aegis(5)							File Formats Manual							  aegis(5)

NAME

	aegis - meta-data file format

DESCRIPTION

	The files used by the aegis program all have the same format.  Some of the files used by aegis are created and maintained by humans, and
	some are created an maintained by aegis itself.  The various manual entries say which is which.

LEXICAL CONSIDERATIONS

	Names are any C identifier.  Comments are C-style comments (or C++ or shell).  Numbers are decimal, octal or hexadecimal, as for C con-
	stants.  Whitespace (spaces, tabs and newlines) are ignored except in strings or as they serve to separate tokens.

	Strings are C-style strings, and similar to C, sequential string constants are silently catenated together.

	In addition, there is a style of @string@ which use at-signs (@) for quoting.  Unlike the C style of string, newlines are allowed within
	these strings.	To get an at-sign in such a string, double the at-sign.  There is no other escape mechanism available.

GRAMMAR

	The format of all aegis files is described by a yacc (1) grammar.
		%%
		file
			: field_list
			;
	A file contains a field list.
		field_list
			: /* empty */
			| field_list field
			;
	A field list is zero or more fields.
		field
			: NAME '=' value ';'
			;
	A field is set by giving a name and a value.
		value
			: NAME
			| INTEGER
			| STRING
			| structure
			| list
			;
	A value may be a member of an enumeration (NAME), or an integer constant, or a literal string.	More complex values may be constructed
	from these simple values.
		structure
			: '{' field_list '}'
			;
	A structure is a grouped list of fields.
		list
			: '[' list_body ']'
			;
		list_body
			: /* empty */
			| value_list
			| value_list ','
			;
		value_list
			: value
			| value_list ',' value
	A list is a sequential list of values separated by commas.  It may be empty, or it may have a trailing comma.

SEMANTICS

	The types of the values must match those in the definition of the file.  See the relevant man pages for more information.

	Files which are rewritten by aegis will lose any comments placed in them.  When time fields are emitted by aegis they are usually followed
	by a human readable date in a comment.

SEE ALSO

	aegis(1)
		a project change supervisor

	aecattr(5)
		change attribute file format

	aecstate(5)
		change state file format

	aedir(5)
		directory structures

	aegstate(5)
		aegis state file

	aepattr(5)
		project attribute file format

	aepconf(5)
		project configuration file format

	aepstate(5)
		project state file format

	aesub(5)
		available command substitutions

	aeuconf(5)
		user configuration file format

	aeustate(5)
		user state file format

COPYRIGHT

	aegis version 4.24.3.D001
	Copyright (C) 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 Peter
	Miller

	The aegis program comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details use the 'aegis -VERSion License' command.  This is free software and you
	are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions; for details use the 'aegis -VERSion License' command.

AUTHOR

	Peter Miller   E-Mail:	 millerp@canb.auug.org.au
	//*		  WWW:	 http://www.canb.auug.org.au/~millerp/

Reference Manual						       Aegis								  aegis(5)