annotate

vb annotate|blame|praise [OPTIONS] FILENAME

Description

Output the text of a file with markings to show when each line of the file was last modified. The version currently checked out is shown by default. Other versions may be specified using the -r option. The annotate command shows line numbers and omits the username. The blame and praise commands show the user who made each check-in.

Reverse Annotations: Normally, these commands look at versions of FILENAME moving backwards in time back toward the root check-in, and thus the output shows the most recent change to each line. However, if the -o|--origin option is used to specify some future check-in (example: -o trunk) then these commands show changes moving towards that alternative origin. Thus using -o trunk on an historical version of the file shows the first time each line in the file was changed or removed by any subsequent check-in.

Options

--filevers

Show file version numbers rather than check-in versions

-r, --revision VERSION

The specific check-in containing the file

-l, --log

List all versions analyzed

-n, --limit LIMIT

LIMIT can be one of:

N      Up to N versions;
Xs     As much as possible in X seconds;
none   No limit
-o, --origin VERSION

The origin check-in. By default this is the root of the repository. Set to trunk or similar for a reverse annotation.

-w, --ignore-all-space

Ignore white space when comparing lines

-Z, --ignore-trailing-space

Ignore whitespace at line end

Examples

  • Create multiple revisions of a file

$ vb sys echo "a" > code.c
$ vb add code.c
ADDED  code.c
$ vb commit -m "v1"
Committed version: 4685ab93d52f35f8e2a2c0bd9e7e727642e3f048e1c7d13df036f3d0ef569f44
$ vb sys echo "b" >> code.c
$ vb commit -m "v2"
Committed version: 154d699965b7f1d0496340d1e8bc0a986c4d59e95a4ae3f589e6442d2bfb86ef
  • List all versions analyzed

$ vb annotate -l code.c
version   1: 2026-03-31 154d699965 file d1068fe887
version   2: 2026-03-31 4685ab93d5 file be5215abf7
---------------------------------------------------
4685ab93d5 2026-03-31     1: a
154d699965 2026-03-31     2: b

See Also

See also

info, finfo, timeline