This is cvs.info, produced by makeinfo version 4.0 from cvs.texinfo. START-INFO-DIR-ENTRY * CVS: (cvs). Concurrent Versions System END-INFO-DIR-ENTRY Copyright (C) 1992, 1993 Signum Support AB Copyright (C) 1993, 1994 Free Software Foundation, Inc. Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies. Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided also that the entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a permission notice identical to this one. Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this manual into another language, under the above conditions for modified versions, except that this permission notice may be stated in a translation approved by the Free Software Foundation.  File: cvs.info, Node: First import, Next: Update imports, Up: Tracking sources Importing for the first time ============================ Use the `import' command to check in the sources for the first time. When you use the `import' command to track third-party sources, the "vendor tag" and "release tags" are useful. The "vendor tag" is a symbolic name for the branch (which is always 1.1.1, unless you use the `-b BRANCH' flag--see *Note Multiple vendor branches::.). The "release tags" are symbolic names for a particular release, such as `FSF_0_04'. Note that `import' does _not_ change the directory in which you invoke it. In particular, it does not set up that directory as a CVS working directory; if you want to work with the sources import them first and then check them out into a different directory (*note Getting the source::). Suppose you have the sources to a program called `wdiff' in a directory `wdiff-0.04', and are going to make private modifications that you want to be able to use even when new releases are made in the future. You start by importing the source to your repository: $ cd wdiff-0.04 $ cvs import -m "Import of FSF v. 0.04" fsf/wdiff FSF_DIST WDIFF_0_04 The vendor tag is named `FSF_DIST' in the above example, and the only release tag assigned is `WDIFF_0_04'.  File: cvs.info, Node: Update imports, Next: Reverting local changes, Prev: First import, Up: Tracking sources Updating with the import command ================================ When a new release of the source arrives, you import it into the repository with the same `import' command that you used to set up the repository in the first place. The only difference is that you specify a different release tag this time. $ tar xfz wdiff-0.05.tar.gz $ cd wdiff-0.05 $ cvs import -m "Import of FSF v. 0.05" fsf/wdiff FSF_DIST WDIFF_0_05 For files that have not been modified locally, the newly created revision becomes the head revision. If you have made local changes, `import' will warn you that you must merge the changes into the main trunk, and tell you to use `checkout -j' to do so. $ cvs checkout -jFSF_DIST:yesterday -jFSF_DIST wdiff The above command will check out the latest revision of `wdiff', merging the changes made on the vendor branch `FSF_DIST' since yesterday into the working copy. If any conflicts arise during the merge they should be resolved in the normal way (*note Conflicts example::). Then, the modified files may be committed. Using a date, as suggested above, assumes that you do not import more than one release of a product per day. If you do, you can always use something like this instead: $ cvs checkout -jWDIFF_0_04 -jWDIFF_0_05 wdiff In this case, the two above commands are equivalent.  File: cvs.info, Node: Reverting local changes, Next: Binary files in imports, Prev: Update imports, Up: Tracking sources Reverting to the latest vendor release ====================================== You can also revert local changes completely and return to the latest vendor release by changing the `head' revision back to the vendor branch on all files. For example, if you have a checked-out copy of the sources in `~/work.d/wdiff', and you want to revert to the vendor's version for all the files in that directory, you would type: $ cd ~/work.d/wdiff $ cvs admin -bWDIFF . You must specify the `-bWDIFF' without any space after the `-b'. *Note admin options::.  File: cvs.info, Node: Binary files in imports, Next: Keywords in imports, Prev: Reverting local changes, Up: Tracking sources How to handle binary files with cvs import ========================================== Use the `-k' wrapper option to tell import which files are binary. *Note Wrappers::.  File: cvs.info, Node: Keywords in imports, Next: Multiple vendor branches, Prev: Binary files in imports, Up: Tracking sources How to handle keyword substitution with cvs import ================================================== The sources which you are importing may contain keywords (*note Keyword substitution::). For example, the vendor may use CVS or some other system which uses similar keyword expansion syntax. If you just import the files in the default fashion, then the keyword expansions supplied by the vendor will be replaced by keyword expansions supplied by your own copy of CVS. It may be more convenient to maintain the expansions supplied by the vendor, so that this information can supply information about the sources that you imported from the vendor. To maintain the keyword expansions supplied by the vendor, supply the `-ko' option to `cvs import' the first time you import the file. This will turn off keyword expansion for that file entirely, so if you want to be more selective you'll have to think about what you want and use the `-k' option to `cvs update' or `cvs admin' as appropriate.  