---
name: "aeca"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "aegis"
version: "4.24.3-3"
release: "Debian 8 (Jessie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/aeca"
---

# aeca(1)

modify the attributes of a change

## NAME

aegis change attributes - modify the attributes of a change

## SYNOPSIS

**aegis** **-Change\_Attributes** **-File** *attr-file* \[ *option*... \]\
 **aegis** **-Change\_Attributes** **-Edit** \[ *option*... \]\
 **aegis** **-Change\_Attributes** **-Fix\_ARchitecture**\
 **aegis** **-Change\_Attributes** *name***=***value*\
 **aegis** **-Change\_Attributes** **-List** \[ *option*... \]\
 **aegis** **-Change\_Attributes** **-Help**\
 **aegis** **-Change\_Attributes** **-UUID** *string* \[ *option*... \]

## DESCRIPTION

The *aegis* *-Change\_Attributes* command is used to set, edit or list the attributes of a change.

The output of the **-List** variant is suitable for use as input at a later time.

See [*aecattr*(5)](/aecattr/5.md) for a description of the file format.

The *name***=***value* form of the command may be used when you wish to add or modify change set attributes.  If an attribute is already present, it will be modified; if there is more than one attribute with the same name, only the first will be modified. The *name***+=***value* form will always append the pair.

### Example

When you edit the file, you will see something like this:

```
brief_description = "login(1) is too fussy";
description = "When users type their password "
    "incorrectly, after three times the login(1) "
    "program should assume they have forgotten "
    "their password and automatically reset it "
    "for them.";
cause = external_enhancement;
attribute =
[
    {
        name = "bugzilla";
        value = "666";
    },
    {
        name = "customer-priority";
        value = "high";
    },
    {
        name = "marketing-priority";
        value = "urgent-panic-headless-chicken";
    },
    {
        name = "engineering-priority";
        value = "after-heat-death-of-universe";
    }
];
```

Note the semicolons, you need to get them right. Edit the fields you want to change. When you quit the editor, they will be updated.

### Known Attribute Names

While many of the anticipated used of change attributes are to allow projects to attach their own specialized data to change sets, Aegis also uses some attributes for its own purposes (and arguably, should always have done so to maximize forwards compatibility across Aegis upgrades).

- aeget:inventory:hide

  boolean.  If true, this change set does not appear in [*aeget*(1)](/aeget/1.md)'s change set inventory pages, used by *aedist -replay* to decide what to download and apply.  Think of it as a "local only" flag.

- foreign-copyright

  boolean.  If true, none of the files in this change set will not be checked by the [*aede-policy*(1)](/aede-policy/1.md) `copyright` validation.

- original-uuid

  This is set by *aedist -receive* when an incoming change set is changed before it can end development. There may be more than one. The [*aeget*(1)](/aeget/1.md) inventory "all" page will show these additional UUIDs, used by the *aedist -pending* command..

### Universal Unique Identifier

Each change set is assigned a unique universal identifier (UUID) at *integrate pass* time.  This serves to identify the change across all sites when a geographically distributed development model is being used.  This may be exploited to rapidly determine which change sets need to be downloaded.

The **-Universal\_Unique\_IDentifier** option is used by the [*aedist*(1)](/aedist/1.md) and [*aepatch*(1)](/aepatch/1.md) commands to set the UUID of a change set.  It should not be used by developers.

### Using Change Attributes in Scripts

There are several ways you can use the attributes of an Aegis change in a shell script:

- [*aereport*(1)](/aereport/1.md)

  The report generator is able to access change attributes. You can then have the report generator print the necessary data.

- [*aesub*(1)](/aesub/1.md)

  Many change attributes can be accessed via the [*aesub*(5)](/aesub/5.md) command substitutions, and printed using the [*aesub*(1)](/aesub/1.md) command.

- aeca -l

  The list option of the [*aeca*(1)](/aeca/1.md) command may be used to print the values of all editable change attributes.  It can be groped using [*grep*(1)](/grep/1.md) or [*awk*(1)](/awk/1.md), or similar.

- [*aexml*(1)](/aexml/1.md)

  It is possible to get a great deal of information in XML format, including change attributes.  This format can be parsed by a variety of packages.

Use the method best suited to your particular needs.

## OPTIONS

The following options are understood:

- **-Change** *number*

  This option may be used to specify a particular change within a project. See [*aegis*(1)](/aegis/1.md) for a complete description of this option.

- **-Description\_Only**

  This option may be used to specify that only the change description is the subject of this command.  It will be presented as plain text, without any of the quotes or escapes present when this command is not used.

- **-Edit**

  Edit the attributes with a text editor, this is usually more convenient than supplying a text file.  The *VISUAL* and then *EDITOR* environment variables are consulted for the name of the editor to use; defaults to [*vi*(1)](/vi/1.md) if neither is set. See the *visual\_command* and *editor\_command* fields in *aeuconf*(1) for how to override this specifically for Aegis.

