[GRASS-dev] How to get "Last changed" string for a module's manual?

[Vaclav Petras]

On Mon, May 4, 2015 at 6:59 AM, Nikos Alexandris <nik at nikosalexandris.net>
wrote:
>
> * Nikos Alexandris <nik at nikosalexandris.net> [2015-05-04 13:52:22 +0300]:
>
> > Nikos Alexandris wrote:
> > > > Dear devs,
> > > > how do we get a string like
> > > > "Last changed: $Date: 2014-12-01 17:21:35 +0200 (Mon, 01 Dec 2014)
quot;
> > > > for a module's manual?  Is this dynamically created or is it
hardcoded?
> >
> > Markus Neteler:
> > >
> > > Both :) You can copy it from another manual page. Then, to get it
> > > updated by SVN, you need to define svn propset. this you can do with a
> > > helper script:
> > >
> > > sh ~/software/grass-addons/tools/module_svn_propset.sh yourfile
> > >
> > > or
> > >
> > > cd yourdir/
> > > sh ~/software/grass-addons/tools/module_svn_propset.sh *
> > >
> > > hope this helps,
> >
> > A lot, thanks.  How can I verify it actually updates the string?  I did
> > as per the instruction above, then `svn up` (necessary?), then
> > re-compiled. Don't see an updated string though.
>
> Oh man, maybe I meed to commit first... :-).  Will re-check.

Yes, you need to commit first. FWIK, this feature (adding dates, versions,
etc. to files) was very popular in the times of CVS and it have became
quite controversial now, especially among those using Git.

It is advantageous for manual pages because it adds the recent change to
the file which would be otherwise hard to do manually. Doing this
automatically on compile time wouldn’t be so straightforward because you
can just compile from tar without svn (and thus having no idea about the
versions, dates and authors). The disadvantages include tracking last
change in documentation rather than algorithm and messy source code and
diffs (especially unnecessary differences between branches).

> Thanks, Nikos
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