cvs - phpMan

File: cvs.info, Node: Top, Next: Overview, Up: (dir)

CVS--Concurrent Versions System v1.12.13
****************************************

This info manual describes how to use and administer CVS version
1.12.13-MirOS-0AB9.1 and up.

Copyright (C) 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001,
2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

Portions
Copyright (C) 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013,
2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2021 mirabilos, The MirOS Project
Copyright (C) 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007
Derek R. Price,
Copyright (C) 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 Ximbiot
<http://ximbiot.com>,
Copyright (C) 1992, 1993, 1999 Signum Support AB,
and Copyright (C) others.

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.

* Menu:

* Overview:: An introduction to CVS
* Repository:: Where all your sources are stored
* Starting a new project:: Starting a project with CVS
* Revisions:: Numeric and symbolic names for revisions
* Branching and merging:: Diverging/rejoining branches of development
* Recursive behavior:: CVS descends directories
* Adding and removing:: Adding/removing/renaming files/directories
* History browsing:: Viewing the history of files in various ways

CVS and the Real World.
---------------
* Binary files:: CVS can handle binary files
* Multiple developers:: How CVS helps a group of developers
* Revision management:: Policy questions for revision management
* Keyword substitution:: CVS can include the revision inside the file
* Tracking sources:: Tracking third-party sources
* Builds:: Issues related to CVS and builds
* Special Files:: Devices, links and other non-regular files

References.
-------
* CVS commands:: CVS commands share some things
* Invoking CVS:: Quick reference to CVS commands
* Administrative files:: Reference manual for the Administrative files
* Environment variables:: All environment variables which affect CVS
* Compatibility:: Upgrading CVS versions
* Troubleshooting:: Some tips when nothing works
* Credits:: Some of the contributors to this manual
* BUGS:: Dealing with bugs in CVS or this manual
* CVS command list:: Alphabetical list of all CVS commands
* Index:: Index

File: cvs.info, Node: Overview, Next: Repository, Prev: Top, Up: Top

1 Overview
**********

This chapter is for people who have never used CVS, and perhaps have
never used version control software before.

If you are already familiar with CVS and are just trying to learn a
particular feature or remember a certain command, you can probably skip
everything here.

* Menu:

* What is CVS?:: What you can do with CVS
* What is CVS not?:: Problems CVS doesn't try to solve
* A sample session:: A tour of basic CVS usage

File: cvs.info, Node: What is CVS?, Next: What is CVS not?, Up: Overview

1.1 What is CVS?
================

CVS is a version control system. Using it, you can record the history
of your source files.

For example, bugs sometimes creep in when software is modified, and
you might not detect the bug until a long time after you make the
modification. With CVS, you can easily retrieve old versions to see
exactly which change caused the bug. This can sometimes be a big help.

You could of course save every version of every file you have ever
created. This would however waste an enormous amount of disk space.
CVS stores all the versions of a file in a single file in a clever way
that only stores the differences between versions.

CVS also helps you if you are part of a group of people working on
the same project. It is all too easy to overwrite each others' changes
unless you are extremely careful. Some editors, like GNU Emacs, try to
make sure that two people never modify the same file at the same time.
Unfortunately, if someone is using another editor, that safeguard will
not work. CVS solves this problem by insulating the different
developers from each other. Every developer works in his own directory,
and CVS merges the work when each developer is done.

CVS started out as a bunch of shell scripts written by Dick Grune,
posted to the newsgroup 'comp.sources.unix' in the volume 6 release of
July, 1986. While no actual code from these shell scripts is present in
the current version of CVS much of the CVS conflict resolution
algorithms come from them.

In April, 1989, Brian Berliner designed and coded CVS. Jeff Polk
later helped Brian with the design of the CVS module and vendor branch
support.

You can get CVS in a variety of ways, including free download from
the Internet. For more information on downloading CVS and other CVS
topics, see:

<http://cvs.nongnu.org/>

There is a mailing list, known as <info-cvs AT nongnu.org>, devoted to
CVS. To subscribe or unsubscribe write to
<info-cvs-request AT nongnu.org>. If you prefer a Usenet group, there is a
one-way mirror (posts to the email list are usually sent to the news
group, but not visa versa) of <info-cvs AT nongnu.org> at
<news:gnu.cvs.help>. The right Usenet group for posts is
<news:comp.software.config-mgmt> which is for CVS discussions (along
with other configuration management systems). In the future, it might
be possible to create a 'comp.software.config-mgmt.cvs', but probably
only if there is sufficient CVS traffic on
<news:comp.software.config-mgmt>.

You can also subscribe to the <bug-cvs AT nongnu.org> mailing list,
described in more detail in *note BUGS::. To subscribe send mail to
<bug-cvs-request AT nongnu.org>. There is a two-way Usenet mirror (posts
to the Usenet group are usually sent to the email list and visa versa)
of <bug-cvs AT nongnu.org> named <news:gnu.cvs.bug>.

File: cvs.info, Node: What is CVS not?, Next: A sample session, Prev: What is CVS?, Up: Overview

1.2 What is CVS not?
====================

CVS can do a lot of things for you, but it does not try to be everything
for everyone.

CVS is not a build system.

Though the structure of your repository and modules file interact
with your build system (e.g. 'Makefile's), they are essentially
independent.

CVS does not dictate how you build anything. It merely stores
files for retrieval in a tree structure you devise.

CVS does not dictate how to use disk space in the checked out
working directories. If you write your 'Makefile's or scripts in
every directory so they have to know the relative positions of
everything else, you wind up requiring the entire repository to be
checked out.

If you modularise your work, and construct a build system that will
share files (via links, mounts, 'VPATH' in 'Makefile's, etc.), you
can arrange your disk usage however you like.

But you have to remember that _any_ such system is a lot of work to
construct and maintain. CVS does not address the issues involved.

Of course, you should place the tools created to support such a
build system (scripts, 'Makefile's, etc) under CVS.

Figuring out what files need to be rebuilt when something changes
is, again, something to be handled outside the scope of CVS. One
traditional approach is to use 'make' for building, and use some
automated tool for generating the dependencies which 'make' uses.

See *note Builds::, for more information on doing builds in
conjunction with CVS.

CVS is not a substitute for management.

Your managers and project leaders are expected to talk to you
frequently enough to make certain you are aware of schedules, merge
points, branch names and release dates. If they don't, CVS can't
help.

CVS is an instrument for making sources dance to your tune. But
you are the piper and the composer. No instrument plays itself or
writes its own music.

CVS is not a substitute for developer communication.

When faced with conflicts within a single file, most developers
manage to resolve them without too much effort. But a more general
definition of "conflict" includes problems too difficult to solve
without communication between developers.

CVS cannot determine when simultaneous changes within a single
file, or across a whole collection of files, will logically
conflict with one another. Its concept of a "conflict" is purely
textual, arising when two changes to the same base file are near
enough to spook the merge (i.e. 'diff3') command.

