---
name: "shtool-version"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "shtool"
version: "2.0.8-10"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/shtool-version"
---

# shtool-version(1)

GNU shtool maintain version information file

## NAME

shtool-version - GNU shtool maintain version information file

## SYNOPSIS

**shtool version** \[**-l**\|**--language** *lang*\] \[**-n**\|**--name** *name*\] \[**-p**\|**--prefix** *prefix*\] \[**-s**\|**--set** *version*\] \[**-e**\|**--edit**\] \[**-i**\|**--increase** *knob*\] \[**-d**\|**--display** *type*\] *file*

## DESCRIPTION

This command displays and maintains version information in *file*.

The version is always described with a triple \<*version*,*revision*,*level*\> and is represented by a string which always matches the regular expression "`"[0-9]+\.[0-9]+[sabp.][0-9]+"`".

The hexadecimal format for a version `"v.rtl"` is `"VVRRTLL"` where `"VV"` and `"RR"` directly correspond to `"v"` and `"r"`, `"T"` encodes the level type as `9`, `2`, `1`, `0` (representing `"s"`, `"p"`/`"."`, `"b"`, `"a"` in this order) and `"LL"` is either directly corresponding to `"l"` or set to `99` if level type is `"s"`.

## OPTIONS

The following command line options are available.

- **-v**, **--verbose**

  Print verbose information during processing.

- **-l**, **--language** *lang*

  Choose format of version file *file*. *lang*="`"txt"`", ANSI C (*lang*="c"), M4 (*lang*="m4"), Perl (*lang*="perl") or Python (*lang*="python"). Default is `"txt"`.

- **-n**, **--name** *name*

  Name the program the version is maintained for. Default is `"unknown"`.

- **-p**, **--prefix** *prefix* =item **-s**, **--set** *version*

  Set the version to *version*.

- **-e**, **--edit**

  Interactively enter a new version.

- **-i**, **--increase** *knob*

  When option \`\`**-i**'' is used, the current version in *file* is updated by increasing one element of the version where *knob* can be one of the following: \`\``"v"`'' for increasing the version by 1 (and resetting revision and level to 0), \`\``"r"`'' for increasing the revision by 1 (and resetting level to 0) or \`\``"l"`'' for increasing the level by 1.

- **-d**, **--display** *type*

  Control the display type: "`"short"`" for a short version display, "`"long"`" for a longer version display, "`"hex"`" for a hexadecimal display of the version and "`"libtool"`" for a format suitable for use with GNU libtool.

## EXAMPLE

```
 #   shell script
 shtool version -l c -n FooBar -p foobar -s 1.2b3 version.c
 #   configure.in
 V=`shtool version -l c -d long version.c`
 echo "Configuring FooBar, Version $V"
```

## HISTORY

The **GNU shtool** **version** command was originally written by Ralf S. Engelschall \<rse@engelschall.com\> in 1994 for **OSSP eperl**. It was later rewritten from scratch for inclusion into **GNU shtool**.

## SEE ALSO

[**shtool**(1)](/shtool/1.md).