File: cvs.info, Node: Multiple vendor branches, Prev: Keywords in imports, Up: Tracking sources Multiple vendor branches ======================== All the examples so far assume that there is only one vendor from which you are getting sources. In some situations you might get sources from a variety of places. For example, suppose that you are dealing with a project where many different people and teams are modifying the software. There are a variety of ways to handle this, but in some cases you have a bunch of source trees lying around and what you want to do more than anything else is just to all put them in CVS so that you at least have them in one place. For handling situations in which there may be more than one vendor, you may specify the `-b' option to `cvs import'. It takes as an argument the vendor branch to import to. The default is `-b 1.1.1'. For example, suppose that there are two teams, the red team and the blue team, that are sending you sources. You want to import the red team's efforts to branch 1.1.1 and use the vendor tag RED. You want to import the blue team's efforts to branch 1.1.3 and use the vendor tag BLUE. So the commands you might use are: $ cvs import dir RED RED_1-0 $ cvs import -b 1.1.3 dir BLUE BLUE_1-5 Note that if your vendor tag does not match your `-b' option, CVS will not detect this case! For example, $ cvs import -b 1.1.3 dir RED RED_1-0 Be careful; this kind of mismatch is sure to sow confusion or worse. I can't think of a useful purpose for the ability to specify a mismatch here, but if you discover such a use, don't. CVS is likely to make this an error in some future release.  File: cvs.info, Node: Builds, Next: Special Files, Prev: Tracking sources, Up: Top How your build system interacts with CVS **************************************** As mentioned in the introduction, CVS does not contain software for building your software from source code. This section describes how various aspects of your build system might interact with CVS. One common question, especially from people who are accustomed to RCS, is how to make their build get an up to date copy of the sources. The answer to this with CVS is two-fold. First of all, since CVS itself can recurse through directories, there is no need to modify your `Makefile' (or whatever configuration file your build tool uses) to make sure each file is up to date. Instead, just use two commands, first `cvs -q update' and then `make' or whatever the command is to invoke your build tool. Secondly, you do not necessarily _want_ to get a copy of a change someone else made until you have finished your own work. One suggested approach is to first update your sources, then implement, build and test the change you were thinking of, and then commit your sources (updating first if necessary). By periodically (in between changes, using the approach just described) updating your entire tree, you ensure that your sources are sufficiently up to date. One common need is to record which versions of which source files went into a particular build. This kind of functionality is sometimes called "bill of materials" or something similar. The best way to do this with CVS is to use the `tag' command to record which versions went into a given build (*note Tags::). Using CVS in the most straightforward manner possible, each developer will have a copy of the entire source tree which is used in a particular build. If the source tree is small, or if developers are geographically dispersed, this is the preferred solution. In fact one approach for larger projects is to break a project down into smaller separately-compiled subsystems, and arrange a way of releasing them internally so that each developer need check out only those subsystems which are they are actively working on. Another approach is to set up a structure which allows developers to have their own copies of some files, and for other files to access source files from a central location. Many people have come up with some such a system using features such as the symbolic link feature found in many operating systems, or the `VPATH' feature found in many versions of `make'. One build tool which is designed to help with this kind of thing is Odin (see `ftp://ftp.cs.colorado.edu/pub/distribs/odin').  File: cvs.info, Node: Special Files, Next: CVS commands, Prev: Builds, Up: Top Special Files ************* In normal circumstances, CVS works only with regular files. Every file in a project is assumed to be persistent; it must be possible to open, read and close them; and so on. CVS also ignores file permissions and ownerships, leaving such issues to be resolved by the developer at installation time. In other words, it is not possible to "check in" a device into a repository; if the device file cannot be opened, CVS will refuse to handle it. Files also lose their ownerships and permissions during repository transactions.  File: cvs.info, Node: CVS commands, Next: Invoking CVS, Prev: Special Files, Up: Top Guide to CVS commands ********************* This appendix describes the overall structure of CVS commands, and describes some commands in detail (others are described elsewhere; for a quick reference to CVS commands, *note Invoking CVS::). * Menu: * Structure:: Overall structure of CVS commands * Exit status:: Indicating CVS's success or failure * ~/.cvsrc:: Default options with the ~/.csvrc file * Global options:: Options you give to the left of cvs_command * Common options:: Options you give to the right of cvs_command * admin:: Administration * checkout:: Checkout sources for editing * commit:: Check files into the repository * diff:: Show differences between revisions * export:: Export sources from CVS, similar to checkout * history:: Show status of files and users * import:: Import sources into CVS, using vendor branches * log:: Show log messages for files * rdiff:: 'patch' format diffs between releases * release:: Indicate that a directory is no longer in use * update:: Bring work tree in sync with repository  File: cvs.info, Node: Structure, Next: Exit status, Up: CVS commands Overall structure of CVS commands ================================= The overall format of all CVS commands is: