Re: Cleaning up CVS tags from code

Nic Ferrier wrote:
> Dalibor Topic <[email protected]> writes:
> 
> 
>>>>>Would you accept a patch that removes those tags ($Id, $Date, etc.) from 
>>>>>the sources?
>>>>
>>>>I see no objection but I prefer to be seconded before applying it (so
>>>>maybe wait an other '+1' before doing it ;))
>>>
>>>
>>>No, don't do that please. We use them to keep track of stuff.
>>
>>Thanks for the quick reply.
>>
>>Could you elaborate on that? I've never used those tags myself, so I'm 
>>wondering what further information they could provide that CVS doesn't.
> 
> 
> It just means it's recorded in the file so if we move the file from
> that CVS to another one it keeps at least that information.

Not in my experience. Consider the $Id string in
http://savannah.gnu.org/cgi-bin/viewcvs/classpathx/jaxp/source/gnu/xml/util/XMLWriter.java?rev=1.8&content-type=text/vnd.viewcvs-markup
vs. the one in
http://www.kaffe.org/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/kaffe/libraries/javalib/gnu/xml/util/XMLWriter.java?rev=1.1&content-type=text/vnd.viewcvs-markup

it's completely different. the author, the date. just the file name is 
the same. That's because the contents of those tags are automatically 
insterted by RCS/CVS upon checkin, AFAIK. So when you move the file from 
  one CVS to another, as in 'check it in', the old $Id tag gets 
overwritten by a new one, causing a frivolous difference in files.

But I may be ignorant of other possibilities to move files between CVS 
archives, so it would be nice if you could elaborate some more on that one.

> I'm suprised you haven't used the tags. They're quite common.

They seem to be purged from projects as soon as the projects become 
important enough that people want to use those projects as 'upstream' 
providers of sources. See discussions why those tags were purged from 
GCC's Ada sources:

http://gcc.gnu.org/ml/gcc/2002-03/msg00557.html

here's a few more quotes from gcc developers:
http://gcc.gnu.org/ml/gcc-patches/1999-08n/msg00760.html
http://gcc.gnu.org/ml/gcc/2002-03/msg00560.html

See also this thread on lack of use of RCS tags in GNU emacs:
http://mail.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-gnu-emacs/2001-05/msg00042.html

with GNU emacs developers' comments on evilness of tags:

http://mail.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-gnu-emacs/2001-05/msg00088.html
http://mail.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-gnu-emacs/2001-05/msg00095.html
http://mail.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-gnu-emacs/2001-05/msg00062.html

Just to show that I'm not making the problems up ;)

So I'm still interested in what RCS tags provide for you that cvs log 
doesn't, or the cvsweb interface.

cheers,
dalibor topic