CVS does not claim to help at all in figuring out non-textual or
distributed conflicts in program logic.

For example: Say you change the arguments to function 'X' defined
in file 'A'. At the same time, someone edits file 'B', adding new
calls to function 'X' using the old arguments. You are outside the
realm of CVS's competence.

Acquire the habit of reading specs and talking to your peers.

CVS does not have change control

Change control refers to a number of things. First of all it can
mean "bug-tracking", that is being able to keep a database of
reported bugs and the status of each one (is it fixed? in what
release? has the bug submitter agreed that it is fixed?). For
interfacing CVS to an external bug-tracking system, see the
'rcsinfo' and 'verifymsg' files (*note Administrative files::).

Another aspect of change control is keeping track of the fact that
changes to several files were in fact changed together as one
logical change. If you check in several files in a single 'cvs
commit' operation, CVS then forgets that those files were checked
in together, and the fact that they have the same log message is
the only thing tying them together. Keeping a GNU style
'ChangeLog' can help somewhat.

Another aspect of change control, in some systems, is the ability
to keep track of the status of each change. Some changes have been
written by a developer, others have been reviewed by a second
developer, and so on. Generally, the way to do this with CVS is to
generate a diff (using 'cvs diff' or 'diff') and email it to
someone who can then apply it using the 'patch' utility. This is
very flexible, but depends on mechanisms outside CVS to make sure
nothing falls through the cracks.

CVS is not an automated testing program

It should be possible to enforce mandatory use of a test suite
using the 'commitinfo' file. I haven't heard a lot about projects
trying to do that or whether there are subtle gotchas, however.

CVS does not have a built-in process model

Some systems provide ways to ensure that changes or releases go
through various steps, with various approvals as needed.
Generally, one can accomplish this with CVS but it might be a
little more work. In some cases you'll want to use the
'commitinfo', 'loginfo', 'rcsinfo', or 'verifymsg' files, to
require that certain steps be performed before cvs will allow a
checkin. Also consider whether features such as branches and tags
can be used to perform tasks such as doing work in a development
tree and then merging certain changes over to a stable tree only
once they have been proven.

File: cvs.info, Node: A sample session, Prev: What is CVS not?, Up: Overview

1.3 A sample session
====================

As a way of introducing CVS, we'll go through a typical work-session
using CVS. The first thing to understand is that CVS stores all files
in a centralised "repository" (*note Repository::); this section assumes
that a repository is set up.

Suppose you are working on a simple compiler. The source consists of
a handful of C files and a 'Makefile'. The compiler is called 'tc'
(Trivial Compiler), and the repository is set up so that there is a
module called 'tc'.

* Menu:

* Getting the source:: Creating a workspace
* Committing your changes:: Making your work available to others
* Cleaning up:: Cleaning up
* Viewing differences:: Viewing differences

File: cvs.info, Node: Getting the source, Next: Committing your changes, Up: A sample session

1.3.1 Getting the source
------------------------

The first thing you must do is to get your own working copy of the
source for 'tc'. For this, you use the 'checkout' command:

$ cvs checkout tc

This will create a new directory called 'tc' and populate it with the
source files.

$ cd tc
$ ls
CVS Makefile backend.c driver.c frontend.c parser.c

The 'CVS' directory is used internally by CVS. Normally, you should
not modify or remove any of the files in it.

You start your favorite editor, hack away at 'backend.c', and a
couple of hours later you have added an optimization pass to the
compiler. A note to RCS and SCCS users: There is no need to lock the
files that you want to edit. *Note Multiple developers::, for an
explanation.

File: cvs.info, Node: Committing your changes, Next: Cleaning up, Prev: Getting the source, Up: A sample session

1.3.2 Committing your changes
-----------------------------

When you have checked that the compiler is still compilable you decide
to make a new version of 'backend.c'. This will store your new
'backend.c' in the repository and make it available to anyone else who
is using that same repository.

$ cvs commit backend.c

CVS starts an editor, to allow you to enter a log message. You type in
"Added an optimization pass.", save the temporary file, and exit the
editor.

The environment variable '$CVSEDITOR' determines which editor is
started. If '$CVSEDITOR' is not set, then if the environment variable
'$EDITOR' is set, it will be used. If both '$CVSEDITOR' and '$EDITOR'
are not set then there is a default which will vary with your operating
system, for example 'vi' for unix or 'notepad' for Windows NT/95.

In addition, CVS checks the '$VISUAL' environment variable. Opinions
vary on whether this behavior is desirable and whether future releases
of CVS should check '$VISUAL' or ignore it. You will be OK either way
if you make sure that '$VISUAL' is either unset or set to the same thing
as '$EDITOR'.

When CVS starts the editor, it includes a list of files which are
modified. For the CVS client, this list is based on comparing the
modification time of the file against the modification time that the
file had when it was last gotten or updated. Therefore, if a file's
modification time has changed but its contents have not, it will show up
as modified. The simplest way to handle this is simply not to worry
about it--if you proceed with the commit CVS will detect that the
contents are not modified and treat it as an unmodified file. The next
'update' will clue CVS in to the fact that the file is unmodified, and
it will reset its stored timestamp so that the file will not show up in
future editor sessions.

If you want to avoid starting an editor you can specify the log
message on the command line using the '-m' flag instead, like this:

$ cvs commit -m "Added an optimization pass" backend.c

File: cvs.info, Node: Cleaning up, Next: Viewing differences, Prev: Committing your changes, Up: A sample session

1.3.3 Cleaning up
-----------------

Before you turn to other tasks you decide to remove your working copy of
tc. One acceptable way to do that is of course

$ cd ..
$ rm -r tc

but a better way is to use the 'release' command (*note release::):

$ cd ..
$ cvs release -d tc
M driver.c
? tc
You have [1] altered files in this repository.
Are you sure you want to release (and delete) directory `tc': n
** `release' aborted by user choice.

The 'release' command checks that all your modifications have been
committed. If history logging is enabled it also makes a note in the
history file. *Note history file::.

When you use the '-d' flag with 'release', it also removes your
working copy.

In the example above, the 'release' command wrote a couple of lines
of output. '? tc' means that the file 'tc' is unknown to CVS. That is
nothing to worry about: 'tc' is the executable compiler, and it should
not be stored in the repository. *Note cvsignore::, for information
about how to make that warning go away. *Note release output::, for a
complete explanation of all possible output from 'release'.

'M driver.c' is more serious. It means that the file 'driver.c' has
been modified since it was checked out.

The 'release' command always finishes by telling you how many
modified files you have in your working copy of the sources, and then
asks you for confirmation before deleting any files or making any note
in the history file.

You decide to play it safe and answer 'n <RET>' when 'release' asks
for confirmation.

File: cvs.info, Node: Viewing differences, Prev: Cleaning up, Up: A sample session

1.3.4 Viewing differences
-------------------------

You do not remember modifying 'driver.c', so you want to see what has
happened to that file.