cvs [ cvs_options ] cvs_command [ command_options ] [ command_args ] `cvs' The name of the CVS program. `cvs_options' Some options that affect all sub-commands of CVS. These are described below. `cvs_command' One of several different sub-commands. Some of the commands have aliases that can be used instead; those aliases are noted in the reference manual for that command. There are only two situations where you may omit `cvs_command': `cvs -H' elicits a list of available commands, and `cvs -v' displays version information on CVS itself. `command_options' Options that are specific for the command. `command_args' Arguments to the commands. There is unfortunately some confusion between `cvs_options' and `command_options'. `-l', when given as a `cvs_option', only affects some of the commands. When it is given as a `command_option' is has a different meaning, and is accepted by more commands. In other words, do not take the above categorization too seriously. Look at the documentation instead.  File: cvs.info, Node: Exit status, Next: ~/.cvsrc, Prev: Structure, Up: CVS commands CVS's exit status ================= CVS can indicate to the calling environment whether it succeeded or failed by setting its "exit status". The exact way of testing the exit status will vary from one operating system to another. For example in a unix shell script the `$?' variable will be 0 if the last command returned a successful exit status, or greater than 0 if the exit status indicated failure. If CVS is successful, it returns a successful status; if there is an error, it prints an error message and returns a failure status. The one exception to this is the `cvs diff' command. It will return a successful status if it found no differences, or a failure status if there were differences or if there was an error. Because this behavior provides no good way to detect errors, in the future it is possible that `cvs diff' will be changed to behave like the other CVS commands.  File: cvs.info, Node: ~/.cvsrc, Next: Global options, Prev: Exit status, Up: CVS commands Default options and the ~/.cvsrc file ===================================== There are some `command_options' that are used so often that you might have set up an alias or some other means to make sure you always specify that option. One example (the one that drove the implementation of the `.cvsrc' support, actually) is that many people find the default output of the `diff' command to be very hard to read, and that either context diffs or unidiffs are much easier to understand. The `~/.cvsrc' file is a way that you can add default options to `cvs_commands' within cvs, instead of relying on aliases or other shell scripts. The format of the `~/.cvsrc' file is simple. The file is searched for a line that begins with the same name as the `cvs_command' being executed. If a match is found, then the remainder of the line is split up (at whitespace characters) into separate options and added to the command arguments _before_ any options from the command line. If a command has two names (e.g., `checkout' and `co'), the official name, not necessarily the one used on the command line, will be used to match against the file. So if this is the contents of the user's `~/.cvsrc' file: log -N diff -u update -P checkout -P the command `cvs checkout foo' would have the `-P' option added to the arguments, as well as `cvs co foo'. With the example file above, the output from `cvs diff foobar' will be in unidiff format. `cvs diff -c foobar' will provide context diffs, as usual. Getting "old" format diffs would be slightly more complicated, because `diff' doesn't have an option to specify use of the "old" format, so you would need `cvs -f diff foobar'. In place of the command name you can use `cvs' to specify global options (*note Global options::). For example the following line in `.cvsrc' cvs -z6 causes CVS to use compression level 6.  File: cvs.info, Node: Global options, Next: Common options, Prev: ~/.cvsrc, Up: CVS commands Global options ============== The available `cvs_options' (that are given to the left of `cvs_command') are: `--allow-root=ROOTDIR' Specify legal CVSROOT directory. See *Note Password authentication server::. `-a' Authenticate all communication between the client and the server. Only has an effect on the CVS client. As of this writing, this is only implemented when using a GSSAPI connection (*note GSSAPI authenticated::). Authentication prevents certain sorts of attacks involving hijacking the active TCP connection. Enabling authentication does not enable encryption. `-b BINDIR' In CVS 1.9.18 and older, this specified that RCS programs are in the BINDIR directory. Current versions of CVS do not run RCS programs; for compatibility this option is accepted, but it does nothing. `-T TEMPDIR' Use TEMPDIR as the directory where temporary files are located. Overrides the setting of the `$TMPDIR' environment variable and any precompiled directory. This parameter should be specified as an absolute pathname. `-d CVS_ROOT_DIRECTORY' Use CVS_ROOT_DIRECTORY as the root directory pathname of the repository. Overrides the setting of the `$CVSROOT' environment variable. *Note Repository::. `-e EDITOR' Use EDITOR to enter revision log information. Overrides the setting of the `$CVSEDITOR' and `$EDITOR' environment variables. For more information, see *Note Committing your changes::. `-f' Do not read the `~/.cvsrc' file. This option is most often used because of the non-orthogonality of the CVS option set. For example, the `cvs log' option `-N' (turn off display of tag names) does not have a corresponding option to turn the display on. So if you have `-N' in the `~/.cvsrc' entry for `log', you may need to use `-f' to show the tag names. `-H' `--help' Display usage information about the specified `cvs_command' (but do not actually execute the command). If