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    <title>About GIT versions</title>
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<h4>About GIT versions</h4>

<p>Components are maintained using the <a href="http://git-scm.com/">GIT</a> SCM
(Source Code Management) system. Instead of assigning versions by hand,
something which developers tend to forget, we leave this task to GIT.  GIT's
versions are generated using the command <code>git describe</code>, which
describes a version with four components, separated with <b>"-"</b>:

 <ul>
    <li>The last contained <em>tag</em>.  A tag is a label that the
    programmer gave to a version.
    <li>The number of changes (<i>commits</i>) since the last tag.  If
    there are no commits after the tag, this is omitted.
    <li>If there are changes after the tag it also gives the GIT <em>hash</em>
    of the version.  This number uniquely describes the version of the component.
    <li>Finally, the text <b>DIRTY</b> is added if the actual files of the
    component do not match the files in the (local) repository.  This means
    that one or more of the files has been edited locally.
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