$ cd tc
$ cvs diff driver.c

This command runs 'diff' to compare the version of 'driver.c' that
you checked out with your working copy. When you see the output you
remember that you added a command line option that enabled the
optimization pass. You check it in, and release the module.

$ cvs commit -m "Added an optimization pass" driver.c
Checking in driver.c;
/usr/local/cvsroot/tc/driver.c,v <-- driver.c
new revision: 1.2; previous revision: 1.1
done
$ cd ..
$ cvs release -d tc
? tc
You have [0] altered files in this repository.
Are you sure you want to release (and delete) directory `tc': y

File: cvs.info, Node: Repository, Next: Starting a new project, Prev: Overview, Up: Top

2 The Repository
****************

The CVS "repository" stores a complete copy of all the files and
directories which are under version control.

Normally, you never access any of the files in the repository
directly. Instead, you use CVS commands to get your own copy of the
files into a "working directory", and then work on that copy. When
you've finished a set of changes, you check (or "commit") them back into
the repository. The repository then contains the changes which you have
made, as well as recording exactly what you changed, when you changed
it, and other such information. Note that the repository is not a
subdirectory of the working directory, or vice versa; they should be in
separate locations.

CVS can access a repository by a variety of means. It might be on
the local computer, or it might be on a computer across the room or
across the world. To distinguish various ways to access a repository,
the repository name can start with an "access method". For example, the
access method ':local:' means to access a repository directory, so the
repository ':local:/usr/local/cvsroot' means that the repository is in
'/usr/local/cvsroot' on the computer running CVS. For information on
other access methods, see *note Remote repositories::.

If the access method is omitted, then if the repository starts with
'/', then ':local:' is assumed. If it does not start with '/' then
either ':ext:' or ':server:' is assumed. For example, if you have a
local repository in '/usr/local/cvsroot', you can use
'/usr/local/cvsroot' instead of ':local:/usr/local/cvsroot'. But if
(under Windows NT, for example) your local repository is
'c:\src\cvsroot', then you must specify the access method, as in
':local:c:/src/cvsroot'.

The repository is split in two parts. '$CVSROOT/CVSROOT' contains
administrative files for CVS. The other directories contain the actual
user-defined modules.

* Menu:

* Specifying a repository:: Telling CVS where your repository is
* Repository storage:: The structure of the repository
* Working directory storage:: The structure of working directories
* Intro administrative files:: Defining modules
* Multiple repositories:: Multiple repositories
* Creating a repository:: Creating a repository
* Backing up:: Backing up a repository
* Moving a repository:: Moving a repository
* Remote repositories:: Accessing repositories on remote machines
* Read-only access:: Granting read-only access to the repository
* Server temporary directory:: The server creates temporary directories

File: cvs.info, Node: Specifying a repository, Next: Repository storage, Up: Repository

2.1 Telling CVS where your repository is
========================================

There are several ways to tell CVS where to find the repository. You
can name the repository on the command line explicitly, with the '-d'
(for "directory") option:

cvs -d /usr/local/cvsroot checkout yoyodyne/tc

Or you can set the '$CVSROOT' environment variable to an absolute
path to the root of the repository, '/usr/local/cvsroot' in this
example. To set '$CVSROOT', 'csh' and 'tcsh' users should have this
line in their '.cshrc' or '.tcshrc' files:

setenv CVSROOT /usr/local/cvsroot

'sh' and 'bash' users should instead have these lines in their
'.profile' or '.bashrc':

CVSROOT=/usr/local/cvsroot
export CVSROOT

A repository specified with '-d' will override the '$CVSROOT'
environment variable. Once you've checked a working copy out from the
repository, it will remember where its repository is (the information is
recorded in the 'CVS/Root' file in the working copy).

The '-d' option and the 'CVS/Root' file both override the '$CVSROOT'
environment variable. If '-d' option differs from 'CVS/Root', the
former is used. Of course, for proper operation they should be two ways
of referring to the same repository.

File: cvs.info, Node: Repository storage, Next: Working directory storage, Prev: Specifying a repository, Up: Repository

2.2 How data is stored in the repository
========================================

For most purposes it isn't important _how_ CVS stores information in the
repository. In fact, the format has changed in the past, and is likely
to change in the future. Since in almost all cases one accesses the
repository via CVS commands, such changes need not be disruptive.

However, in some cases it may be necessary to understand how CVS
stores data in the repository, for example you might need to track down
CVS locks (*note Concurrency::) or you might need to deal with the file
permissions appropriate for the repository.

* Menu:

* Repository files:: What files are stored in the repository
* File permissions:: File permissions
* Windows permissions:: Issues specific to Windows
* Attic:: Some files are stored in the Attic
* CVS in repository:: Additional information in CVS directory
* Locks:: CVS locks control concurrent accesses
* CVSROOT storage:: A few things about CVSROOT are different

File: cvs.info, Node: Repository files, Next: File permissions, Up: Repository storage

2.2.1 Where files are stored within the repository
--------------------------------------------------

The overall structure of the repository is a directory tree
corresponding to the directories in the working directory. For example,
supposing the repository is in

/usr/local/cvsroot

here is a possible directory tree (showing only the directories):

With the directories are "history files" for each file under version
control. The name of the history file is the name of the corresponding
file with ',v' appended to the end. Here is what the repository for the
'yoyodyne/tc' directory might look like:
$CVSROOT
|
+--yoyodyne
| |
| +--tc
| | |
+--Makefile,v
+--backend.c,v
+--driver.c,v
+--frontend.c,v
+--parser.c,v
+--man
| |
| +--tc.1,v
|
+--testing
|
+--testpgm.t,v
+--test2.t,v

The history files contain, among other things, enough information to
recreate any revision of the file, a log of all commit messages and the
user-name of the person who committed the revision. The history files
are known as "RCS files", because the first program to store files in
that format was a version control system known as RCS. For a full
description of the file format, see the 'man' page 'rcsfile(5)',
distributed with RCS, or the file 'doc/RCSFILES' in the CVS source
distribution. This file format has become very common--many systems
other than CVS or RCS can at least import history files in this format.

The RCS files used in CVS differ in a few ways from the standard
format. The biggest difference is magic branches; for more information
see *note Magic branch numbers::. Also in CVS the valid tag names are a
subset of what RCS accepts; for CVS's rules see *note Tags::.

File: cvs.info, Node: File permissions, Next: Windows permissions, Prev: Repository files, Up: Repository storage

2.2.2 File permissions
----------------------

All ',v' files are created read-only, and you should not change the
permission of those files. The directories inside the repository should
be writable by the persons that have permission to modify the files in
each directory. This normally means that you must create a UNIX group
(see group(5)) consisting of the persons that are to edit the files in a
project, and set up the repository so that it is that group that owns
the directory. (On some systems, you also need to set the
set-group-ID-on-execution bit on the repository directories (see
chmod(1)) so that newly-created files and directories get the group-ID
of the parent directory rather than that of the current process.)