  Warning: Aegis tries to be well behaved when faced with errors, so the temporary file is left in your home directory where you can edit it further and re-use it with a **-file** option.

  The **-edit** option may not be used in the background, or when the standard input is not a terminal.

- **-Edit\_BackGround**

  Edit the attributes with a dumb text editor, this is most often desired when edit commands are being piped into the editor via the standard input. Only the **EDITOR** environment variable is consulted for the name of the editor to use; it is a fatal error if it is not set. See the *editor\_command* field in *aeuconf*(1) for how to override this specifically for Aegis.

- **-File** *filename*

  Take the attributes from the specified file. The filename \`-' is understood to mean the standard input.

- \-Fix\_ARchitecture

  This option may be used to replace change change's architecture list with all of the mandatory architectures from the project configuration file, plus any of the optional architectures that match the current machine. May not be used with -file or -edit options.

- **-Help**

  This option may be used to obtain more information about how to use the *aegis* program.

- **-List**

  This option may be used to obtain a list of suitable subjects for this command. The list may be more general than expected.

- **-Project** *name*

  This option may be used to select the project of interest. When no **-Project** option is specified, the *AEGIS\_PROJECT* environment variable is consulted. If that does not exist, the user's *$HOME/.aegisrc* file is examined for a default project field (see [*aeuconf*(5)](/aeuconf/5.md) for more information). If that does not exist, when the user is only working on changes within a single project, the project name defaults to that project. Otherwise, it is an error.

- **-TERse**

  This option may be used to cause listings to produce the bare minimum of information. It is usually useful for shell scripts.

- **-Verbose**

  This option may be used to cause aegis to produce more output. By default aegis only produces output on errors. When used with the **-List** option this option causes column headings to be added.

- **-Universal\_Unique\_IDentifier** *string*

  This option may be used to set the UUID of change change.

- **-Wait**

  This option may be used to require Aegis commands to wait for access locks, if they cannot be obtained immediately. Defaults to the user's *lock\_wait\_preference* if not specified, see [*aeuconf*(5)](/aeuconf/5.md) for more information.

- **-No\_Wait**

  This option may be used to require Aegis commands to emit a fatal error if access locks cannot be obtained immediately. Defaults to the user's *lock\_wait\_preference* if not specified, see [*aeuconf*(5)](/aeuconf/5.md) for more information.

See also [*aegis*(1)](/aegis/1.md) for options common to all aegis commands.

All options may be abbreviated; the abbreviation is documented as the upper case letters, all lower case letters and underscores (\_) are optional. You must use consecutive sequences of optional letters.

All options are case insensitive, you may type them in upper case or lower case or a combination of both, case is not important.

For example: the arguments "-project, "-PROJ" and "-p" are all interpreted to mean the **-Project** option. The argument "-prj" will not be understood, because consecutive optional characters were not supplied.

Options and other command line arguments may be mixed arbitrarily on the command line, after the function selectors.\

The GNU long option names are understood. Since all option names for *aegis* are long, this means ignoring the extra leading '-'. The "**--***option***=***value*" convention is also understood.

## RECOMMENDED ALIAS

The recommended alias for this command is

```
csh%	alias aeca 'aegis -ca \!* -v'
sh$	aeca(){aegis -ca "$@" -v}
```

## ERRORS

It is an error if the current user is not an administrator of the specified project.

## EXIT STATUS

The *aegis* command will exit with a status of 1 on any error. The *aegis* command will only exit with a status of 0 if there are no errors.

## ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

See [*aegis*(1)](/aegis/1.md) for a list of environment variables which may affect this command. See [*aepconf*(5)](/aepconf/5.md) for the project configuration file's *project\_specific* field for how to set environment variables for all commands executed by Aegis.\

## SEE ALSO

- [*tkaeca*(1)](/tkaeca/1.md)

  GUI interface to the [*aeca*(1)](/aeca/1.md) command.

- [*aecattr*(5)](/aecattr/5.md)

  change attributes file format

- [*aecstate*(5)](/aecstate/5.md)

  change state file format

- *aepa*(5)

  modify the attributes of a project

- [*aesub*(5)](/aesub/5.md)

  available command substitutions

- [*aeuconf*(5)](/aeuconf/5.md)

  user configuration file format\

## COPYRIGHT

aegis version 4.24.3.D001\
 Copyright (C) 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 Peter Miller

The aegis program comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details use the '*aegis -VERSion License*' command. This is free software and you are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions; for details use the '*aegis -VERSion License*' command.\

## AUTHOR

| | | |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Peter Miller | E-Mail: | millerp@canb.auug.org.au |
| `/\/\*` | WWW: | http://www.canb.auug.org.au/~millerp/ |