ChangeLog Task

CvsChangeLog

Description

Generates an XML-formatted report file of the change logs recorded in a CVS repository.

Important: This task needs cvs on the path. If it isn't, you will get an error (such as error=2 on Windows). If <cvs> doesn't work, try to execute cvs.exe from the command line in the target directory in which you are working. Also note that this task assumes that the cvs executable is compatible with the Unix version, this is not completely true for certain other CVS clients—like CVSNT for example—and some operation may fail when using such an incompatible client.

Parameters

Attribute	Description	Required
Attributes from parent `<cvs>` task which are meaningful here Since Apache Ant 1.6.1
cvsRoot	the `CVSROOT` variable.	No
cvsRsh	the `CVS_RSH` variable.	No
package	the package/module to check out. Note: multiple attributes can be split using spaces. Use a nested `<module>` element if you want to specify a module with spaces in its name.	No
port	Port used by CVS to communicate with the server.	No; defaults to 2401
passfile	Password file to read passwords from.	No; defaults to ~/.cvspass
failonerror	Stop the build process if the command exits with a return code other than 0	No; defaults to false
tag	query the changelog for a specific branch.	No
Specific attributes
dir	The directory from which to run the `cvs log` command.	No; defaults to ${basedir}
destfile	The file in which to write the change log report.	Yes
usersfile	Property file that contains name-value pairs mapping user IDs and names that should be used in the report in place of the user ID.	No
daysinpast	Sets the number of days into the past for which the change log information should be retrieved.	No
start	The earliest date from which change logs are to be included in the report.	No
end	The latest date to which change logs are to be included in the report.	No
remote	If set to true, works against the repository (using `cvs rlog`) without a working copy. Since Ant 1.8.0	No; default is false
startTag	The start of a tag range. If `endTag` is also specified, they must both be on the same branch. If `endTag` is not specified, the end of the range will be the latest on the same branch on which `startTag` lives. Since Ant 1.8.0	No
endTag	The end of a tag range. If `startTag` is also specified, they must both be on the same branch. If `startTag` is not specified, the start of the range will be the top of the branch on which `endTag` lives. Since Ant 1.8.0	No

Parameters specified as nested elements

user

The nested <user> element allows you to specify a mapping between a user ID as it appears on the CVS server and a name to include in the formatted report. Anytime the specified user ID has made a change in the repository, the <author> tag in the report file will include the name specified in displayname rather than the user ID.

Attribute	Description	Required
displayname	The name to be used in the CVS change log report.	Yes
userid	The user ID of the person as it exists on the CVS server.	Yes

module

Specifies a package/module to work on, unlike the package attribute modules specified using this attribute can contain spaces in their name.

Attribute	Description	Required
name	The module's/package's name.	Yes

Examples

Generate a change log report for all the changes that have been made under the dve/network directory. Write these changes into the file changelog.xml.

<cvschangelog dir="dve/network"
              destfile="changelog.xml"/>

Generate a change log report for any changes that were made under the dve/network directory in the past 10 days. Write these changes into the file changelog.xml.

<cvschangelog dir="dve/network"
              destfile="changelog.xml"
              daysinpast="10"/>

Generate a change log report for any changes that were made between February 20, 2002 and March 20, 2002 under the dve/network directory. Write these changes into the file changelog.xml.

<cvschangelog dir="dve/network"
              destfile="changelog.xml"
              start="20 Feb 2002"
              end="20 Mar 2002"/>

Generate a change log report for any changes that were made after February 20, 2002 under the dve/network directory. Write these changes into the file changelog.xml.

<cvschangelog dir="dve/network"
              destfile="changelog.xml"
              start="20 Feb 2002"/>

Generate a change log report for all the changes that were made under the dve/network directory, substituting the name Peter Donald in the <author> tags anytime a change made by the user ID donaldp is encountered. Write these changes into the file changelog.xml.

<cvschangelog dir="dve/network"
              destfile="changelog.xml">
    <user displayname="Peter Donald" userid="donaldp"/>
</cvschangelog>

Generate a change log report on the ANT_16_BRANCH.

<cvschangelog dir="c:/dev/asf/ant.head" passfile="c:/home/myself/.cvspass"
              destfile="changelogant.xml" tag="ANT_16_BRANCH"/>

Generate Report

Ant includes a basic XSLT stylesheet that you can use to generate a HTML report based on the XML output. The following example illustrates how to generate a HTML report from the XML report.

<style in="changelog.xml"
      out="changelog.html"
      style="${ant.home}/etc/changelog.xsl">
  <param name="title" expression="Ant ChangeLog"/>
  <param name="module" expression="ant"/>
  <param name="cvsweb" expression="https://cvs.apache.org/viewcvs/"/>
</style>

Sample Output

<changelog>
  <entry>
    <date>2002-03-06</date>
    <time>12:00</time>
    <author>Peter Donald</author>
    <file>
      <name>org/apache/myrmidon/build/AntlibDescriptorTask.java</name>
      <revision>1.3</revision>
      <prevrevision>1.2</prevrevision>
    </file>
    <msg><![CDATA[Use URLs directly rather than go via a File.

This allows templates to be stored inside jar]]></msg>
  </entry>
</changelog>