Get revision number of a tagged file in WinCvs

Question

This seems like it should be so simple, but I can't find any solution that appears to work...

I need a CVS command that given the name of a tag that you have applied to a file, it will give you the revision number.

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CVS Tree structure:

(filename)
    |
    +--> 1.1-----(branch)
          |         |
          |      1.1.1.1---(tag1)
          |         |
          |      1.1.1.2---(tag2)
          |         |
          |      1.1.1.3---(tag3)
          |         |
          |         :
         1.2
          |
          |
          :

For example: Using a CVS command, given the tag name "tag2", how can I get CVS to give me the revision number "1.1.1.2"?

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The closest thing I can find is using the log command with the -Q flag, but that still gives me much more information than I need.

ex: cvs -Q log -h filename

Passing the tagname to the log command seems to have no effect.

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CVS Version information:

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My current solution is to use a perl script to parse the output from the log command but there has to be a simpler way...

Animalize

Answer 1

Passing a tag name (with a -r option) to the log command does have an effect, just not a particularly useful one and it's effect is hidden by "-h".

Usually the easiest way to get a revision number for your VERSION file (the normal use-case for this) is to include a keyword in it; ie:

# Thu 21 May 08:40:59 BST 2015
THISREV="$Revision$"

Note: to get a repository version number this VERSION file must be committed every time you make a commit to the repo.

If you need a revision for a specific file then you're basically falling back on scripting from the "symbolic names" part of the log. So for r-1-0-0 you do this:

cvs -Q log -h VERSION | awk '/^\tr-1-0-0:/ {print $NF;}'

There's no direct equivalent of the git describe command.

Frodine

Unfortunately I am not the one creating the files that are going into the repository so I have no way of enforcing that a version line be added within each file. Right now I am using a Perl script to parse the log command output, but I was just really hoping there was a faster easier way. – Animalize

Although you didn't fully answer my question you did come up with a solution so I have awarded the bounty to you. For now I will stick to using a Perl script since your suggestion isn't possible for me. – Animalize

I've accepted this answer because the awk solution does work for me on Linux and its highly unlikely that this will get any more responses. I would like a solution that works on windows though. – Animalize

The git-bash that's installed as a standard part of the plain git tools comes with a compile of gawk as should all the msys compilations. The mawk.exe program has been available as a native win32 program for many years. Then of course there's the cygwin stuff, which IMO would be serious overkill (and complicated) for "just an awk command". – Frodine