path: root/usr.bin/rcs/rcs.1

.\"	$OpenBSD: rcs.1,v 1.23 2006/03/08 11:25:58 xsa Exp $
.\"
.\" Copyright (c) 2005 Jean-Francois Brousseau <jfb@openbsd.org>
.\" Copyright (c) 2005 Xavier Santolaria <xsa@openbsd.org>
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.\" INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY
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.Dd May 16, 2004
.Dt RCS 1
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm rcs
.Nd RCS file management program
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm
.Op Fl ehIiLMqTUV
.Op Fl A Ns Ar oldfile
.Op Fl a Ns Ar users
.Op Fl b Ns Op Ar rev
.Op Fl c Ns Ar string
.Op Fl e Ns Op Ar users
.Op Fl k Ns Ar mode
.Oo Fl m Ns Ar rev Ns :
.Ar msg Oc
.Op Fl o Ns Ar rev
.Oo Fl s Ns Ar state Ns
.Op : Ns Ar rev Oc
.Oo Fl t Ns Ar file Ns \*(Ba
.Ar str Oc
.Op Fl x Ns Ar suffixes
.Ar file ...
.Sh DESCRIPTION
Revision Control System (RCS) is a software tool which lets people
manage multiple revisions of text that is revised frequently, such as
source code or documentation.
.Pp
The
.Nm
program is used to create RCS files or manipulate the contents of existing
files.
A set of helper tools is also available:
specific revisions of files may be checked in or out, using
.Xr ci 1
and
.Xr co 1 ;
differences between revisions viewed or merged, using
.Xr rcsdiff 1
and
.Xr rcsmerge 1 ;
and information about RCS files and keyword strings displayed using
.Xr rlog 1
and
.Xr ident 1 .
See the respective manual pages for more information
about these utilities.
.Pp
The following options are supported:
.Bl -tag -width "-e usersXX"
.It Fl A Ns Ar oldfile
Append the access list of
.Ar oldfile
to the access list of the RCS files.
.It Fl a Ns Ar users
Add the usernames specified in the comma-separated list
.Ar users
to the access list of the RCS files.
.It Fl b Ns Op Ar rev
Set the default branch to
.Ar rev .
.It Fl c Ns Ar string
Set comment leader to
.Ar string .
.It Fl e Ns Op Ar users
Remove the usernames specified in the comma-separated list
.Ar users
from the access list of the RCS files.
If
.Ar users
is not specified, all users are removed from the access list.
.It Fl h
Display the program's usage and exit.
.It Fl I
Interactive mode.
.It Fl i
Create and initialize a new RCS file.
If the RCS file has no path prefix, try to first create it in the
.Pa ./RCS
subdirectory or, if that fails, in the current directory.
Files created this way contain no revision.
.It Fl k Ns Ar mode
Specify the keyword substitution mode.
.It Fl L
Enable strict locking on the RCS files.
.It Fl M
Disable mail warnings when breaking a user's lock.
Normally,
.Nm
will send a mail to the lock owner when his lock is removed by a call
to
.Nm
.Fl u .
This option is currently ignored.
.It Fl m Ns Ar rev : Ns Ar msg
Replace revision
.Ar rev Ns 's
log message with
.Ar msg .
.It Fl o Ns Ar rev
Delete one or more revisions.
The specifications of the values or revisions are as follows:
.Bl -tag -width Ds
.It rev
Specific revision.
.It rev1:rev2
Delete all revisions of a branch between
.Ar rev1
and
.Ar rev2 .
.It rev1::rev2
Delete all revisions of a branch between
.Ar rev1
and
.Ar rev2
without deleting revisions
.Ar rev1
and
.Ar rev2 .
.It :rev
Delete all revisions of the branch until revision
.Ar rev .
.It rev:
Delete all revisions of the branch from revision
.Ar rev
until the last revision of the branch.
.El
.It Fl q
Be quiet about reporting.
.Sm off
.It Fl s Ar state Op : Ar rev
.Sm on
Sets the state of revision
.Ar rev
to the identifier
.Ar state .
The specified value may not contain a space character.
If
.Ar rev
is not specified, the latest revision of the default branch
is assumed.
.It Fl T
Preserve the modification time of RCS files.
.Sm off
.It Fl t Ar file \*(Ba Ar str
.Sm on
Change the descriptive text.
The descriptive text is taken from the
.Ar file
specified as argument or from the string
.Ar str
given as argument if it is preceded by the
.Sq -
character.
If no argument is used, the descriptive text is taken from standard input
terminated by end-of-file or by a line containing the
.Sq \&.
character by itself.
.It Fl U
Disable strict locking on the RCS files.
.It Fl V
Print the program's version string and exit.
.It Fl x Ns Ar suffixes
Specifies the suffixes for RCS files.
Suffixes should be separated by the
.Sq /
character.
.El
.Sh ENVIRONMENT
.Bl -tag -width RCSINIT
.It Ev RCSINIT
If set, this variable should contain a list of space-delimited options that
are prepended to the argument list.
.El
.Sh EXAMPLES
One of the most common uses of
.Nm
is to track changes to a document containing source code.
.Pp
As an example,
we'll look at a user wishing to track source changes to a file
.Ar foo.c .
.Pp
If the
.Ar RCS
directory does not exist yet, create it as follows and invoke the
check-in command:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
$ mkdir RCS
$ ci foo.c
.Ed
.Pp
This command creates an RCS file
.Ar foo.c,v
in the
.Ar RCS
directory, stores
.Ar foo.c
into it as revision 1.1, and deletes
.Ar foo.c .
.Xr ci 1
will prompt for a description of the file to be entered.
Whenever a newly created (or updated) file is checked-in,
.Xr ci 1
will prompt for a log message to be entered which should summarize
the changes made to the file.
That log message will be added to the RCS file along with the new revision.
.Pp
The
.Xr co 1
command can now be used to obtain a copy of the checked-in
.Ar foo.c,v
file:
.Pp
.Dl $ co foo.c
.Pp
This command checks the file out in shared or unlocked mode.
If a user wants to have exclusive access to the file to make changes to it,
it needs to be checked out in locked mode using the
.Fl l
option of the
.Xr co 1
command.
Only one concurrent locked checkout of a revision is permitted.
.Pp
Once changes have been made to the
.Pa foo.c
file, and before checking the file in, the
.Xr rcsdiff 1
command can be used to view changes between the working file
and the most recently checked-in revision:
.Pp
.Dl $ rcsdiff -u foo.c
.Pp
The
.Fl u
option produces a unified diff.
See
.Xr diff 1
for more information.
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr ci 1 ,
.Xr co 1 ,
.Xr ident 1 ,
.Xr rcsclean 1 ,
.Xr rcsdiff 1 ,
.Xr rcsmerge 1 ,
.Xr rlog 1
.Sh STANDARDS
The flag
.Op Fl z
has no effect and is provided
for compatibility only.