This means that you can only control access to files on a
per-directory basis.

Note that users must also have write access to check out files,
because CVS needs to create lock files (*note Concurrency::). You can
use LockDir in CVSROOT/config to put the lock files somewhere other than
in the repository if you want to allow read-only access to some
directories (*note config::).

Also note that users must have write access to the 'CVSROOT/val-tags'
file. CVS uses it to keep track of what tags are valid tag names (it is
sometimes updated when tags are used, as well as when they are created).

Each RCS file will be owned by the user who last checked it in. This
has little significance; what really matters is who owns the
directories.

CVS tries to set up reasonable file permissions for new directories
that are added inside the tree, but you must fix the permissions
manually when a new directory should have different permissions than its
parent directory. If you set the 'CVSUMASK' environment variable that
will control the file permissions which CVS uses in creating directories
and/or files in the repository. 'CVSUMASK' does not affect the file
permissions in the working directory; such files have the permissions
which are typical for newly created files, except that sometimes CVS
creates them read-only (see the sections on watches, *note Setting a
watch::; -r, *note Global options::; or 'CVSREAD', *note Environment
variables::).

Note that using the client/server CVS (*note Remote repositories::),
there is no good way to set 'CVSUMASK'; the setting on the client
machine has no effect. If you are connecting with 'rsh', you can set
'CVSUMASK' in '.bashrc' or '.cshrc', as described in the documentation
for your operating system. This behavior might change in future
versions of CVS; do not rely on the setting of 'CVSUMASK' on the client
having no effect.

Using pserver, you will generally need stricter permissions on the
CVSROOT directory and directories above it in the tree; see *note
Password authentication security::.

Some operating systems have features which allow a particular program
to run with the ability to perform operations which the caller of the
program could not. For example, the set user ID (setuid) or set group
ID (setgid) features of unix or the installed image feature of VMS. CVS
was not written to use such features and therefore attempting to install
CVS in this fashion will provide protection against only accidental
lapses; anyone who is trying to circumvent the measure will be able to
do so, and depending on how you have set it up may gain access to more
than just CVS. You may wish to instead consider pserver. It shares
some of the same attributes, in terms of possibly providing a false
sense of security or opening security holes wider than the ones you are
trying to fix, so read the documentation on pserver security carefully
if you are considering this option (*note Password authentication
security::).

File: cvs.info, Node: Windows permissions, Next: Attic, Prev: File permissions, Up: Repository storage

2.2.3 File Permission issues specific to Windows
------------------------------------------------

Some file permission issues are specific to Windows operating systems
(Windows 95, Windows NT, and presumably future operating systems in this
family. Some of the following might apply to OS/2 but I'm not sure).

If you are using local CVS and the repository is on a networked
filesystem which is served by the Samba SMB server, some people have
reported problems with permissions. Enabling WRITE=YES in the samba
configuration is said to fix/workaround it. Disclaimer: I haven't
investigated enough to know the implications of enabling that option,
nor do I know whether there is something which CVS could be doing
differently in order to avoid the problem. If you find something out,
please let us know as described in *note BUGS::.

File: cvs.info, Node: Attic, Next: CVS in repository, Prev: Windows permissions, Up: Repository storage

2.2.4 The attic
---------------

You will notice that sometimes CVS stores an RCS file in the 'Attic'.
For example, if the CVSROOT is '/usr/local/cvsroot' and we are talking
about the file 'backend.c' in the directory 'yoyodyne/tc', then the file
normally would be in

/usr/local/cvsroot/yoyodyne/tc/backend.c,v

but if it goes in the attic, it would be in

/usr/local/cvsroot/yoyodyne/tc/Attic/backend.c,v

instead. It should not matter from a user point of view whether a file
is in the attic; CVS keeps track of this and looks in the attic when it
needs to. But in case you want to know, the rule is that the RCS file
is stored in the attic if and only if the head revision on the trunk has
state 'dead'. A 'dead' state means that file has been removed, or never
added, for that revision. For example, if you add a file on a branch,
it will have a trunk revision in 'dead' state, and a branch revision in
a non-'dead' state.

File: cvs.info, Node: CVS in repository, Next: Locks, Prev: Attic, Up: Repository storage

2.2.5 The CVS directory in the repository
-----------------------------------------

The 'CVS' directory in each repository directory contains information
such as file attributes (in a file called 'CVS/fileattr'. In the future
additional files may be added to this directory, so implementations
should silently ignore additional files.

This behavior is implemented only by CVS 1.7 and later; for details
see *note Watches Compatibility::.

The format of the 'fileattr' file is a series of entries of the
following form (where '{' and '}' means the text between the braces can
be repeated zero or more times):

ENT-TYPE FILENAME <tab> ATTRNAME = ATTRVAL {; ATTRNAME = ATTRVAL}
<linefeed>

ENT-TYPE is 'F' for a file, in which case the entry specifies the
attributes for that file.

ENT-TYPE is 'D', and FILENAME empty, to specify default attributes to
be used for newly added files.

Other ENT-TYPE are reserved for future expansion. CVS 1.9 and older
will delete them any time it writes file attributes. CVS 1.10 and later
will preserve them.

Note that the order of the lines is not significant; a program
writing the fileattr file may rearrange them at its convenience.

There is currently no way of quoting tabs or line feeds in the
filename, '=' in ATTRNAME, ';' in ATTRVAL, etc. Note: some
implementations also don't handle a NUL character in any of the fields,
but implementations are encouraged to allow it.

By convention, ATTRNAME starting with '_' is for an attribute given
special meaning by CVS; other ATTRNAMEs are for user-defined attributes
(or will be, once implementations start supporting user-defined
attributes).

Built-in attributes:

'_watched'
Present means the file is watched and should be checked out
read-only.

'_watchers'
Users with watches for this file. Value is WATCHER > TYPE { ,
WATCHER > TYPE } where WATCHER is a username, and TYPE is zero or
more of edit,unedit,commit separated by '+' (that is, nothing if
none; there is no "none" or "all" keyword).

'_editors'
Users editing this file. Value is EDITOR > VAL { , EDITOR > VAL }
where EDITOR is a username, and VAL is TIME+HOSTNAME+PATHNAME,
where TIME is when the 'cvs edit' command (or equivalent) happened,
and HOSTNAME and PATHNAME are for the working directory.

Example:

Ffile1 _watched=;_watchers=joe>edit,mary>commit
Ffile2 _watched=;_editors=sue>8 Jan 1975+workstn1+/home/sue/cvs
D _watched=

means that the file 'file1' should be checked out read-only.
Furthermore, joe is watching for edits and mary is watching for commits.
The file 'file2' should be checked out read-only; sue started editing it
on 8 Jan 1975 in the directory '/home/sue/cvs' on the machine
'workstn1'. Future files which are added should be checked out
read-only. To represent this example here, we have shown a space after
'D', 'Ffile1', and 'Ffile2', but in fact there must be a single tab
character there and no spaces.

