---
name: "ident"
section: "1"
platform: "openbsd"
package: "man"
version: "8.0-current-20261101"
release: "OpenBSD 8.0-current (2026-11-01)"
platforms: ["linux", "freebsd", "openbsd"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/ident"
---

# ident(1)

identify RCS keyword strings in files

## NAME

**ident** – identify RCS keyword strings in files

## SYNOPSIS

**ident** \[**-qV**\] \[*file ...*\]

## DESCRIPTION

The **ident** program searches for the pattern $keyword:... $ from the *files* specified as argument (or standard input if none are given). See the KEYWORD SUBSTITUTION section of [rcs(1)](/rcs/1.md) for more information.

The following options are supported:

- **-q**

  Quiet mode: suppress warnings if no pattern found.

- **-V**

  Display version information and exit.

## EXIT STATUS

The **ident** utility exits 0 on success, and \>0 if an error occurs.

## EXAMPLES

Given the following source code in file *foo.c*:

```
#include stdio.h
static char const rcsid[] =
	"$Id: foo.c,v 1.2 2005/11/18 09:34:51 xsa Exp $";
int
main(void) {
	printf("%s\n", rcsid);
	return (0);
}
```

Compile it and run **ident**:

```
$ ident foo.c foo.o
foo.c:
     $Id: foo.c,v 1.2 2005/11/18 09:34:51 xsa Exp $
foo.o:
     $Id: foo.c,v 1.2 2005/11/18 09:34:51 xsa Exp $
```

## SEE ALSO

[ci(1)](/ci/1.md), [co(1)](/co/1.md), [cvs(1)](/cvs/1.md), [rcs(1)](/rcs/1.md), [rcsclean(1)](/rcsclean/1.md), [rcsdiff(1)](/rcsdiff/1.md), [rcsmerge(1)](/rcsmerge/1.md), [rlog(1)](/rlog/1.md)