you don't specify a command name, `cvs -H' displays overall help for CVS, including a list of other help options. `-l' Do not log the `cvs_command' in the command history (but execute it anyway). *Note history::, for information on command history. `-n' Do not change any files. Attempt to execute the `cvs_command', but only to issue reports; do not remove, update, or merge any existing files, or create any new files. Note that CVS will not necessarily produce exactly the same output as without `-n'. In some cases the output will be the same, but in other cases CVS will skip some of the processing that would have been required to produce the exact same output. `-Q' Cause the command to be really quiet; the command will only generate output for serious problems. `-q' Cause the command to be somewhat quiet; informational messages, such as reports of recursion through subdirectories, are suppressed. `-r' Make new working files read-only. Same effect as if the `$CVSREAD' environment variable is set (*note Environment variables::). The default is to make working files writable, unless watches are on (*note Watches::). `-s VARIABLE=VALUE' Set a user variable (*note Variables::). `-t' Trace program execution; display messages showing the steps of CVS activity. Particularly useful with `-n' to explore the potential impact of an unfamiliar command. `-v' `--version' Display version and copyright information for CVS. `-w' Make new working files read-write. Overrides the setting of the `$CVSREAD' environment variable. Files are created read-write by default, unless `$CVSREAD' is set or `-r' is given. `-x' Encrypt all communication between the client and the server. Only has an effect on the CVS client. As of this writing, this is only implemented when using a GSSAPI connection (*note GSSAPI authenticated::) or a Kerberos connection (*note Kerberos authenticated::). Enabling encryption implies that message traffic is also authenticated. Encryption support is not available by default; it must be enabled using a special configure option, `--enable-encryption', when you build CVS. `-z GZIP-LEVEL' Set the compression level. Valid levels are 1 (high speed, low compression) to 9 (low speed, high compression), or 0 to disable compression (the default). Only has an effect on the CVS client.  File: cvs.info, Node: Common options, Next: admin, Prev: Global options, Up: CVS commands Common command options ====================== This section describes the `command_options' that are available across several CVS commands. These options are always given to the right of `cvs_command'. Not all commands support all of these options; each option is only supported for commands where it makes sense. However, when a command has one of these options you can almost always count on the same behavior of the option as in other commands. (Other command options, which are listed with the individual commands, may have different behavior from one CVS command to the other). *Warning:* the `history' command is an exception; it supports many options that conflict even with these standard options. `-D DATE_SPEC' Use the most recent revision no later than DATE_SPEC. DATE_SPEC is a single argument, a date description specifying a date in the past. The specification is "sticky" when you use it to make a private copy of a source file; that is, when you get a working file using `-D', CVS records the date you specified, so that further updates in the same directory will use the same date (for more information on sticky tags/dates, *note Sticky tags::). `-D' is available with the `checkout', `diff', `export', `history', `rdiff', `rtag', and `update' commands. (The `history' command uses this option in a slightly different way; *note history options::). A wide variety of date formats are supported by CVS. The most standard ones are ISO8601 (from the International Standards Organization) and the Internet e-mail standard (specified in RFC822 as amended by RFC1123). ISO8601 dates have many variants but a few examples are: 1972-09-24 1972-09-24 20:05 There are a lot more ISO8601 date formats, and CVS accepts many of them, but you probably don't want to hear the _whole_ long story :-). In addition to the dates allowed in Internet e-mail itself, CVS also allows some of the fields to be omitted. For example: 24 Sep 1972 20:05 24 Sep The date is interpreted as being in the local timezone, unless a specific timezone is specified. These two date formats are preferred. However, CVS currently accepts a wide variety of other date formats. They are intentionally not documented here in any detail, and future versions of CVS might not accept all of them. One such format is `MONTH/DAY/YEAR'. This may confuse people who are accustomed to having the month and day in the other order; `1/4/96' is January 4, not April 1. Remember to quote the argument to the `-D' flag so that your shell doesn't interpret spaces as argument separators. A command using the `-D' flag can look like this: $ cvs diff -D "1 hour ago" cvs.texinfo `-f' When you specify a particular date or tag to CVS commands, they normally ignore files that do not contain the tag (or did not exist prior to the date) that you specified. Use the `-f' option if you want files retrieved even when there is no match for the tag or date. (The most recent revision of the file will be used). Note that even with `-f', a tag that you specify must exist (that is, in some file, not necessary in every file). This is so that CVS will continue to give an error if you mistype a tag name. `-f' is available with these commands: `annotate', `checkout', `export', `rdiff', `rtag', and `update'. *Warning:* The `commit' and `remove' commands also have a `-f' option, but it has a different behavior for those commands. See *Note commit options::, and *Note Removing files::. `-k KFLAG' Alter the