File: cvs.info, Node: Locks, Next: CVSROOT storage, Prev: CVS in repository, Up: Repository storage

2.2.6 CVS locks in the repository
---------------------------------

For an introduction to CVS locks focusing on user-visible behavior, see
*note Concurrency::. The following section is aimed at people who are
writing tools which want to access a CVS repository without interfering
with other tools accessing the same repository. If you find yourself
confused by concepts described here, like "read lock", "write lock", and
"deadlock", you might consult the literature on operating systems or
databases.

Any file in the repository with a name starting with '#cvs.rfl.' is a
read lock. Any file in the repository with a name starting with
'#cvs.pfl' is a promotable read lock. Any file in the repository with a
name starting with '#cvs.wfl' is a write lock. Old versions of CVS
(before CVS 1.5) also created files with names starting with '#cvs.tfl',
but they are not discussed here. The directory '#cvs.lock' serves as a
master lock. That is, one must obtain this lock first before creating
any of the other locks.

To obtain a read lock, first create the '#cvs.lock' directory. This
operation must be atomic (which should be true for creating a directory
under most operating systems). If it fails because the directory
already existed, wait for a while and try again. After obtaining the
'#cvs.lock' lock, create a file whose name is '#cvs.rfl.' followed by
information of your choice (for example, hostname and process
identification number). Then remove the '#cvs.lock' directory to
release the master lock. Then proceed with reading the repository.
When you are done, remove the '#cvs.rfl' file to release the read lock.

Promotable read locks are a concept you may not find in other
literature on concurrency. They are used to allow a two (or more) pass
process to only lock a file for read on the first (read) pass(es), then
upgrade its read locks to write locks if necessary for a final pass,
still assured that the files have not changed since they were first
read. CVS uses promotable read locks, for example, to prevent commit
and tag verification passes from interfering with other reading
processes. It can then lock only a single directory at a time for write
during the write pass.

To obtain a promotable read lock, first create the '#cvs.lock'
directory, as with a non-promotable read lock. Then check that there
are no files that start with '#cvs.pfl'. If there are, remove the
master '#cvs.lock' directory, wait awhile (CVS waits 30 seconds between
lock attempts), and try again. If there are no other promotable locks,
go ahead and create a file whose name is '#cvs.pfl' followed by
information of your choice (for example, CVS uses its hostname and the
process identification number of the CVS server process creating the
lock). If versions of CVS older than version 1.12.4 access your
repository directly (not via a CVS server of version 1.12.4 or later),
then you should also create a read lock since older versions of CVS will
ignore the promotable lock when attempting to create their own write
lock. Then remove the master '#cvs.lock' directory in order to allow
other processes to obtain read locks.

To obtain a write lock, first create the '#cvs.lock' directory, as
with read locks. Then check that there are no files whose names start
with '#cvs.rfl.' and no files whose names start with '#cvs.pfl' that are
not owned by the process attempting to get the write lock. If either
exist, remove '#cvs.lock', wait for a while, and try again. If there
are no readers or promotable locks from other processes, then create a
file whose name is '#cvs.wfl' followed by information of your choice
(again, CVS uses the hostname and server process identification number).
Remove your '#cvs.pfl' file if present. Hang on to the '#cvs.lock'
lock. Proceed with writing the repository. When you are done, first
remove the '#cvs.wfl' file and then the '#cvs.lock' directory. Note
that unlike the '#cvs.rfl' file, the '#cvs.wfl' file is just
informational; it has no effect on the locking operation beyond what is
provided by holding on to the '#cvs.lock' lock itself.

Note that each lock (write lock or read lock) only locks a single
directory in the repository, including 'Attic' and 'CVS' but not
including subdirectories which represent other directories under version
control. To lock an entire tree, you need to lock each directory (note
that if you fail to obtain any lock you need, you must release the whole
tree before waiting and trying again, to avoid deadlocks).

Note also that CVS expects write locks to control access to
individual 'foo,v' files. RCS has a scheme where the ',foo,' file
serves as a lock, but CVS does not implement it and so taking out a CVS
write lock is recommended. See the comments at rcs_internal_lockfile in
the CVS source code for further discussion/rationale.

File: cvs.info, Node: CVSROOT storage, Prev: Locks, Up: Repository storage

2.2.7 How files are stored in the CVSROOT directory
---------------------------------------------------

The '$CVSROOT/CVSROOT' directory contains the various administrative
files. In some ways this directory is just like any other directory in
the repository; it contains RCS files whose names end in ',v', and many
of the CVS commands operate on it the same way. However, there are a
few differences.

For each administrative file, in addition to the RCS file, there is
also a checked out copy of the file. For example, there is an RCS file
'loginfo,v' and a file 'loginfo' which contains the latest revision
contained in 'loginfo,v'. When you check in an administrative file, CVS
should print

cvs commit: Rebuilding administrative file database

and update the checked out copy in '$CVSROOT/CVSROOT'. If it does not,
there is something wrong (*note BUGS::). To add your own files to the
files to be updated in this fashion, you can add them to the
'checkoutlist' administrative file (*note checkoutlist::).

By default, the 'modules' file behaves as described above. If the
modules file is very large, storing it as a flat text file may make
looking up modules slow (I'm not sure whether this is as much of a
concern now as when CVS first evolved this feature; I haven't seen
benchmarks). Therefore, by making appropriate edits to the CVS source
code one can store the modules file in a database which implements the
'ndbm' interface, such as Berkeley db or GDBM. If this option is in use,
then the modules database will be stored in the files 'modules.db',
'modules.pag', and/or 'modules.dir'.

For information on the meaning of the various administrative files,
see *note Administrative files::.

File: cvs.info, Node: Working directory storage, Next: Intro administrative files, Prev: Repository storage, Up: Repository

2.3 How data is stored in the working directory
===============================================

While we are discussing CVS internals which may become visible from time
to time, we might as well talk about what CVS puts in the 'CVS'
directories in the working directories. As with the repository, CVS
handles this information and one can usually access it via CVS commands.
But in some cases it may be useful to look at it, and other programs,
such as the 'jCVS' graphical user interface or the 'VC' package for
emacs, may need to look at it. Such programs should follow the
recommendations in this section if they hope to be able to work with
other programs which use those files, including future versions of the
programs just mentioned and the command-line CVS client.

The 'CVS' directory contains several files. Programs which are
reading this directory should silently ignore files which are in the
directory but which are not documented here, to allow for future
expansion.

The files are stored according to the text file convention for the
system in question. This means that working directories are not
portable between systems with differing conventions for storing text
files. This is intentional, on the theory that the files being managed
by CVS probably will not be portable between such systems either.

