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sccschangeset(5) File Formats sccschangeset(5)

NAME

sccschangeset - format of an SCCS changeset file

DESCRIPTION

An SCCS changeset file is an ASCII file consisting of a list of entries that describe the state of a project set under control of SCCSv6 or later.

The changeset file itself is under control of SCCS. SCCS works directly on the s.changeset file. There is no need to check out the related file content, as the deltas can be constructed without explicitly running the diff(1) program; this results in a noticeable performance win.

Parts of the information are recorded inside the changeset file content and other information is recorded within the SCCS meta data of the changeset file.

Conventions

The following terms are used in this documentation:

A set of one or more files under control of SCCS that form a project.
A directory that is above all files from the related project set. This directory holds a directory .sccs with project set related meta data such as the changeset file and typically the SCCS history files related to the project.
A single set of changes into the repository for a project set.
The person who formed a commit set.
The email address used to identify a committer. Since the email address is valid for a whole commit set, it is recorded in the meta data of the related delta to the changeset file.

File Format

Each commit set adds a number of entries to the beginning of the changeset file, one entry for every file that was modified by this commit set.

Each entry in the changeset file describes the new state of a single file after it was modified, renamed, removed or restored in a related commit set.

Each entry in the changeset file ends in a newline character. If the file name from the related file contains a newline character, additional newlines may be in the related entry.

Each entry in the changeset file consists of five fields that are specific to a single file from the changeset. The entries are separated by a vertical bar character (ASCII 0x7C). The vertical bar character may appear in the path name.

The following fields appear in the order of the following list:


A unified pseudo random number that is used to help to identify single files across renames during the lifetime of the sccs history. The unified random number is unique to any file from the project set. See sccsfile(5) for a detailed description of the unified pseudo random number.

The minimal length for the pseudo random number is thirteen hexadecimal characters. If the number could be represented with less digits, it is left filled with zeroes. This allows one to have a unique length for this number until Mar 31 10:55:07 2155 GMT.

The file specific SID that was used for the file mentioned in that line of the changeset.
The SID specific checksum for the related file. See sccsfile(5) for a detailed description of the SID specific checksums for a file.
A decimal number representing the number of bytes in the path name not including the final newline character used to terminate the whole entry.
The path name of the related file after the commit has been applied. The path name holds a relative path as seen from the project set home directory. As the path name is the last member in the lines of a changeset file, it may contain the vertical bar character (ASCII 0x7C).

A typical entry in the changeset file may look like:


0e31666e43286|1.3|45206|15|some/dir/file.c

FILES

The sccs init command creates an initial framework of directories and files that allow to maintain a set of files in project mode. The following directory structure is created:

The location of SCCS files in case that SCCS is in project mode.
The location of the SCCS off-tree shadow directory tree that holds the history files for all files under control of SCCS when in project mode.
The location of the history files from deleted files that have been in the repository.
The project specific changeset file is in the directory .sccs in the project set home directory. This is the central database that allows one to retrieve the relation between project versions and file specific versions. Only the s.changeset file is present, a related g-file does not exist.

SEE ALSO

sccs(1), sccs-admin(1), sccs-cdc(1), sccs-comb(1), sccs-cvt(1), sccs-delta(1), sccs-get(1), sccs-help(1), sccs-log(1), sccs-prs(1), sccs-prt(1), sccs-rmdel(1), sccs-sact(1), sccs-sccsdiff(1), sccs-unget(1), sccs-val(1), bdiff(1), diff(1), what(1), sccsfile(5).

BUGS

None currently known.

Mail bugs and suggestions to schilytools@mlists.in-berlin.de or open a ticket at https://codeberg.org/schilytools/schilytools/issues.

The mailing list archive may be found at:

https://mlists.in-berlin.de/mailman/listinfo/schilytools-mlists.in-berlin.de.
2022/10/06 Joerg Schilling