[net.unix] Unix source and object control

Schauble@mit-multics.arpa (Paul Schauble) (01/16/86)

Can anyone provide references for published descriptions of how the
standard source and object control techniques are used in Unix? I am
familiar with SCCS and make in isolation, but I don't know what other
pieces exist or how the whole process fits together. In particular, I
would like to know:

    - how one goes back from a dump to the sources that made up the
failing program, and

    - how one ties source changes back to the documents that motivated
the change.

This seems like an excellent topic for the Software Engineering list,
and I recommend that replies be copied there. I do not regularly read
info-Unix, so please mail that directly to me.


                    Thank you very much,
                    Paul

gwyn@BRL.ARPA (VLD/VMB) (01/17/86)

Running the "what" command on any file (such as a core dump)
will print out all the SCCS ID strings found therein.  Proper
use of SCCS requires that each SCCS-controlled source code
module generate a string containing this information that will
be linked into the composite executable binary.  E.g.,
$ what /usr/5bin/what
/usr/5bin/what:
	what.c	6.6
	any.c	3.1

When delta'ing the SCCS archives, comments should have been
entered.  I think there is a command to print the comments but
I just look at the beginning of the archive with a text editor.