etmc/tmLQCD — Issue #5: Improved version reporting
Author: kostrzewa
Created: 2012-01-13 10:07:49+00:00
State: open

For debugging purposes it is often necessary to find out what the exact version of a compiled executable is. We have version numbers such as 5.1.5, 5.1.6, but these encompass quite a few SVN revision numbers. SVN provides some revision number information through use of the keywords $Id$, but these only refer to the last change of a file. So, if the backend of the IO changes, but the interface inside hmc_tm.c does not change, there is no way to know this from within hmc_tm.c, and therefore $Id$ will still report an older version number, even though the newer version of the IO backend is already compiled in. There is no way inside SVN to get global revision numbers, outside tools such as svnversion are needed for this. It would be useful to have a workaround for this that does give version information in more detail.

A proposal: make the version calls for hmc_tm and invert go to a separate usage function, which is modified in a pre-commit hook script upon every commit.