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NAME

       aetar - remotely distribute a change via tar

SYNOPSIS

       aetar -Send [ option...  ]
       aetar -Receive [ option...  ]
       aetar -List [ option...  ]
       aetar -Help
       aetar -VERSion

DESCRIPTION

       The aetar command is used to send and receive change sets via tar(1) to
       facilitate geographically distributed development.

       The basic function is to reproduce a change, so a command like
              aetar -send | aetar -receive
       may be used to clone a change, though less efficiently than aeclone(1).
       The file format used is an ordinary gzip(1) compressed tar(1) archive.

SEND

       The send variant takes a specified change, or baseline, and constructs
       a distribution package containing all of the source file contents.  No
       change meta-data is included.

       It is not necessary for the recipient to have the aetar(1) command.  It
       is possible to use the regular tar xzf command to extract the files
       from the archive.

   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.

       -Add_Path_Prefix string
               This option may be used to specify a path prefix to be added to
               every filename in the archive.  This means that when the
               archive is unpacked, it will all be placed in the one
               directory.

       -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 aetar(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.

       -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.

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

       -Partial_Source
               This option may be used to send only source files of a change.

       -Include_Build
               This option may be used to send also build files.

       -Not_Include_Build
               This option may be used to send only source (source, test,
               config but not build) files.  This is the default.

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

       -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.

RECEIVE

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

       It is not necessary for the sender to have the aetar(1) command.  It is
       possible to use the regular tar czf command to create the the tarball.
       You may want to use the tardy(1) command to manipulate the filenames
       before extraction.

   File Names
       It is common for tar files generated to distribute open source projects
       to contain a path prefix.

       -Remove_Path_Prefix string
               This option may be used to explicitly specify path prefixes to
               be removed, if present.  It may be specified more than once.

       -Remove_Path_Prefix number
               Strip the smallest prefix containing num leading slashes from
               each file name found in the patch file.  A sequence of one or
               more adjacent slashes is counted as a single slash.

       If you have a complex project directory structure, from time to time
       people may send you tarballs relative to a sub-directory, rather than
       relative to the project root.

       -Add_Path_Prefix string
               This option may be used to specify the path of a project sub-
               directory in which to apply the tarball.

   Notification
       The aetar 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.

       -EXCLude
               This option may be used to exclude certain files in the tarball
               from consideration.

               You can also add more exclusions using the project_specific
               field of the project configuration, using the aetar:exclude
               attribute listing file names to exclude separated by spaces.

       -Exclude_Auto_Tools
               This option may be used to exclude files common to tarballs of
               open source projects which used GNU Autoconf or GNU Automake.
               This is triggered by the presence of configure.ac, configure.in
               or Makefile.am files.  This only works for simple projects,
               more complex projects will need to use the project exclude
               attributes.

               You can set this automatically using the boolean aetar:exclude-
               auto-tools attribute in the project_specific field of the
               project configuration file.

       -Exclude_CVS
               This option may be used to exclude files common to CVS
               repositories, which implement the repository functions, rather
               than contain source code.  It will also look inside .cvsignore
               files for additional files to ignore.

               You can set this automatically using the boolean aetar:exclude-
               cvs attribute in the project_specific field of the project
               configuration file.

       -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.)

       -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.

       -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
       Downloading a tarball and automatically committing it to the baseline
       without checking it would be a recipe for disaster.  A number of
       safeguards are provided:

       · The file sare unpacked into a new change.  You need to edit the
         change description.  You need to uncopy unchanged files.  You need to
         difference the change.  You need to build and test the change.  This
         ensures that a local reviewer validates the change before it is
         committed, preventing accidental or malicious damage.

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

LIST

       The list variant can be used to list the contents of a tarball without
       actually unpacking it first.

   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 aetar 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
       aetar 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 aetar is unavailable.

       · The source files and other information is stored as a normal Unix
         tar(1) archive.

       · On sending, the tarball is compressed using the GNU gzip format.
         Typically primary source files are ASCII text, resulting in
         significant compression.  (This is optional.)
         On receiving, if the tarball is compressed it will be automagically
         uncompressed, detection is automatic, you do not need to do this
         yourself.

EXIT STATUS

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

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

AUTHOR

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