'Root'
This file contains the current CVS root, as described in *note
Specifying a repository::.

'Repository'
This file contains the directory within the repository which the
current directory corresponds with. It can be either an absolute
pathname or a relative pathname; CVS has had the ability to read
either format since at least version 1.3 or so. The relative
pathname is relative to the root, and is the more sensible
approach, but the absolute pathname is quite common and
implementations should accept either. For example, after the
command

cvs -d :local:/usr/local/cvsroot checkout yoyodyne/tc

'Root' will contain

:local:/usr/local/cvsroot

and 'Repository' will contain either

/usr/local/cvsroot/yoyodyne/tc

yoyodyne/tc

If the particular working directory does not correspond to a
directory in the repository, then 'Repository' should contain
'CVSROOT/Emptydir'.

'Entries'
This file lists the files and directories in the working directory.
The first character of each line indicates what sort of line it is.
If the character is unrecognised, programs reading the file should
silently skip that line, to allow for future expansion.

If the first character is '/', then the format is:

/NAME/REVISION/TIMESTAMP[+CONFLICT]/OPTIONS/TAGDATE

where '[' and ']' are not part of the entry, but instead indicate
that the '+' and conflict marker are optional. NAME is the name of
the file within the directory. REVISION is the revision that the
file in the working derives from, or '0' for an added file, or '-'
followed by a revision for a removed file. TIMESTAMP is the
timestamp of the file at the time that CVS created it; if the
timestamp differs with the actual modification time of the file it
means the file has been modified. It is stored in the format used
by the ISO C asctime() function (for example, 'Sun Apr 7 01:29:26
1996'). One may write a string which is not in that format, for
example, 'Result of merge', to indicate that the file should always
be considered to be modified. This is not a special case; to see
whether a file is modified a program should take the timestamp of
the file and simply do a string compare with TIMESTAMP. If there
was a conflict, CONFLICT can be set to the modification time of the
file after the file has been written with conflict markers (*note
Conflicts example::). Thus if CONFLICT is subsequently the same as
the actual modification time of the file it means that the user has
obviously not resolved the conflict. OPTIONS contains sticky
options (for example '-kb' for a binary file). TAGDATE contains
'T' followed by a tag name, or 'D' for a date, followed by a sticky
tag or date. Note that if TIMESTAMP contains a pair of timestamps
separated by a space, rather than a single timestamp, you are
dealing with a version of CVS earlier than CVS 1.5 (not documented
here).

The timezone on the timestamp in CVS/Entries (local or universal)
should be the same as the operating system stores for the timestamp
of the file itself. For example, on Unix the file's timestamp is
in universal time (UT), so the timestamp in CVS/Entries should be
too. On VMS, the file's timestamp is in local time, so CVS on VMS
should use local time. This rule is so that files do not appear to
be modified merely because the timezone changed (for example, to or
from summer time).

If the first character of a line in 'Entries' is 'D', then it
indicates a subdirectory. 'D' on a line all by itself indicates
that the program which wrote the 'Entries' file does record
subdirectories (therefore, if there is such a line and no other
lines beginning with 'D', one knows there are no subdirectories).
Otherwise, the line looks like:

D/NAME/FILLER1/FILLER2/FILLER3/FILLER4

where NAME is the name of the subdirectory, and all the FILLER
fields should be silently ignored, for future expansion. Programs
which modify 'Entries' files should preserve these fields.

The lines in the 'Entries' file can be in any order.

'Entries.Log'
This file does not record any information beyond that in 'Entries',
but it does provide a way to update the information without having
to rewrite the entire 'Entries' file, including the ability to
preserve the information even if the program writing 'Entries' and
'Entries.Log' abruptly aborts. Programs which are reading the
'Entries' file should also check for 'Entries.Log'. If the latter
exists, they should read 'Entries' and then apply the changes
mentioned in 'Entries.Log'. After applying the changes, the
recommended practice is to rewrite 'Entries' and then delete
'Entries.Log'. The format of a line in 'Entries.Log' is a single
character command followed by a space followed by a line in the
format specified for a line in 'Entries'. The single character
command is 'A' to indicate that the entry is being added, 'R' to
indicate that the entry is being removed, or any other character to
indicate that the entire line in 'Entries.Log' should be silently
ignored (for future expansion). If the second character of the
line in 'Entries.Log' is not a space, then it was written by an
older version of CVS (not documented here).

Programs which are writing rather than reading can safely ignore
'Entries.Log' if they so choose.

'Entries.Backup'
This is a temporary file. Recommended usage is to write a new
entries file to 'Entries.Backup', and then to rename it
(atomically, where possible) to 'Entries'.

'Entries.Static'
The only relevant thing about this file is whether it exists or
not. If it exists, then it means that only part of a directory was
gotten and CVS will not create additional files in that directory.
To clear it, use the 'update' command with the '-d' option, which
will get the additional files and remove 'Entries.Static'.

'Tag'
This file contains per-directory sticky tags or dates. The first
character is 'T' for a branch tag, 'N' for a non-branch tag, or 'D'
for a date, or another character to mean the file should be
silently ignored, for future expansion. This character is followed
by the tag or date. Note that per-directory sticky tags or dates
are used for things like applying to files which are newly added;
they might not be the same as the sticky tags or dates on
individual files. For general information on sticky tags and
dates, see *note Sticky tags::.

'Notify'
This file stores notifications (for example, for 'edit' or
'unedit') which have not yet been sent to the server. Its format
is not yet documented here.

'Notify.tmp'
This file is to 'Notify' as 'Entries.Backup' is to 'Entries'. That
is, to write 'Notify', first write the new contents to 'Notify.tmp'
and then (atomically where possible), rename it to 'Notify'.

'Base'
If watches are in use, then an 'edit' command stores the original
copy of the file in the 'Base' directory. This allows the 'unedit'
command to operate even if it is unable to communicate with the
server.

'Baserev'
The file lists the revision for each of the files in the 'Base'
directory. The format is:

BNAME/REV/EXPANSION

where EXPANSION should be ignored, to allow for future expansion.

'Baserev.tmp'
This file is to 'Baserev' as 'Entries.Backup' is to 'Entries'.
That is, to write 'Baserev', first write the new contents to
'Baserev.tmp' and then (atomically where possible), rename it to
'Baserev'.

'Template'
This file contains the template specified by the 'rcsinfo' file
(*note rcsinfo::). It is only used by the client; the
non-client/server CVS consults 'rcsinfo' directly.

File: cvs.info, Node: Intro administrative files, Next: Multiple repositories, Prev: Working directory storage, Up: Repository

2.4 The administrative files
============================

The directory '$CVSROOT/CVSROOT' contains some "administrative files".
*Note Administrative files::, for a complete description. You can use
CVS without any of these files, but some commands work better when at
least the 'modules' file is properly set up.

The most important of these files is the 'modules' file. It defines
all modules in the repository. This is a sample 'modules' file.

