blame-rs

Line-by-line authorship tracking for revisioned text using proven diff algorithms.

🌟 Overview

blame-rs is a Rust library for line-by-line authorship tracking in revisioned text. Track which revision introduced each line in your documents with a flexible in-memory API.

✨ Features

Generic metadata API: Attach any metadata type to revisions (commit hashes, authors, timestamps, etc.)
Multiple diff algorithms: Support for Myers (default) and Patience algorithms via the similar crate
Forward tracking: Efficiently traces line origins from oldest to newest revision
High performance:
- Zero-copy line tracking with &str references (no string allocations)
- Shared metadata via Rc<T> (single clone per revision instead of per line)
- Pre-allocated vectors (minimal heap reallocations)
Well tested: Comprehensive test suite with fixture-based scenarios

Supported Diff Algorithms

Myers (Default)

Standard diff algorithm: Fast and reliable for most use cases
O(ND) complexity: Efficient for typical text changes
Widely used: Same algorithm used in many diff tools

Patience

High-quality diffs: Produces more intuitive results for code
Unique line matching: Better handling of code movement
Ideal for: Source code with unique lines and structural changes

🚀 Quick Start

Installation

Add to your Cargo.toml:

[dependencies]
blame-rs = "0.1.0"

Basic Usage

use blame_rs::{blame, BlameRevision};
use std::rc::Rc;

#[derive(Debug)]
struct CommitInfo {
    hash: String,
    author: String,
}

fn main() -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error>> {
    let revisions = vec![
        BlameRevision {
            content: "line 1\nline 2",
            metadata: Rc::new(CommitInfo {
                hash: "abc123".to_string(),
                author: "Alice".to_string(),
            }),
        },
        BlameRevision {
            content: "line 1\nline 2\nline 3",
            metadata: Rc::new(CommitInfo {
                hash: "def456".to_string(),
                author: "Bob".to_string(),
            }),
        },
    ];

    let result = blame(&revisions)?;

    for line in result.lines() {
        println!(
            "Line {}: {} (from {})",
            line.line_number,
            line.content.trim(),
            line.revision_metadata.author
        );
    }

    Ok(())
}

Output:

Line 0: line 1 (from Alice)
Line 1: line 2 (from Alice)
Line 2: line 3 (from Bob)

Advanced Configuration

use blame_rs::{blame_with_options, BlameOptions, BlameRevision, DiffAlgorithm};

let options = BlameOptions {
    algorithm: DiffAlgorithm::Patience,
};

let result = blame_with_options(&revisions, options)?;

for line in result.lines() {
    println!(
        "{:<6} {:<10} {:<15} {}",
        line.line_number + 1,
        &line.revision_metadata.hash[..6],
        line.revision_metadata.author,
        line.content.trim_end()
    );
}

🔍 How It Works

The algorithm works by:

Initialize: Starting with the first (oldest) revision, assigning all lines to that revision
Iterate forward: Processing each consecutive revision pair
Compute diff: Using the selected diff algorithm (Myers or Patience)
Track origins: For each line in the newer revision:
- Equal → Keep original metadata (unchanged line)
- Insert → Assign current revision metadata (new line)
- Delete → Remove from tracking (deleted line)

This forward-tracking approach ensures accurate line attribution even when lines are moved, modified, or deleted across multiple revisions.

Example Workflow

Rev 0 (Alice):          Rev 1 (Bob):           Rev 2 (Charlie):
fn main() {             fn main() {            fn main() {
  println!("Hello");      println!("Hello");     println!("Rust!");  ← Changed
}                         println!("World");     println!("World");
                        }                      }

Result:
Line 0: fn main() { → Alice (unchanged since Rev 0)
Line 1: println!("Rust!"); → Charlie (changed in Rev 2)
Line 2: println!("World"); → Bob (added in Rev 1)
Line 3: } → Alice (unchanged since Rev 0)

📦 Examples

See the examples/ directory for detailed usage:

basic_usage.rs: Demonstrates blame with multiple revisions and formatted table output
debug_example.rs: Shows detailed blame output with revision content for debugging

Run examples with:

cargo run --example basic_usage
cargo run --example debug_example

🧪 Testing & Quality

Comprehensive Test Suite

The library includes extensive testing with:

Fixture-based tests: Multiple real-world scenarios in tests/fixtures/
Both algorithms tested: Every fixture runs with Myers and Patience
Test scenarios include:
- Simple line additions
- Multiple revisions with incremental changes
- Line modifications and deletions
- Complex multi-revision histories

Running Tests

# Run all tests
cargo test

# Run tests with detailed output
cargo test -- --nocapture

# Run specific fixture test
cargo test test_multiple_revisions_myers -- --nocapture --exact

Test Output Example

================================================================================
Testing: multiple_revisions (Algorithm: Myers)
================================================================================

Revisions:
  Rev 0: "a\nb"
  Rev 1: "a\nb\nc"
  Rev 2: "a\nb\nc\nd"

Blame Results:
Line   Revision   Content
------------------------------------------------------------
0      Rev 0      a
1      Rev 0      b
2      Rev 1      c
3      Rev 2      d

✓ multiple_revisions (Myers) passed

📚 API Documentation

Generate and view the full API documentation:

cargo doc --open

Key types:

BlameRevision<'a, T>: Represents a revision with content (&'a str) and metadata (Rc<T>)
- content: &'a str - Zero-copy reference to revision content
- metadata: Rc<T> - Shared reference-counted metadata (no T: Clone required)
BlameLine<'a, T>: A single line with its origin information
- content: &'a str - Zero-copy reference to the original line
- revision_metadata: Rc<T> - Shared reference to revision metadata
BlameResult<'a, T>: Collection of blamed lines
BlameOptions: Configuration for the blame operation
DiffAlgorithm: Myers or Patience algorithm selection

Note: The library uses zero-copy string slices (&str) and shared metadata (Rc<T>) for optimal performance. Metadata types don't need to implement Clone.

🏗️ Requirements

Rust: 1.88.0 or later (uses 2024 edition)
Dependencies:
- similar (2.7.0) – Text diffing algorithms
- thiserror (2.0.17) – Error handling

blame-rs 0.1.4