(Type: value, Default: FALSE)

<$.VERSION Option> <$.CYCLE Option>

──┬─ $.VERSION ── <version number> ─┬─────────────────────┬────────────┤
  │                                 └─ . ──<cycle number>─┤
  └─ $.RESET VERSION ─────────────────────────────────────┘

── $.CYCLE ── <cycle number> ──────────────────────────────────────────┤

When $.VERSION and $.CYCLE are used, the PATCH utility concatenates the version number, cycle number, and patch number, separated by periods, to form the mark number.

Both a version number and a cycle number must be specified. A cycle number can be specified with either the $.VERSION option or the $.CYCLE option. The version number or cycle number can be changed separately at any time.

The patch number is taken as the first item immediately after the first nonblank character string on the $# record. The patch number can only be changed at the beginning of each patch by the $# record.

All three numbers (version number, cycle number, and patch number) must be in the correct range. The version number can be two digits, the cycle number can be three digits, and the patch number can be four digits.

The mark field in the PATCH file record contains the version number, cycle number, and patch number. Periods are used as separators if the patch number is three digits or less, (that is, the mark field is created as vv.cc.nnn. If the patch number is four digits, periods are not used as separators—that is, the mark field is created as vvcccnnnn and column 90 is blank. When the mark field is listed, the PATCH utility inserts periods between the fields for readability purposes.

$.RESET VERSION restores the default mechanism as if no $.VERSION or $.CYCLE had appeared.

The $.VERSION and $.CYCLE options are ignored unless $.MARK or $.MARKBLANK is TRUE.