CVSROOT CVSROOT
modules CVSROOT modules
cvs gnu/cvs
rcs gnu/rcs
diff gnu/diff
tc yoyodyne/tc

The 'modules' file is line oriented. In its simplest form each line
contains the name of the module, whitespace, and the directory where the
module resides. The directory is a path relative to '$CVSROOT'. The
last four lines in the example above are examples of such lines.

The line that defines the module called 'modules' uses features that
are not explained here. *Note modules::, for a full explanation of all
the available features.

2.4.1 Editing administrative files
----------------------------------

You edit the administrative files in the same way that you would edit
any other module. Use 'cvs checkout CVSROOT' to get a working copy,
edit it, and commit your changes in the normal way.

It is possible to commit an erroneous administrative file. You can
often fix the error and check in a new revision, but sometimes a
particularly bad error in the administrative file makes it impossible to
commit new revisions.

File: cvs.info, Node: Multiple repositories, Next: Creating a repository, Prev: Intro administrative files, Up: Repository

2.5 Multiple repositories
=========================

In some situations it is a good idea to have more than one repository,
for instance if you have two development groups that work on separate
projects without sharing any code. All you have to do to have several
repositories is to specify the appropriate repository, using the
'CVSROOT' environment variable, the '-d' option to CVS, or (once you
have checked out a working directory) by simply allowing CVS to use the
repository that was used to check out the working directory (*note
Specifying a repository::).

The big advantage of having multiple repositories is that they can
reside on different servers. With CVS version 1.10, a single command
cannot recurse into directories from different repositories. With
development versions of CVS, you can check out code from multiple
servers into your working directory. CVS will recurse and handle all
the details of making connections to as many server machines as
necessary to perform the requested command. Here is an example of how
to set up a working directory:

cvs -d server1:/cvs co dir1
cd dir1
cvs -d server2:/root co sdir
cvs update

The 'cvs co' commands set up the working directory, and then the 'cvs
update' command will contact server2, to update the dir1/sdir
subdirectory, and server1, to update everything else.

File: cvs.info, Node: Creating a repository, Next: Backing up, Prev: Multiple repositories, Up: Repository

2.6 Creating a repository
=========================

This section describes how to set up a CVS repository for any sort of
access method. After completing the setup described in this section,
you should be able to access your CVS repository immediately via the
local access method and several remote access methods. For more
information on setting up remote access to the repository you create in
this section, please read the section on *Note Remote repositories::.

To set up a CVS repository, first choose the machine and disk on
which you want to store the revision history of the source files. CPU
and memory requirements are modest, so most machines should be adequate.
For details see *note Server requirements::.

To estimate disk space requirements, if you are importing RCS files
from another system, the size of those files is the approximate initial
size of your repository, or if you are starting without any version
history, a rule of thumb is to allow for the server approximately three
times the size of the code to be under CVS for the repository (you will
eventually outgrow this, but not for a while). On the machines on which
the developers will be working, you'll want disk space for approximately
one working directory for each developer (either the entire tree or a
portion of it, depending on what each developer uses).

The repository should be accessible (directly or via a networked
filesystem) from all machines which want to use CVS in server or local
mode; the client machines need not have any access to it other than via
the CVS protocol. It is not normally possible to use CVS to read from a
repository which one only has read access to; CVS needs to be able to
create lock files (*note Concurrency::).

If the environment variable '$CVSREADONLYFS' is defined, however, CVS
will allow read-only access without creating any history entries or
reader lock files. This allows doing most usual repository operations
except checkin in a fast way, although if any other user is accessing
the same data at the same time, it may lead to corrupt data. This mode
is best used for publicly accessible anonymous CVS mirrors, not the main
working repository.

To create a repository, run the 'cvs init' command. It will set up
an empty repository in the CVS root specified in the usual way (*note
Repository::). For example,

cvs -d /usr/local/cvsroot init

'cvs init' is careful to never overwrite any existing files in the
repository, so no harm is done if you run 'cvs init' on an already
set-up repository.

The repository is created honouring the '$CVSUMASK' setting (*note
CVSUMASK::), even the 'history' and 'val-tags' files are not created
world-writable any more as in previous CVS versions. History logging
is, accordingly, configured to log write operations only; if you don't
want that, edit or remove the 'LogHistory' entry in the 'config' file
(*note config::) and make sure that all users who need to write that
file can do so, for example by using a '$CVSUMASK' of 002 (which is also
the default) and putting everyone into the same Unix group (consider the
security implications if you really want to enable world-writable
logging).

File: cvs.info, Node: Backing up, Next: Moving a repository, Prev: Creating a repository, Up: Repository

2.7 Backing up a repository
===========================

There is nothing particularly magical about the files in the repository;
for the most part it is possible to back them up just like any other
files. However, there are a few issues to consider.

The first is that to be paranoid, one should either not use CVS
during the backup, or have the backup program lock CVS while doing the
backup. To not use CVS, you might forbid logins to machines which can
access the repository, turn off your CVS server, or similar mechanisms.
The details would depend on your operating system and how you have CVS
set up. To lock CVS, you would create '#cvs.rfl' locks in each
repository directory. See *note Concurrency::, for more on CVS locks.
Having said all this, if you just back up without any of these
precautions, the results are unlikely to be particularly dire.
Restoring from backup, the repository might be in an inconsistent state,
but this would not be particularly hard to fix manually.

When you restore a repository from backup, assuming that changes in
the repository were made after the time of the backup, working
directories which were not affected by the failure may refer to
revisions which no longer exist in the repository. Trying to run CVS in
such directories will typically produce an error message. One way to
get those changes back into the repository is as follows:

* Get a new working directory.

* Copy the files from the working directory from before the failure
over to the new working directory (do not copy the contents of the
'CVS' directories, of course).

* Working in the new working directory, use commands such as 'cvs
update' and 'cvs diff' to figure out what has changed, and then
when you are ready, commit the changes into the repository.

File: cvs.info, Node: Moving a repository, Next: Remote repositories, Prev: Backing up, Up: Repository

2.8 Moving a repository
=======================

Just as backing up the files in the repository is pretty much like
backing up any other files, if you need to move a repository from one
place to another it is also pretty much like just moving any other
collection of files.

The main thing to consider is that working directories point to the
repository. The simplest way to deal with a moved repository is to just
get a fresh working directory after the move. Of course, you'll want to
make sure that the old working directory had been checked in before the
move, or you figured out some other way to make sure that you don't lose
any changes. If you really do want to reuse the existing working
directory, it should be possible with manual surgery on the
'CVS/Repository' files. You can see *note Working directory storage::,
for information on the 'CVS/Repository' and 'CVS/Root' files, but unless
you are sure you want to bother, it probably isn't worth it.

