==========================
Using ``bzr version-info``
==========================

Overview
========

This document describes ways of using ``bzr version-info`` as part of a
build routine to embed version information into a final project.


Python Project
==============

TODO: Figure out how to attach into ``setup.py``


If using a Makefile to build your project, you can generate the version
information file as simply as::

  library/_version.py:
        bzr version-info --format=python > library/_version.py

This generates a file which contains 3 dictionaries:

  `version_info`: A dictionary containing the basic information about the
                  current state.

  revisions: A dictionary listing all of the revisions in the history of
             the tree, along with the commit times and commit message.
             This defaults to being empty unless ``--all`` or
             ``--include-history`` is supplied. This is useful if you
             want to track what bugfixes, etc, might be included in the
             released version. But for many projects it is more
             information than they need.

  `file_revisions`: A dictionary listing the last-modified revision for
                    all files in the project. This can be used similarly
                    to how ``$Id$`` keywords are used in CVS controlled
                    files. The last modified date can be determined by
                    looking in the ``revisions`` map. This is also empty by
                    default, and enabled only by ``--all`` or
                    ``--include-file-revisions``.

Check Clean
===========

Most information about the contents of the project can be cheaply
determined by just reading the revision entry. However, it can be useful
to know if the working tree was completely up-to-date when it was
packaged, or if there was a local modification. By supplying either
``--all`` or ``--check-clean``, ``bzr`` will inspect the working tree, and
set the ``clean`` flag in ``version_info``, as well as set entries in
``file_revisions`` as ``modified`` where appropriate.

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