CvsTagDiff Task

## CvsTagDiff

### Description

Generates an XML-formatted report file of the changes between two tags or dates recorded in a CVS repository.

Important: This task needs `cvs` on the path. If it isn't, you will get an error (such as `error=2` on Windows). If `<cvs>` doesn't work, try to execute `cvs.exe` from the command line in the target directory in which you are working. Also note that this task assumes that the `cvs` executable is compatible with the Unix version, this is not completely true for certain other CVS clients—like CVSNT for example—and some operation may fail when using such an incompatible client.

This task captures the output of the CVS command in a file inside of the temporary directory.

### Parameters

Attribute | Description | Required
--- | --- | ---
startTag | The earliest tag from which diffs are to be included in the report. | Exactly one of the two
startDate | The earliest date from which diffs are to be included in the report. Accepts all formats accepted by the `cvs` command for `-D date_spec` arguments.
endTag | The latest tag from which diffs are to be included in the report. | Exactly one of the two
endDate | The latest date from which diffs are to be included in the report. Accepts all formats accepted by the `cvs` command for `-D date_spec` arguments.
destfile | The file in which to write the diff report. | Yes
ignoreRemoved | When set to true, the report will not include any removed files. Since Apache Ant 1.8.0 | No; defaults to false

### Parameters inherited from the `cvs` task

Attribute | Description | Required
--- | --- | ---
compression | true (equivalent to 3), false, or a number between 1 and 9 (corresponding to possible values for CVS `-z#` argument). Any other value is treated as false | No; defaults to no compression
cvsRoot | the `CVSROOT` variable. | No
cvsRsh | the `CVS_RSH` variable. | No
package | the package/module to analyze. Since Ant 1.6 multiple packages separated by spaces are possible. aliases corresponding to different modules are also possible. Use a nested `<module>` element if you want to specify a module with spaces in its name. | No
quiet | suppress informational messages. | No; default false
port | Port used by CVS to communicate with the server. | No; default 2401
passfile | Password file to read passwords from. | No; default ~/.cvspass
failonerror | Stop the build process if the command exits with a return code other than 0. | No; defaults to false

### Parameters specified as nested elements

#### module

Specifies a package/module to work on, unlike the package attribute modules specified using this attribute can contain spaces in their name.

Attribute | Description | Required
--- | --- | ---
name | Name of the module/package. | Yes

### Examples

Generate a `tagdiff` report for all the changes that have been made in the `ant` module between the tags `ANT_14` and `ANT_141`. Write these changes into the file `tagdiff.xml`.

    <cvstagdiff cvsRoot=":pserver:anoncvs@cvs.apache.org:/home/cvspublic"
                destfile="tagdiff.xml"
                package="ant"
                startTag="ANT_14"
                endTag="ANT_141"/>

Generate a `tagdiff` report for all the changes that have been made in the `ant` module in January 2002. Write the changes into the file `tagdiff.xml`. In this example, cvsRoot has not been set. The current cvsRoot will be used (assuming the build is started from a folder stored in CVS.

    <cvstagdiff destfile="tagdiff.xml"
                package="ant"
                startDate="2002-01-01"
                endDate="2002-31-01"/>

Generate a `tagdiff` report for all the changes that have been made in the `ant` and `jakarta-gump` modules in January 2003. Write the changes into the file `tagdiff.xml`. In this example, cvsRoot has not been set. The current cvsRoot will be used (assuming the build is started from a folder stored in CVS.

    <cvstagdiff destfile="tagdiff.xml"
                package="ant jakarta-gump"
                startDate="2003-01-01"
                endDate="2003-31-01"/>

#### Generate Report

Ant includes a basic XSLT stylesheet that you can use to generate a HTML report based on the XML output. The following example illustrates how to generate an HTML report from the XML report.

    <style in="tagdiff.xml"
           out="tagdiff.html"
           style="${ant.home}/etc/tagdiff.xsl">
      <param name="title" expression="Ant Diff"/>
      <param name="module" expression="ant"/>
      <param name="cvsweb" expression="https://cvs.apache.org/viewcvs/"/>
    </style>

#### Output

The cvsroot and package attributes of the `<tagdiff>` element are added since Ant 1.6.

Description of `<entry>` attributes:

Attribute | Comment
--- | ---
name | when reporting on one package, the package name is removed from the output
revision | supplied for files which exist at the end of the reporting period
prevrevision | supplied for files which exist at the beginning of the reporting period. Old CVS servers do not supply it for deleted files. CVS 1.12.2 supplies it.

Example:

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
    <tagdiff startTag="ANT_14" endTag="ANT_141"
             cvsroot=":pserver:anoncvs@cvs.apache.org:/home/cvspublic" package="ant">
      <entry>
        <file>
          <name>src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/DirectoryScanner.java</name>
          <revision>1.15.2.1</revision>
          <prevrevision>1.15</prevrevision>
        </file>
      </entry>
    </tagdiff>