FHist Files

ReadMe(FHist)							 ReadMe(FHist)

NAME
       fhist - file history and	comparison tools
       Copyright (C) 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999,
       2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012	Peter
       Miller;

       Portions	of this	program	are
       Copyright (C) 1990 David	I. Bell.

       The fhist package is distributed	under the terms	of the GNU General
       Public License, see the LICENSE section,	below, for more	information.

DESCRIPTION
       The FHist package contains 3 utilities, a file history tool "fhist", a
       file comparison tool "fcomp", and a file	merging	tool "fmerge".	All
       three are bundled together, because they	all use	the same minimal-
       difference algorithm.

       fhist
	       Keeps track of versions of a file.  It works correctly when
	       given binary files as input.  See fhist(1) for more
	       information.

       fcomp
	       Compares	two versions of	a file,	usually	line-for-line textual
	       comparison.  It is capable of comparing two binary files	byte-
	       for-byte.  See fcomp(1) for more	information.

       fmerge
	       Merges together edits from two descendants of a file.  See
	       fmerge(1) for more information.

       The history tool	presented here,	fhist, is a minimal history tool.  It
       provides	no locking or branching.  This can be useful in	contexts where
       the configuration management or change control be being provided	by
       some other tool.

REFERENCES
       This program is based on	the algorithm in
	      An O(ND) Difference Algorithm and	Its Variations,	Eugene W.
	      Myers, TR	85-6, 10-April-1985, Department	of Computer Science,
	      The University of	Arizona, Tuscon, Arizona 85721.
       See also:
	      A	File Comparison	Program, Webb Miller and Eugene	W. Myers,
	      Software Practice	and Experience,	Volume 15, No. 11, November
	      1985.

BUILDING
       For complete instructions for host to build these programs, see the
       BUILDING	file included in this distribution.

ARCHIVE	SITE
       The latest version of fhist is available	on the Web from:

		URL:	http://fhist.sourceforge.net/
		File:	index.html	    # The FHist	page.
		File:	fhist-1.21.README   # Description, from	the tar	file
		File:	fhist-1.21.lsm	    # Description, in LSM format
		File:	fhist-1.21.spec	    # RedHat package spec
		File:	fhist-1.21.tar.Z    # The complete source.
       FHist is	also carried by	sunsite.unc.edu	in its Linux archives.	You
       will be able to find FHist on any of its	mirrors.

		URL:	ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/devel/vc/
		File:	fhist-1.21.README   # Description, from	the tar	file
		File:	fhist-1.21.lsm	    # Description, in LSM format
		File:	fhist-1.21.spec	    # RedHat package spec
		File:	fhist-1.21.tar.Z    # The complete source.
       This site is extensively	mirrored around	the world, so look for a copy
       near you	(you will get much better response).

COPYRIGHT
       fhist version 1.21.D001
       Copyright (C) 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999,
       2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012	Peter
       Miller;

       This program is derived from a work
       Copyright (C) 1990 David	I. Bell.

       This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
       under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the
       Free Software Foundation; either	version	3 of the License, or (at your
       option) any later version.

       This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
       WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
       MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A	PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
       General Public License for more details.

       You should have received	a copy of the GNU General Public License along
       with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.

AUTHORS
       Peter Miller	  Web:	 http://miller.emu.id.au/pmiller/
       /\/\*	       E-Mail:	 pmiller@opensource.org.au

       David I.	Bell	  Web:	 http://www.canb.auug.org.au/~dbell
		       E-Mail:	 dbell@canb.auug.org.au

RELEASE	NOTES
       For excruciating	detail,	and also acknowledgements of those who
       generously sent me feedback, please see the etc/CHANGES.1.21 file
       included	in this	distribution.

       A number	of features and	bug fixes have been added to fhist with	this
       release.	 A few of them are detailed here:

   Version 1.21	(2012-Jul-13)
       * The Debian package description	has been fixed.

   Version 1.20	(2012-May-21)
       * The project now compiles using	recent gcc 4.5 version.

   Version 1.19	(2010-Sep-17)
       * There is now a	dependency on libexplain, for much better error
	 messages.
	 http://libexplain.sourceforge.net/

   Version 1.18	(2009-Oct-16)
       * The .XX macro usage has been made conditional in the man pages, to
	 silence Debian	lintian	warnings.

       * The use of naked "-" have been	replaced with "\-" for option
	 introducers, "\[hy]" for hyphens, and "\[mi]" for minus signs,	to
	 silence Debian	lintian	warnings.

