field is true if it is not necessary to perform a full regression test on the  change.   If
                absent, defaults to true for all causes except improvements.

        architecture = [ string ];
                This  field  is  a  list  of  names of system and machine architectures on which the change must
                successfully build and test.

        copyright_years = [ integer ];
                This field details the years in which the change was worked on.  This field is present in trunk,
                branch and leaf nodes.

                As a change is edited, years in which  the  change  was  worked  on  accumulate  in  this  field
                automatically.   Branches accumulate years as integrations occur.  You may need to manually edit
                this, though it should be rare.

        version_previous = string;
                This field records the "previous" version, mostly to simplify  patch  generation.   It  is  only
                meaningful  for  trunks  and  branches.   It  is  set  automatically when a branch is started or
                integrated.

        attribute = [ { ... } ];
                This is a list of (name,value) pairs, defining user specified attributes.

                name = string;
                        The name of the attribute.  By convention, names which start with an  upper-case  letter
                        will appear in listings, and lower-case will not.  Attribute names are case-insensitive.

                value = string;
                        The value of the attribute.

                Arguably,  most  change attributes which may be altered by the user (and some that can't) should
                be of this form.  Due to an accident of history, this is not the case.

SEE ALSO

        aenc(1) create a new change

        aeca(1) modify the attributes of a change

        aegis(5)
                aegis file format syntax

        aecstate(5)
                change state file format

        aepattr(5)
                project attributes 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                                           aecattr(5)