https://invisible-island.net/rcs-blame/
blame - annotate RCS files
blame [options] file ...
blame outputs an annotated revision from each RCS file. An annotated
RCS file describes the revision and date in which each line was added
to the file, and the author of each line.
Pathnames matching an RCS suffix denote RCS files; all others denote
working files. Names are paired as explained in ci(1).
A revision is selected by options for revision or branch number,
checkin date/time, author, or state. When the selection options are
applied in combination, blame retrieves the latest revision that satis-
fies all of them. If none of the selection options is specified, blame
retrieves the latest revision on the default branch (normally the
trunk, see the -b option of rcs(1)). The options -d (--date), -s
(--state), and -w (--author) retrieve from a single branch, the se-
lected branch, which is specified by -r (--revision), or the default
branch.
blame always performs keyword substitution (see KEYWORD SUBSTITUTION in
co(1)).
Strings of the form $keyword$ and $keyword:...$ embedded in the text
are replaced with strings of the form $keyword:value$ as described in
co(1).
-r, --revision[=rev]
Retrieves the latest revision whose number is less than or equal
to rev. If rev indicates a branch rather than a revision, the
latest revision on that branch is retrieved. If rev is omitted,
the latest revision on the default branch (see the -b option of
rcs(1)) is annotated. If rev is $, blame determines the revi-
sion number from keyword values in the working file. Otherwise,
a revision is composed of one or more numeric or symbolic fields
separated by periods. If rev begins with a period, then the de-
fault branch (normally the trunk) is prepended to it. If rev is
a branch number followed by a period, then the latest revision
on that branch is used. The numeric equivalent of a symbolic
field is specified with the -n option of the commands ci(1) and
rcs(1).
-kkv, --expand=kv
Generate keyword strings using the default form, e.g. $Revision:
1.6 $ for the Revision keyword. This is the default.
-kkvl, --expand=kvl
Like -kkv, except that a locker's name is inserted into the
value of the Header, Id, and Locker keyword strings if the given
revision is currently locked.
-kk, --expand=k
Generate only keyword names in keyword strings; omit their val-
ues. See KEYWORD SUBSTITUTION in co(1). For example, for the
Revision keyword, generate the string $Revision$ instead of $Re-
vision: 1.6 $. Log messages are inserted after $Log$ keywords
even if this option is specified.
-ko, --expand=o
Generate the old keyword string, present in the working file
just before it was checked in. For example, for the Revision
keyword, generate the string $Revision: 1.1 $ instead of $Revi-
sion: 1.6 $ if that is how the string appeared when the file was
checked in.
-kb, --expand=b
Generate a binary image of the old keyword string. This acts
like -ko, except it performs all working file input and output
in binary mode. This makes little difference on Posix and Unix
hosts.
-kv, --expand=v
Generate only keyword values for keyword strings. For example,
for the Revision keyword, generate the string 1.6 instead of
$Revision: 1.6 $.
-d, --date=date
Retrieves the latest revision on the selected branch whose
checkin date/time is less than or equal to date. The date and
time can be given in free format. The time zone LT stands for
local time; other common time zone names are understood. For
example, the following dates are equivalent if local time is
January 11, 1990, 8pm Pacific Standard Time, eight hours west of
Coordinated Universal Time (UTC):
8:00 pm lt
4:00 AM, Jan. 12, 1990 default is UTC
1990-01-12 04:00:00+00 ISO 8601 (UTC)
1990-01-11 20:00:00-08 ISO 8601 (local time)
1990/01/12 04:00:00 traditional RCS format
Thu Jan 11 20:00:00 1990 LT output of ctime(3) + LT
Thu Jan 11 20:00:00 PST 1990 output of date(1)
Fri Jan 12 04:00:00 GMT 1990
Thu, 11 Jan 1990 20:00:00 -0800 Internet RFC 822
12-January-1990, 04:00 WET
Most fields in the date and time can be defaulted. The default
time zone is normally UTC, but this can be overridden by the -z
option. The other defaults are determined in the order year,
month, day, hour, minute, and second (most to least signifi-
cant). At least one of these fields must be provided. For
omitted fields that are of higher significance than the highest
provided field, the time zone's current values are assumed. For
all other omitted fields, the lowest possible values are as-
sumed. For example, without -z, the date 20, 10:30 defaults to
10:30:00 UTC of the 20th of the UTC time zone's current month
and year. The date/time must be quoted if it contains spaces.
-f, --format-date=format
Format the date using format (passed to strftime). The default
value is "%d-%b-%y".
-s, --state=state
Retrieves the latest revision on the selected branch whose state
is set to state.
-w, --login[=login]
Retrieves the latest revision on the selected branch which was
checked in by the user with login name login. If the argument
login is omitted, the caller's login is assumed.
-V, --version[=ver]
If no argument is supplied, print blame's version number, and
the version of RCS it emulates by default. Otherwise emulate
the specified version. See co(1) for details.
-x, --suffixes=suffixes
Use suffixes to characterize RCS files. See ci(1) for details.
-z, --zone=zone
Specifies the date output format in keyword substitution, and
specifies the default time zone for date in the -ddate option.
The zone should be empty, a numeric UTC offset, or the special
string LT for local time. The default is an empty zone, which
uses the traditional RCS format of UTC without any time zone in-
dication and with slashes separating the parts of the date; oth-
erwise, times are output in ISO 8601 format with time zone indi-
cation. For example, if local time is January 11, 1990, 8pm Pa-
cific Standard Time, eight hours west of UTC, then the time is
output as follows:
option time output
-z 1990/01/12 04:00:00 (default)
-zLT 1990-01-11 20:00:00-08
-z+05:30 1990-01-12 09:30:00+05:30
The working pathname and a separator line is written to the diagnostic
output. The exit status is zero if and only if all operations were
successful.
RCSINIT
options prepended to the argument list, separated by spaces.
See ci(1) for details.
RCS_DIR
if defined, specifies the directory in which rcs archive files
are found. Normally files are found in "./RCS".
blame never changes an RCS or working file. It uses the effective user
for all accesses, and it does not even read the working file unless a
revision number of $ is specified.
One day, there will be a whole bunch of useful examples here.
Michael Chapman <foonly@users.sourceforge.net>
Thomas E. Dickey <dickey@invisible-island.net>
Portions of this manual page are from ci(1) and co(1) by Walter F.
Tichy and Paul Eggert.
rcsintro(1), ci(1), co(1), ctime(3), date(1), rcs(1), rcsfile(5),
checkout(1), checkin(1)
1.4 2025/01/02 BLAME(1)