From on at LEFerguson.com  Wed Feb 11 16:33:22 2026
From: on at LEFerguson.com (on at LEFerguson.com)
Date: Wed, 11 Feb 2026 16:33:22 +0000
Subject: [rancid] Can I search (a la grep) a devices change history?
Message-ID: <BN7PR05MB44666DC70E9D4DE37E20C538D563A@BN7PR05MB4466.namprd05.prod.outlook.com>

Some searching seems to yield the answer "no" but....

I am using CVS and ViewVC.

Is there a way to search the change history of a device using grep (or something similar).

I want to pull out one defined line (notably flash free space) over time, and have about 400 entries for each of three devices that are of interest.   It's in there, it's easily identified, but apparently the saved configs are not readily accessible as text.

Is there perhaps a script someone has written to download all configs to text (with dated or versioned file names)?

I don't care if it's efficient or fast, just so I don't have to do it hundreds of times by hand.

And yes, I have too many versions, I need to figure out how non-human-initiated changes are causing them, but at this moment in time all those versions actually are a good thing for what I want to check.

Linwood

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From heas at shrubbery.net  Wed Feb 11 19:33:19 2026
From: heas at shrubbery.net (heasley)
Date: Wed, 11 Feb 2026 19:33:19 +0000
Subject: [rancid] Can I search (a la grep) a devices change history?
In-Reply-To: <BN7PR05MB44666DC70E9D4DE37E20C538D563A@BN7PR05MB4466.namprd05.prod.outlook.com>
References: <BN7PR05MB44666DC70E9D4DE37E20C538D563A@BN7PR05MB4466.namprd05.prod.outlook.com>
Message-ID: <aYzZf7NJBGWnHdlV@shrubbery.net>

Wed, Feb 11, 2026 at 04:33:22PM +0000, on at LEFerguson.com:
> Some searching seems to yield the answer "no" but....
> 
> I am using CVS and ViewVC.
> 
> Is there a way to search the change history of a device using grep (or something similar).
> 
> I want to pull out one defined line (notably flash free space) over time, and have about 400 entries for each of three devices that are of interest.   It's in there, it's easily identified, but apparently the saved configs are not readily accessible as text.

the data is all just text, though not really in a convenient format.

something like:
cat ~rancid/<group>/configs
fgrep -r "<some text to match>" `cat CVS/Root`/`cat CVS/Respository

format as you wish from there.

It would be more complicated for svn or git, but this is a quick/dirty way
for CVS.


From on at LEFerguson.com  Wed Feb 11 19:36:07 2026
From: on at LEFerguson.com (on at LEFerguson.com)
Date: Wed, 11 Feb 2026 19:36:07 +0000
Subject: [rancid] Can I search (a la grep) a devices change history?
In-Reply-To: <aYzZf7NJBGWnHdlV@shrubbery.net>
References: <BN7PR05MB44666DC70E9D4DE37E20C538D563A@BN7PR05MB4466.namprd05.prod.outlook.com>
 <aYzZf7NJBGWnHdlV@shrubbery.net>
Message-ID: <BN7PR05MB4466707D4E3BE7F68F9F691CD563A@BN7PR05MB4466.namprd05.prod.outlook.com>

Almost perfect, I need to look closely and see if I can add a version or date to it, but it worked great (first is 'cd' not cat for those following along at home). 

But that gets me close enough even if I can't find the version. 

Thank you!!!

Linwood


-----Original Message-----
From: heasley <heas at shrubbery.net> 
Sent: Wednesday, February 11, 2026 2:33 PM
To: on at LEFerguson.com
Cc: rancid-discuss at shrubbery.net
Subject: Re: [rancid] Can I search (a la grep) a devices change history?

Wed, Feb 11, 2026 at 04:33:22PM +0000, on at LEFerguson.com:
> Some searching seems to yield the answer "no" but....
> 
> I am using CVS and ViewVC.
> 
> Is there a way to search the change history of a device using grep (or something similar).
> 
> I want to pull out one defined line (notably flash free space) over time, and have about 400 entries for each of three devices that are of interest.   It's in there, it's easily identified, but apparently the saved configs are not readily accessible as text.

the data is all just text, though not really in a convenient format.

something like:
cat ~rancid/<group>/configs
fgrep -r "<some text to match>" `cat CVS/Root`/`cat CVS/Respository

format as you wish from there.

It would be more complicated for svn or git, but this is a quick/dirty way for CVS.


From heas at shrubbery.net  Wed Feb 11 19:55:04 2026
From: heas at shrubbery.net (heasley)
Date: Wed, 11 Feb 2026 19:55:04 +0000
Subject: [rancid] Can I search (a la grep) a devices change history?
In-Reply-To: <BN7PR05MB4466707D4E3BE7F68F9F691CD563A@BN7PR05MB4466.namprd05.prod.outlook.com>
References: <BN7PR05MB44666DC70E9D4DE37E20C538D563A@BN7PR05MB4466.namprd05.prod.outlook.com>
 <aYzZf7NJBGWnHdlV@shrubbery.net>
 <BN7PR05MB4466707D4E3BE7F68F9F691CD563A@BN7PR05MB4466.namprd05.prod.outlook.com>
Message-ID: <aYzemEFasR9u0IBA@shrubbery.net>

Wed, Feb 11, 2026 at 07:36:07PM +0000, on at LEFerguson.com:
> Almost perfect, I need to look closely and see if I can add a version or date to it, but it worked great (first is 'cd' not cat for those following along at home). 
> 
> But that gets me close enough even if I can't find the version. 

to have the versions, probably need to process all revisions, like

cvs log | <extract version> > revisionlist
<loop>(revision list)
  cvs diff $rev1 $rev2 | <match the text you seek>
  if <match>
	<do whatever with the diff or rev2>


From on at LEFerguson.com  Wed Feb 11 20:35:14 2026
From: on at LEFerguson.com (on at LEFerguson.com)
Date: Wed, 11 Feb 2026 20:35:14 +0000
Subject: [rancid] Can I search (a la grep) a devices change history?
In-Reply-To: <aYzemEFasR9u0IBA@shrubbery.net>
References: <BN7PR05MB44666DC70E9D4DE37E20C538D563A@BN7PR05MB4466.namprd05.prod.outlook.com>
 <aYzZf7NJBGWnHdlV@shrubbery.net>
 <BN7PR05MB4466707D4E3BE7F68F9F691CD563A@BN7PR05MB4466.namprd05.prod.outlook.com>
 <aYzemEFasR9u0IBA@shrubbery.net>
Message-ID: <BN7PR05MB4466C2FA7E62821E5D690349D563A@BN7PR05MB4466.namprd05.prod.outlook.com>

Thank you again.  I broke for lunch and came back to the next answer.


-----Original Message-----
From: heasley <heas at shrubbery.net> 
Sent: Wednesday, February 11, 2026 2:55 PM
To: on at LEFerguson.com
Cc: heasley <heas at shrubbery.net>; rancid-discuss at shrubbery.net
Subject: Re: [rancid] Can I search (a la grep) a devices change history?

Wed, Feb 11, 2026 at 07:36:07PM +0000, on at LEFerguson.com:
> Almost perfect, I need to look closely and see if I can add a version or date to it, but it worked great (first is 'cd' not cat for those following along at home). 
> 
> But that gets me close enough even if I can't find the version. 

to have the versions, probably need to process all revisions, like

cvs log | <extract version> > revisionlist <loop>(revision list)
  cvs diff $rev1 $rev2 | <match the text you seek>
  if <match>
	<do whatever with the diff or rev2>