[Developers] admb -v

[Arni Magnusson]

As far as I know, there is no reliable way of retrieving the ADMB version 
info.

What I have done in the past is to compile a model, type "model -help", 
and then read the version number from the output line. Even this 
cumbersome method is not reliable: ADMB 9.1 reports that it's version 
9.0.x. This was mentioned during the La Jolla meeting in March, but with 
no resolution.

One approach might be to create a small text file called VERSION, in the 
main directory with LICENSE and README (and NEWS!). This way, anyone could 
check this file to see what version of ADMB is in that directory. The user 
compilation scripts (adcomp, adlink, admb) would then show this text file 
if the user types -v.

The question arises what the VERSION file should contain when a 
development version of ADMB (between formal releases) is built. In order 
of complexity:

(1) just report the last formal release 9.1 [still a major improvement]

(2) append a simple flag 9.1-devel [nice]

(3) do some configure/makefile magic to append the SVN revision number 
9.1.727, but only for development versions [useful for developers]

I suppose it would also be useful to include the OS and compiler version 
that was used to build the libraries:

   AD Model Builder 9.1 [win32-vc9]

   AD Model Builder 9.1.727 [linux64-gcc441]

Given this info, the build date should not be necessary, but the 
super-curious can check when the VERSION file was created.

Arni



On Thu, 19 Aug 2010, Ben Bolker wrote:

> Is there a simple way (something like admb --version) to retrieve ADMB 
> version info?  I believe I'm using revision 76 of the public SVN, which 
> I *think* is identical to "admb-9.1-linux-gcc4.2-32bit.zip ( ADMB 9.1 
> Linux for gcc 4.2 (32 bit); Dec 2009)";