default processing of keywords. *Note Keyword substitution::, for the meaning of KFLAG. Your KFLAG specification is "sticky" when you use it to create a private copy of a source file; that is, when you use this option with the `checkout' or `update' commands, CVS associates your selected KFLAG with the file, and continues to use it with future update commands on the same file until you specify otherwise. The `-k' option is available with the `add', `checkout', `diff', `import' and `update' commands. `-l' Local; run only in current working directory, rather than recursing through subdirectories. *Warning:* this is not the same as the overall `cvs -l' option, which you can specify to the left of a cvs command! Available with the following commands: `annotate', `checkout', `commit', `diff', `edit', `editors', `export', `log', `rdiff', `remove', `rtag', `status', `tag', `unedit', `update', `watch', and `watchers'. `-m MESSAGE' Use MESSAGE as log information, instead of invoking an editor. Available with the following commands: `add', `commit' and `import'. `-n' Do not run any checkout/commit/tag program. (A program can be specified to run on each of these activities, in the modules database (*note modules::); this option bypasses it). *Warning:* this is not the same as the overall `cvs -n' option, which you can specify to the left of a cvs command! Available with the `checkout', `commit', `export', and `rtag' commands. `-P' Prune empty directories. See *Note Removing directories::. `-p' Pipe the files retrieved from the repository to standard output, rather than writing them in the current directory. Available with the `checkout' and `update' commands. `-R' Process directories recursively. This is on by default. Available with the following commands: `annotate', `checkout', `commit', `diff', `edit', `editors', `export', `rdiff', `remove', `rtag', `status', `tag', `unedit', `update', `watch', and `watchers'. `-r TAG' Use the revision specified by the TAG argument instead of the default "head" revision. As well as arbitrary tags defined with the `tag' or `rtag' command, two special tags are always available: `HEAD' refers to the most recent version available in the repository, and `BASE' refers to the revision you last checked out into the current working directory. The tag specification is sticky when you use this with `checkout' or `update' to make your own copy of a file: CVS remembers the tag and continues to use it on future update commands, until you specify otherwise (for more information on sticky tags/dates, *note Sticky tags::). The tag can be either a symbolic or numeric tag, as described in *Note Tags::, or the name of a branch, as described in *Note Branching and merging::. Specifying the `-q' global option along with the `-r' command option is often useful, to suppress the warning messages when the RCS file does not contain the specified tag. *Warning:* this is not the same as the overall `cvs -r' option, which you can specify to the left of a CVS command! `-r' is available with the `checkout', `commit', `diff', `history', `export', `rdiff', `rtag', and `update' commands. `-W' Specify file names that should be filtered. You can use this option repeatedly. The spec can be a file name pattern of the same type that you can specify in the `.cvswrappers' file. Available with the following commands: `import', and `update'.  File: cvs.info, Node: admin, Next: checkout, Prev: Common options, Up: CVS commands admin--Administration ===================== * Requires: repository, working directory. * Changes: repository. * Synonym: rcs This is the CVS interface to assorted administrative facilities. Some of them have questionable usefulness for CVS but exist for historical purposes. Some of the questionable options are likely to disappear in the future. This command _does_ work recursively, so extreme care should be used. On unix, if there is a group named `cvsadmin', only members of that group can run `cvs admin' (except for the `cvs admin -k' command, which can be run by anybody). This group should exist on the server, or any system running the non-client/server CVS. To disallow `cvs admin' for all users, create a group with no users in it. On NT, the `cvsadmin' feature does not exist and all users can run `cvs admin'. * Menu: * admin options:: admin options  File: cvs.info, Node: admin options, Up: admin admin options ------------- Some of these options have questionable usefulness for CVS but exist for historical purposes. Some even make it impossible to use CVS until you undo the effect! `-AOLDFILE' Might not work together with CVS. Append the access list of OLDFILE to the access list of the RCS file. `-aLOGINS' Might not work together with CVS. Append the login names appearing in the comma-separated list LOGINS to the access list of the RCS file. `-b[REV]' Set the default branch to REV. In CVS, you normally do not manipulate default branches; sticky tags (*note Sticky tags::) are a better way to decide which branch you want to work on. There is one reason to run `cvs admin -b': to revert to the vendor's version when using vendor branches (*note Reverting local changes::). There can be no space between `-b' and its argument. `-cSTRING' Sets the comment leader to STRING. The comment leader is not used by current versions of CVS or RCS 5.7. Therefore, you can almost surely not worry about it. *Note Keyword substitution::. `-e[LOGINS]' Might not work together with CVS. Erase the login names appearing in the comma-separated list LOGINS from the access list of the RCS file. If LOGINS is omitted, erase the entire access list. There can be no space between `-e' and its argument. `-I' Run interactively, even if the standard input is not a terminal. This option does not work with the client/server CVS and is likely to disappear in a future release of CVS. `-i' Useless with