Looking at files

There are a variety of mechanisms available through the versions program to examine not only the files under control, but also various bits of information associated with these files.

Getting read-only copies

It's possible to obtain read-only copies of any files in the database by first highlighting the ones of interest and then selecting the Checkout Readonly button on the main display.




If a single file was chosen, then the user will be able to select a particular version of that file, as shown above. If several were chosen from the main display, it is assumed that the latest version of each is desired.

The user must fill out the "Checkout to" field on the panel to indicate the directory where a copy of the file should be placed. As with many of the similar interfaces, this can be done by either typing directly into the text area, or by using the "cd" button. In either case, once set, selecting the Ok button will deliver readonly¹ copies of the indicated files.

Files that are included in one or more folders will be placed into subdirectories (referred to as folders within the versions program) of the "Checkout to" destination. When the "Path is absolute" check-box is selected, files will be placed directly into the Checkout to destination.

Browsing files

The contents of a text file can be displayed with the Browse function. Browsing causes a temporary readonly copy of the file to be retrieved from the database and brought up in a simple text window for display. Double-clicking on a file in the main display list will browse the latest version. Highlighting a file in the main list and selecting Browse from the Utilities menu will display a version selection dialog similar to the one below.




To browse a particular version, highlight the version in the scrolling version list and select Ok, or simply double-click the version.

The default behavior is to use a simple Motif style text pane for showing the contents of the file. Razor allows you to override this behavior and bring up the file in any editor you wish. By setting the environment parameter $RAZOR_EDITOR² to point to a script (most likely in each user's home directory), the script will be passed the full path to the temporary file ($1) containing the contents of the file specified along with the proper name of the file ($2). The sample script, $RAZOR_HOME/examples/razor_browse, will bring up the vi editor in an xterm window and set the title bar to the name of the file. Note that the script must remove the file specified in $1 when the browse session completes.

Reviewing history

Nearly every user action against files in the Razor database is recorded. Of special interest are all the comments that were made as the files were checked in and out.




By highlighting a single file from the main display list and then selecting the Info option from the Utilities menu, the above panel will appear. Within it is a full accounting of the Info and History files that are part of the Razor database. To best appreciate and understand these files, you may want to review their structure, as defined in Appendix B, "An Info file" on page 264, and "A History file" on page 263.

Seeing how versions/files differ

Every version of a file under the control of Razor is recorded in the Razor database. It is often handy to be able to quickly and easily view the changes that occurred in a file between versions. By highlighting a file from the main display of the versions program and selecting the Diff option from the Utilities menu, a panel similar to the one below will appear. ³




The Compare option allows you to control whether you will be comparing two different versions of the same file, or whether the program will compare a file within the Razor database against an existing file in your directory structure.⁴


If the With a file outside of Razor option is selected, a File button will appear next to Cancel and an uneditable File text field will appear below the Compare option. Selecting the File button will display a file chooser window allowing a file outside of Razor to be compared. The selected file name will be displayed in the File field.

You can also control the nature of the output that the comparison will generate, as shown by the Options selection above.

After identifying which files and versions will be compared, selecting the Apply button will result in a display similar to the one above. A series of key symbols will appear between the two sides. If the center column is empty, then those portions of the file are identical. A greater than or less than symbol will be used to point to which side contains unique lines relative to the other. A vertical bar indicates that the identified lines are similar, but appear to have been edited.

The output may be saved using the Save button. A dialog popup will appear to allow the user to enter a directory path and filename.

For more information, or a better understanding of this option, we'd encourage you to refer to the man pages for sdiff on a UNIX platform.

¹ Will include execute permission if the file was introduced with execute permission.
² Not supported by PC clients.
³ Only text files can be Diff'd
⁴ The PC GUI for selecting a file outside of Razor is different than that of the UNIX GUI.