revisionsFortran

revisionsFortran is a framework and convention for recording, distributing, and applying revisions to Fortran source code within a project. It acts as a lightweight provenance layer that sits alongside a traditional version-control system rather than replacing it. The approach is commonly used by organizations that maintain large Fortran codebases with long lifespans and explicit reproducibility requirements.

Core concepts in revisionsFortran include revision blocks embedded in the source, metadata fields such as ID, date, author, description, and the scope of changes, as well as patch bundles that group related edits. A change log or audit trail is generated from these blocks to provide a readable history of modifications. Some implementations also include validation and consistency checks to ensure that revision metadata matches the corresponding source changes.

Workflow and tooling typically involve annotating changes with revision blocks, then using a dedicated tool to extract, validate, and assemble these blocks into patch sets or a centralized changelog. The tool can propagate changes to other branches or forks, and can produce patch files suitable for review or reproduction. revisionsFortran can be integrated with existing version control workflows, often complementing commit messages and tag references rather than replacing them.

History and status: revisionsFortran emerged from practices in maintenance-focused Fortran projects, particularly in high-performance computing and scientific computing environments where traceability and reproducibility are important. It is not a formal standard, and implementations vary by organization. In practice, revisionsFortran concepts are adapted to fit specific project needs, languages versions, and tooling ecosystems.

See also: Fortran, version control, software provenance, change management.