ident

Identify files (UNIX)

Syntax:

Display ident's version number:

   ident -V

Identify files:

   ident [-q] [file]...

Options:

-q

Be quiet; suppress warning message if no patterns are found.

-V

Display ident's version number.

file

The pathname of a file to be searched. If no files are specified, ident uses the standard input.

Description:

The ident utility searches for all occurrences of the pattern $keyword:...$ in each named file. These patterns are normally inserted automatically by the RCS command co, but can also be inserted manually.

The ident utility works on text files as well as object files and dumps. For example, if the C program in f.c contains

  char rcsid[] = "$Id: f.c,v 5.0 1997/08/22 09:09:36  
  eggert Exp $";

and f.c is compiled into f.o, then the command:

  ident f.c f.o

will write the following output:

  f.c:
      $Id: ident.html,v 1.3 2005/10/10 22:48:15 www Exp $
  f.o:
      $Id: ident.html,v 1.3 2005/10/10 22:48:15 www Exp $

Contributing author:

GNU

See also:

ci, co, rcs, rcsdiff, rcsmerge, rlog

Walter F. Tichy, "RCS -- A System for Version Control," Software -- Practice & Experience 15, 7, July 1985.

Don Bolinger & Tan Bronson, Applying RCS & SCCS, O'Reilly and Associates, 1995.