Using CVS to #ifdef my changes

I have a large project that has many changes not yet checked in. I want to check them in but have them only take effect when a certain symbol is #define'd

CVS does have the ability to format diffs with #ifdef's inserted using the --ifdef argument. However, this does not merge the #ifdef's back into my working file. Even worse, the output includes some ugly header stuff that would need to be removed.

Index: path/to/my/file.h,v
===================================================================
RCS file: /path/to/my/file.h,v
retrieving revision 1.17
diff --ifdef=TEST -r1.17 file.h

Does anyone h开发者_如何学Pythonave a script that would automate the process of doing the CVS diff, removing the header stuff and copying the result back over the working file?

Great thanks if anyone can help.

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I'm not sure I understand what you are wanting to do, so I will answer a slightly modified question in case it makes your current problem obsolete.

Generally, #ifdef are only enabled if set at compile time. Even if they are checked out or checked in, the code within the macro will not be included unless a compile time symbol is available. For example:

#ifdef DEBUG
cerr << "Some debug statement" << endl;
#endif

Unless you set a -DDEBUG option (in GCC, see your compiler's documenation) or #define DEBUG 1 somewhere else in your code (that is available to the #ifdef), the debug statement above will not be compiled into the resulting binary.

That being said, heavy use of #ifdef can quickly become a maintanence blackhole and make it more difficult for your code to be portable. I would recommend against such a strategy.