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/