Re: RCS keyword expansion

From: Alex Riesen <raa.lkml@gmail.com>
Date: Oct 11, 2007, 18:09 UTC
Message-ID: <20071011180958.GA2804@steel.home>
In-Reply-To: <20071011155956.GC11693@cs-wsok.swansea.ac.uk>

Oliver Kullmann, Thu, Oct 11, 2007 17:59:56 +0200:

> Better than just the date, it would be greatest to be able to put also
> the SHA1-ID of the commit into the file, alas this is a bit complicated,

actually, it is quite simple: just (re)generate a file which you can compile and link to your executable. That is how gits version work:

    $ git version
    git version 1.5.3.4.229.ga321c1

this ga321c1 is the commit (no one knows what the "g" stands for, but the rest is plain value of HEAD at the moment of compilation).

Put the generated string in your image in a greppable/identable form and you are set: the commit identifies uniquely the whole build tree (assuming your build tree _can_ be identified. It not given for most commercial projects I am familiar with).