Annotate

The Annotate window shows the contents of a file with each line prefixed by the line number and by information about the last revision in which this line has been introduced or changed. The Annotate window is typically opened via Query|Annotate from the Project Window , but there are other ways and windows to open an Annotate window in SmartSVN.

Configuration dialog

On the Configuration tab, you can specifiy the date range over which to run the Annnotate operation.

On the Advanced tab, select Treat even binary revisions as text (“force”) to continue the Annotate operation even when it encounters one or more binary revisions of the file. This option can be necessary if the MIME-Type of a file was changed, e.g. from binary to text in some earlier revision, and the file had text content throughout. In case the file actually had binary content in some earlier revision, parts of the annotate output might contain junk.

Use Annotate contents of all revisions to query the repository for contents of all revisions of the file, not just the latest revision: by default, svn annotate will show you details for the latest state of your file; i.e. you can trace the history for all lines of the latest state of your file, however you can’t see what the content of the lines has been before. Also, you can’t see deleted lines. Using this option will take all states of the file into account and hence provide you access to every line which has ever been present in the file.

Annotate window

The View Revision drop-down list displays all available revisions of the file, and allows navigating through them. It will only be present if Annotate contents of all revisions had been selected for the configuration.

With the Highlight drop-down list you can select one of the following line coloring schemes:

  • Choose Changes Since to have two colors and a threshold revision Newer Or Equal. Lines which have been introduced before this threshold revision will receive the default background color, while lines introduced at or after the threshold revision will receive another background color.
  • Choose Age to change the coloring scheme so that the colors of the lines reflect their ‘Age’: The youngest and oldest line will be determined, receiving two distinct colors. For all other lines, the color will be linearly interpolated based on their relative age compared to the youngest and oldest line. The interpolation itself can either be based on the Revision number or on the revision’s commit Time.
  • Choose Author to have lines of the same author displayed with the same background color, and lines of different authors displayed with different background colors.

Revision menu

This menu will only provide functionality if Annotate contents of all revisions had been selected for the configuration.

  • Use Show File Changes to invoke a File Compare between the currently selected View Revision and the previous revision.
  • Use Show Revision Changes to invoke a Revision Compare containing all changed files between the currently selected View Revision and the previous revision.
  • Use Go To First Revision to select the first View Revision.
  • Use Go To Last Revision to select the last View Revision.
  • Use Go To Next Revision to select the next View Revision.
  • Use Go To Previous Revision to select the previous View Revision.
  • Use Go To Preceding Revision to select the preceding View Revision for the currently selected line – to see what the content of the line has been before.