CVS. This creates and initializes a new RCS file, without depositing a revision. With CVS, add files with the `cvs add' command (*note Adding files::). `-kSUBST' Set the default keyword substitution to SUBST. *Note Keyword substitution::. Giving an explicit `-k' option to `cvs update', `cvs export', or `cvs checkout' overrides this default. `-l[REV]' Lock the revision with number REV. If a branch is given, lock the latest revision on that branch. If REV is omitted, lock the latest revision on the default branch. There can be no space between `-l' and its argument. This can be used in conjunction with the `rcslock.pl' script in the `contrib' directory of the CVS source distribution to provide reserved checkouts (where only one user can be editing a given file at a time). See the comments in that file for details (and see the `README' file in that directory for disclaimers about the unsupported nature of contrib). According to comments in that file, locking must set to strict (which is the default). `-L' Set locking to strict. Strict locking means that the owner of an RCS file is not exempt from locking for checkin. For use with CVS, strict locking must be set; see the discussion under the `-l' option above. `-mREV:MSG' Replace the log message of revision REV with MSG. `-NNAME[:[REV]]' Act like `-n', except override any previous assignment of NAME. For use with magic branches, see *Note Magic branch numbers::. `-nNAME[:[REV]]' Associate the symbolic name NAME with the branch or revision REV. It is normally better to use `cvs tag' or `cvs rtag' instead. Delete the symbolic name if both `:' and REV are omitted; otherwise, print an error message if NAME is already associated with another number. If REV is symbolic, it is expanded before association. A REV consisting of a branch number followed by a `.' stands for the current latest revision in the branch. A `:' with an empty REV stands for the current latest revision on the default branch, normally the trunk. For example, `cvs admin -nNAME:' associates NAME with the current latest revision of all the RCS files; this contrasts with `cvs admin -nNAME:$' which associates NAME with the revision numbers extracted from keyword strings in the corresponding working files. `-oRANGE' Deletes ("outdates") the revisions given by RANGE. Note that this command can be quite dangerous unless you know _exactly_ what you are doing (for example see the warnings below about how the REV1:REV2 syntax is confusing). If you are short on disc this option might help you. But think twice before using it--there is no way short of restoring the latest backup to undo this command! If you delete different revisions than you planned, either due to carelessness or (heaven forbid) a CVS bug, there is no opportunity to correct the error before the revisions are deleted. It probably would be a good idea to experiment on a copy of the repository first. Specify RANGE in one of the following ways: `REV1::REV2' Collapse all revisions between rev1 and rev2, so that CVS only stores the differences associated with going from rev1 to rev2, not intermediate steps. For example, after `-o 1.3::1.5' one can retrieve revision 1.3, revision 1.5, or the differences to get from 1.3 to 1.5, but not the revision 1.4, or the differences between 1.3 and 1.4. Other examples: `-o 1.3::1.4' and `-o 1.3::1.3' have no effect, because there are no intermediate revisions to remove. `::REV' Collapse revisions between the beginning of the branch containing REV and REV itself. The branchpoint and REV are left intact. For example, `-o ::1.3.2.6' deletes revision 1.3.2.1, revision 1.3.2.5, and everything in between, but leaves 1.3 and 1.3.2.6 intact. `REV::' Collapse revisions between REV and the end of the branch containing REV. Revision REV is left intact but the head revision is deleted. `REV' Delete the revision REV. For example, `-o 1.3' is equivalent to `-o 1.2::1.4'. `REV1:REV2' Delete the revisions from REV1 to REV2, inclusive, on the same branch. One will not be able to retrieve REV1 or REV2 or any of the revisions in between. For example, the command `cvs admin -oR_1_01:R_1_02 .' is rarely useful. It means to delete revisions up to, and including, the tag R_1_02. But beware! If there are files that have not changed between R_1_02 and R_1_03 the file will have _the same_ numerical revision number assigned to the tags R_1_02 and R_1_03. So not only will it be impossible to retrieve R_1_02; R_1_03 will also have to be restored from the tapes! In most cases you want to specify REV1::REV2 instead. `:REV' Delete revisions from the beginning of the branch containing REV up to and including REV. `REV:' Delete revisions from revision REV, including REV itself, to the end of the branch containing REV. None of the revisions to be deleted may have branches or locks. If any of the revisions to be deleted have symbolic names, and one specifies one of the `::' syntaxes, then CVS will give an error and not delete any revisions. If you really want to delete both the symbolic names and the revisions, first delete the symbolic names with `cvs tag -d', then run `cvs admin -o'. If one specifies the non-`::' syntaxes, then CVS will delete the revisions but leave the symbolic names pointing to nonexistent revisions. This behavior is preserved for compatibility with previous versions of CVS, but because it isn't very useful, in the future it may change to be like the `::' case. Due to the way CVS handles branches REV cannot be specified symbolically if it is a branch. *Note Magic branch numbers::, for an explanation. Make sure that no-one has checked out a copy of the revision you outdate. Strange things will happen if he starts to edit it and tries to check it back in. For this reason, this option is not a good way to take back a bogus commit; commit a new revision undoing the bogus change