Tracking base revision for files distributed without a repo

[Steve Barnes]

On 23/01/14 05:47, Benjamin Fritz wrote:
> I have a set of scripts which I personally maintain in Mercurial.
> These scripts are often useful to other people, so I occasionally
> email updates to my coworkers (mostly on request).
>
> Now, these coworkers have no interest whatsoever in learning or using
> Mercurial. For these particular files, they couldn't care less about
> version control, far that matter.
>
> But when they occasionally email me back a modified copy of the script
> to fix a bug or expand the types of data it can handle, I'd really
> like to know where to start when merging in changes. They always send
> back just the modified files, not the directory I sent them, so I
> can't just go off the file created when I do an export, or just zip up
> a working copy and send it to them.
>
> I think this would be a good use-case for the KeywordExtension, but
> the wiki page http://mercurial.selenic.com/wiki/KeywordExtension calls
> this a "feature of last resort" without offering any alternatives
> which fit my needs.
>
> Are there better solutions than just embedding the revision in the
> file using KeywordExtension? Solutions that allow my coworkers to
> continue being lazy but allowing me to benefit from knowing which
> version they base any changes off, what to tell them I've changed
> since the last time I sent them updates, etc.?
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>
I personally would use a little python distribute script to add a 
comment that includes the revision ID in each file as a comment as it 
zips the files.  If use os.walk and zip you can easily do this. Let me 
know if you would like a draft of something along those lines.

Gadget/Steve