Versc is a diagnostic tool written in Go for documentation projects that rely on reStructuredText as source code. Its purpose is to scan the source repository for version descriptors that are EOL. Once it finds the offending version descriptors, it prints them to stdout in a grep-like format. This allows the writer to quickly identify the files that need attention when a version of the product goes EOL.

1. Clone repository:

   $ cd ~/go/src/github.com/kennethdyer 
   $ git clone [email protected]/kennethdyer/versc
   $ cd versc
   

2. Install external dependencies:

   $ go get github.com/spf13/viper
   $ go get github.com/spf13/cobra
   

3. Install versc:

   $ make
   

To configure versc, create a configuration file at ~/.config/avocet/versc.yml. The configuration file should feature a products map, which provides specification for each product.

products:
  myProductKey:
    name: MyProduct
    versions:
       - "2.1"
       - "2.2"
exclude_pattern:
   - release-notes

The product specification requires a name field, which indicates the likely string to occur for the product name.

It also requires a versions field, which is an array of version numbers for the currently supported releases. Any version that is not found in the array is logged as a match and printed to stdout.

It is best practice to exclude the directory containing release notes, as this is a legitimate place to mention older versions of a product.

To print unsupported version descriptors, call versc with the directory you want to search:

$ versc source
2.0  -  source/reference/feature   Starting in MyProduct 2.0, xyz occurs

If you have multiple products specified, provide the product key to the search:

$ versc source myProductKey
2.0  -  source/reference/feature   Starting in MyProduct 2.0, xyz occurs

The name versc derives from a syncopation of the boring descriptor "version scanner," which has here been given an much more interesting Old English pronunciation of /vərʃ/, (for all those folks who told me I'd never get to use my philology degrees at work).