instead (*note Merging two revisions::). `-q' Run quietly; do not print diagnostics. `-sSTATE[:REV]' Useful with CVS. Set the state attribute of the revision REV to STATE. If REV is a branch number, assume the latest revision on that branch. If REV is omitted, assume the latest revision on the default branch. Any identifier is acceptable for STATE. A useful set of states is `Exp' (for experimental), `Stab' (for stable), and `Rel' (for released). By default, the state of a new revision is set to `Exp' when it is created. The state is visible in the output from CVS LOG (*note log::), and in the `$Log: cvs.info-5,v $ output from CVS LOG (*note log::), and in the `Revision 1.3 2001/09/30 19:44:54 tholo output from CVS LOG (*note log::), and in the `Revert to distributed version output from CVS LOG (*note log::), and in the ` output from CVS LOG (*note log::), and in the `Revision 1.1.1.18 2001/09/28 22:48:51 tholo output from CVS LOG (*note log::), and in the `Latest from Cyclic Software output from CVS LOG (*note log::), and in the `' and `$State: Exp $' keywords (*note Keyword substitution::). Note that CVS uses the `dead' state for its own purposes; to take a file to or from the `dead' state use commands like `cvs remove' and `cvs add', not `cvs admin -s'. `-t[FILE]' Useful with CVS. Write descriptive text from the contents of the named FILE into the RCS file, deleting the existing text. The FILE pathname may not begin with `-'. The descriptive text can be seen in the output from `cvs log' (*note log::). There can be no space between `-t' and its argument. If FILE is omitted, obtain the text from standard input, terminated by end-of-file or by a line containing `.' by itself. Prompt for the text if interaction is possible; see `-I'. `-t-STRING' Similar to `-tFILE'. Write descriptive text from the STRING into the RCS file, deleting the existing text. There can be no space between `-t' and its argument. `-U' Set locking to non-strict. Non-strict locking means that the owner of a file need not lock a revision for checkin. For use with CVS, strict locking must be set; see the discussion under the `-l' option above. `-u[REV]' See the option `-l' above, for a discussion of using this option with CVS. Unlock the revision with number REV. If a branch is given, unlock the latest revision on that branch. If REV is omitted, remove the latest lock held by the caller. Normally, only the locker of a revision may unlock it; somebody else unlocking a revision breaks the lock. This causes the original locker to be sent a `commit' notification (*note Getting Notified::). There can be no space between `-u' and its argument. `-VN' In previous versions of CVS, this option meant to write an RCS file which would be acceptable to RCS version N, but it is now obsolete and specifying it will produce an error. `-xSUFFIXES' In previous versions of CVS, this was documented as a way of specifying the names of the RCS files. However, CVS has always required that the RCS files used by CVS end in `,v', so this option has never done anything useful.  File: cvs.info, Node: checkout, Next: commit, Prev: admin, Up: CVS commands checkout--Check out sources for editing ======================================= * Synopsis: checkout [options] modules... * Requires: repository. * Changes: working directory. * Synonyms: co, get Create or update a working directory containing copies of the source files specified by MODULES. You must execute `checkout' before using most of the other CVS commands, since most of them operate on your working directory. The MODULES are either symbolic names for some collection of source directories and files, or paths to directories or files in the repository. The symbolic names are defined in the `modules' file. *Note modules::. Depending on the modules you specify, `checkout' may recursively create directories and populate them with the appropriate source files. You can then edit these source files at any time (regardless of whether other software developers are editing their own copies of the sources); update them to include new changes applied by others to the source repository; or commit your work as a permanent change to the source repository. Note that `checkout' is used to create directories. The top-level directory created is always added to the directory where `checkout' is invoked, and usually has the same name as the specified module. In the case of a module alias, the created sub-directory may have a different name, but you can be sure that it will be a sub-directory, and that `checkout' will show the relative path leading to each file as it is extracted into your private work area (unless you specify the `-Q' global option). The files created by `checkout' are created read-write, unless the `-r' option to CVS (*note Global options::) is specified, the `CVSREAD' environment variable is specified (*note Environment variables::), or a watch is in effect for that file (*note Watches::). Note that running `checkout' on a directory that was already built by a prior `checkout' is also permitted. This is similar to specifying the `-d' option to the `update' command in the sense that new directories that have been created in the repository will appear in your work area. However, `checkout' takes a module name whereas `update' takes a directory name. Also to use `checkout' this way it must be run from the top level directory (where you originally ran `checkout' from), so before you run `checkout' to update an existing directory, don't forget to change your directory to the top level directory. For the output produced by the `checkout' command see *Note update output::. * Menu: * checkout options:: checkout options * checkout examples:: checkout examples  File: cvs.info, Node: checkout options, Next: checkout examples, Up: checkout checkout options ---------------- These standard