       * The author's email address has	been updated.

   Version 1.17	(2008-Jun-17)
       * The licenseis now GPLv3.

       * The fhist(1) command now accepts a remark string on the command line.

   Version 1.16	(2005-Dec-20)
       * There is a new	fmerge -ignore-identical-conflicts option which	may be
	 used to suppress logical conflicts in which the same thing is done by
	 both variants.	This is	often a	better match for users'	expectations
	 for merging source code.

   Version 1.15	(2005-Nov-08)
       * There is a new	fcomp -no-binary option, which may be used to prevent
	 the comparison	of binary files, instead it treats them	both as	empty.

       * A small build problem on MacOS	X has been fixed.

   Version 1.14	(2004-Jun-08)
       * The ./configure script	now understands	the --with-nlsdir option, so
	 that you can place the	.mo files.

       * The fhist(1) program is now able to cope with numeric modules names.

       * The occasional	false negative from test 26 has	been fixed.  It	was
	 failing for some users	because	of message translation
	 (internationalization)	issues.

   Version 1.13	(2003-Mar-13)
       * A bug has been	fixed in some of the tests.  They were susceptible to
	 false negatives if the	display	width changed.

       * All references	to the cuserid function	have been replaced.  It	isn't
	 sufficiently portable to be used in real programs.

   Version 1.12	(2002-Nov-28)
       * Some build problems have been fixed.

   Version 1.11	(2002-Nov-26)
       * Some build problems, relating to modern ANSI C	compilers choking on
	 K&R function definitions with variable	arguments, have	been fixed.

       * Two bugs relating to the handling of binary files by fhist(1) have
	 been fixed.

       * A bug which left garbage files	behind when a create failed has	been
	 fixed.

   Version 1.10	(2002-Jul-09)
       * Interrupt handling has	been improved.

       * There is a new	fhist -No_Keywords option, used	to completely disable
	 keyword substitution.

       * Several build problems	have been fixed.

   Version 1.9 (2001-Oct-23)
       No public release.

   Version 1.8 (2001-Oct-16)
       * There is a new	-BINary	option for the fcomp(1)	program, which
	 compares binary files a byte at time, printing	the results in
	 hexadecimal.

       * The fcomp(1) program now silently copes with CRLF line	terminations.

   Version 1.7 (2000-Apr-11)
       * The fhist(1) command now has a	-binary	option,	which may be used to
	 store the history of binary files.

       * The fhist(1) command has a new	-make-path option, which requests that
	 the history directory be created if necessary.

       * A bug in fhist(1) wich	caused a SEGFAULT when you used	the -t option
	 (extract to terminal) has been	fixed.

   Version 1.6 (1999-Oct-25)
       * An RPM	spec file has been added to the	distribution.

       * The code is now more robust about what	various	UNIX systems return
	 from pathconf().

       * A bug with the	"fcomp -blank" option has been fixed.

   Version 1.5 (1999-Jun-01)
       * Binary	files are now detected on input, and the utilities file
	 gracefully with a warning or error message, as	appropriate.

       * Some buffer over-run bugs have	been fixed.

       * Several improvements have been	made to	the portability.

   Version 1.4 (1998-Sep-16)
       * The install and build procedures have been made more robust, and they
	 take note of more of the information provided by GNU Autoconf.

       * The error messages have been internationalized, so it is now possible
	 to obtain error messages in your native language.  (If	you would like
	 to contribute with error message translations,	please contact the
	 author.)

       * An LSM	description has	been added, along with a HTML page to present
	 it all	nicely at the archive site.

       * A RedHat Package Manager spec file has	been added, so that a RedHat
	 package can be	created.  The spec file	is in the standard
	 distribution.

   Version 1.3 (1998-Mar-29)
       This version was	not distributed	 at all.

   Version 1.2
       This version was	not distributed	very widely.

       * The non-standard isblank function is no longer	used, it cause too
	 many portability problems.

       * The use of pathconf is	not more robust	for more operating systems.

   Version 1.1
       * The fhist package now uses a shell script called configure to
	 configure itself.  This script	is generated using the GNU Autoconf
	 utility.  This	should make fhist significantly	easier to configure,
	 and significantly more	portable.

       * A bug has been	fixed in the conflict reporting	of the fmerge program.
	 It now	correctly opens	the conflicts file.

       * The fhist program now uses pathconf(2)	to determine file name length
	 limits.

Reference Manual		     FHist			 ReadMe(FHist)