options are supported by `checkout' (*note Common options::, for a complete description of them): `-D DATE' Use the most recent revision no later than DATE. This option is sticky, and implies `-P'. See *Note Sticky tags::, for more information on sticky tags/dates. `-f' Only useful with the `-D DATE' or `-r TAG' flags. If no matching revision is found, retrieve the most recent revision (instead of ignoring the file). `-k KFLAG' Process keywords according to KFLAG. See *Note Keyword substitution::. This option is sticky; future updates of this file in this working directory will use the same KFLAG. The `status' command can be viewed to see the sticky options. See *Note Invoking CVS::, for more information on the `status' command. `-l' Local; run only in current working directory. `-n' Do not run any checkout program (as specified with the `-o' option in the modules file; *note modules::). `-P' Prune empty directories. See *Note Moving directories::. `-p' Pipe files to the standard output. `-R' Checkout directories recursively. This option is on by default. `-r TAG' Use revision TAG. This option is sticky, and implies `-P'. See *Note Sticky tags::, for more information on sticky tags/dates. In addition to those, you can use these special command options with `checkout': `-A' Reset any sticky tags, dates, or `-k' options. See *Note Sticky tags::, for more information on sticky tags/dates. `-c' Copy the module file, sorted, to the standard output, instead of creating or modifying any files or directories in your working directory. `-d DIR' Create a directory called DIR for the working files, instead of using the module name. In general, using this flag is equivalent to using `mkdir DIR; cd DIR' followed by the checkout command without the `-d' flag. There is an important exception, however. It is very convenient when checking out a single item to have the output appear in a directory that doesn't contain empty intermediate directories. In this case _only_, CVS tries to "shorten" pathnames to avoid those empty directories. For example, given a module `foo' that contains the file `bar.c', the command `cvs co -d dir foo' will create directory `dir' and place `bar.c' inside. Similarly, given a module `bar' which has subdirectory `baz' wherein there is a file `quux.c', the command `cvs -d dir co bar/baz' will create directory `dir' and place `quux.c' inside. Using the `-N' flag will defeat this behavior. Given the same module definitions above, `cvs co -N -d dir foo' will create directories `dir/foo' and place `bar.c' inside, while `cvs co -N -d dir bar/baz' will create directories `dir/bar/baz' and place `quux.c' inside. `-j TAG' With two `-j' options, merge changes from the revision specified with the first `-j' option to the revision specified with the second `j' option, into the working directory. With one `-j' option, merge changes from the ancestor revision to the revision specified with the `-j' option, into the working directory. The ancestor revision is the common ancestor of the revision which the working directory is based on, and the revision specified in the `-j' option. In addition, each -j option can contain an optional date specification which, when used with branches, can limit the chosen revision to one within a specific date. An optional date is specified by adding a colon (:) to the tag: `-jSYMBOLIC_TAG:DATE_SPECIFIER'. *Note Branching and merging::. `-N' Only useful together with `-d DIR'. With this option, CVS will not "shorten" module paths in your working directory when you check out a single module. See the `-d' flag for examples and a discussion. `-s' Like `-c', but include the status of all modules, and sort it by the status string. *Note modules::, for info about the `-s' option that is used inside the modules file to set the module status.  File: cvs.info, Node: checkout examples, Prev: checkout options, Up: checkout checkout examples ----------------- Get a copy of the module `tc': $ cvs checkout tc Get a copy of the module `tc' as it looked one day ago: $ cvs checkout -D yesterday tc  File: cvs.info, Node: commit, Next: diff, Prev: checkout, Up: CVS commands commit--Check files into the repository ======================================= * Synopsis: commit [-lnRf] [-m 'log_message' | -F file] [-r revision] [files...] * Requires: working directory, repository. * Changes: repository. * Synonym: ci Use `commit' when you want to incorporate changes from your working source files into the source repository. If you don't specify particular files to commit, all of the files in your working current directory are examined. `commit' is careful to change in the repository only those files that you have really changed. By default (or if you explicitly specify the `-R' option), files in subdirectories are also examined and committed if they have changed; you can use the `-l' option to limit `commit' to the current directory only. `commit' verifies that the selected files are up to date with the current revisions in the source repository; it will notify you, and exit without committing, if any of the specified files must be made current first with `update' (*note update::). `commit' does not call the `update' command for you, but rather leaves that for you to do when the time is right. When all is well, an editor is invoked to allow you to enter a log message that will be written to one or more logging programs (*note modules::, and *note loginfo::) and placed in the RCS file inside the repository. This log message can be retrieved with the `log' command; see *Note log::. You can specify the log message on the command line with the `-m MESSAGE' option, and thus avoid the editor invocation, or use the `-F FILE' option to specify that the argument file contains the log message. * Menu: * commit options:: commit options * commit examples:: commit examples