File: cvs.info, Node: Remote repositories, Next: Read-only access, Prev: Moving a repository, Up: Repository

2.9 Remote repositories
=======================

Your working copy of the sources can be on a different machine than the
repository. Using CVS in this manner is known as "client/server"
operation. You run CVS on a machine which can mount your working
directory, known as the "client", and tell it to communicate to a
machine which can mount the repository, known as the "server".
Generally, using a remote repository is just like using a local one,
except that the format of the repository name is:

[:METHOD:][[USER][:PASSWORD]@]HOSTNAME[:[PORT]]/path/to/repository

Specifying a password in the repository name is not recommended
during checkout, since this will cause CVS to store a cleartext copy of
the password in each created directory. 'cvs login' first instead
(*note Password authentication client::).

The details of exactly what needs to be set up depend on how you are
connecting to the server.

* Menu:

* Server requirements:: Memory and other resources for servers
* The connection method:: Connection methods and method options
* Connecting via rsh:: Using the 'rsh' program to connect
* Password authenticated:: Direct connections using passwords
* GSSAPI authenticated:: Direct connections using GSSAPI
* Kerberos authenticated:: Direct connections with Kerberos
* Connecting via fork:: Using a forked 'cvs server' to connect
* Write proxies:: Distributing load across several CVS servers

For the protocol specification, *note the CVS client/server protocol:
(cvsclient)Top.

File: cvs.info, Node: Server requirements, Next: The connection method, Up: Remote repositories

2.9.1 Server requirements
-------------------------

The quick answer to what sort of machine is suitable as a server is that
requirements are modest--a server with 32M of memory or even less can
handle a fairly large source tree with a fair amount of activity.

The real answer, of course, is more complicated. Estimating the
known areas of large memory consumption should be sufficient to estimate
memory requirements. There are two such areas documented here; other
memory consumption should be small by comparison (if you find that is
not the case, let us know, as described in *note BUGS::, so we can
update this documentation).

The first area of big memory consumption is large checkouts, when
using the CVS server. The server consists of two processes for each
client that it is serving. Memory consumption on the child process
should remain fairly small. Memory consumption on the parent process,
particularly if the network connection to the client is slow, can be
expected to grow to slightly more than the size of the sources in a
single directory, or two megabytes, whichever is larger.

Multiplying the size of each CVS server by the number of servers
which you expect to have active at one time should give an idea of
memory requirements for the server. For the most part, the memory
consumed by the parent process probably can be swap space rather than
physical memory.

The second area of large memory consumption is 'diff', when checking
in large files. This is required even for binary files. The rule of
thumb is to allow about ten times the size of the largest file you will
want to check in, although five times may be adequate. For example, if
you want to check in a file which is 10 megabytes, you should have 100
megabytes of memory on the machine doing the checkin (the server machine
for client/server, or the machine running CVS for non-client/server).
This can be swap space rather than physical memory. Because the memory
is only required briefly, there is no particular need to allow memory
for more than one such checkin at a time.

Resource consumption for the client is even more modest--any machine
with enough capacity to run the operating system in question should have
little trouble.

For information on disk space requirements, see *note Creating a
repository::.

File: cvs.info, Node: The connection method, Next: Connecting via rsh, Prev: Server requirements, Up: Remote repositories

2.9.2 The connection method
---------------------------

In its simplest form, the METHOD portion of the repository string (*note
Remote repositories::) may be one of 'ext', 'fork', 'gserver',
'kserver', 'local', 'pserver', and, on some platforms, 'server'.

If METHOD is not specified, and the repository name starts with a
'/', then the default is 'local'. If METHOD is not specified, and the
repository name does not start with a '/', then the default is 'ext' or
'server', depending on your platform; both the 'ext' and 'server'
methods are described in *note Connecting via rsh::.

The 'ext', 'fork', 'gserver', and 'pserver' connection methods all
accept optional method options, specified as part of the METHOD string,
like so:

:METHOD[;OPTION=ARG...]:OTHER_CONNECTION_DATA

CVS is not sensitive to the case of METHOD or OPTION, though it may
sometimes be sensitive to the case of ARG. The possible method options
are as follows:

'proxy=HOSTNAME'
'proxyport=PORT'
These two method options can be used to connect via an HTTP tunnel
style web proxy. HOSTNAME should be the name of the HTTP proxy
server to connect through and PORT is the port number on the HTTP
proxy server to connect via. PORT defaults to 8080.

_NOTE: An HTTP proxy server is not the same as a CVS write proxy
server - please see *note Write proxies:: for more on CVS write
proxies._

For example, to connect pserver via a web proxy listening on port
8000 of www.myproxy.net, you would use a method of:

:pserver;proxy=www.myproxy.net;proxyport=8000:CONNSTR

_NOTE: In the above example, the pserver connection string CONNSTR
is still required to connect and authenticate to the CVS server, as
noted in the upcoming sections on password authentication,
'gserver', and 'kserver'. The example above only demonstrates a
modification to the METHOD portion of the repository name._

These options first appeared in CVS version 1.12.7 and are valid as
modifcations to the 'gserver' and 'pserver' connection methods.

'CVS_RSH=PATH'
This method option can be used with the 'ext' method to specify the
path the CVS client will use to find the remote shell used to
contact the CVS server and takes precedence over any path specified
in the '$CVS_RSH' environment variable (*note Connecting via
rsh::). For example, to connect to a CVS server via the local
'/path/to/ssh/command' command, you could choose to specify the
following PATH via the 'CVS_RSH' method option:

:ext;CVS_RSH=/path/to/ssh/command:EXT_CONNECTION_STRING

This method option first appeared in CVS version 1.12.11 and is
valid only as a modifcation to the 'ext' connection method.

'CVS_SERVER=PATH'
This method option can be used with the 'ext' and 'fork' methods to
specify the path CVS will use to find the CVS executable on the CVS
server and takes precedence over any path specified in the
'$CVS_SERVER' environment variable (*note Connecting via rsh::).
For example, to select the remote '/path/to/cvs/command' executable
as your CVS server application on the CVS server machine, you could
choose to specify the following PATH via the 'CVS_SERVER' method
option:

:ext;CVS_SERVER=/path/to/cvs/command:EXT_CONNECTION_STRING

or, to select an executable named 'cvs-1.12.11', assuming it is in
your '$PATH' on the CVS server:

:ext;CVS_SERVER=cvs-1.12.11:EXT_CONNECTION_STRING

This method option first appeared in CVS version 1.12.11 and is
valid as a modifcation to both the 'ext' and 'fork' connection
methods.

'Redirect=BOOLEAN-STATE'
The 'Redirect' method option determines whether the CVS client will
allow a CVS server to redirect it to a different CVS server,
usually for write requests, as in a write proxy setup.

A BOOLEAN-STATE of any value acceptable for boolean
'CVSROOT/config' file options is acceptable here (*note config::).
For example, 'on', 'off', 'true', and 'false' are all valid values
for BOOLEAN-STATE. BOOLEAN-STATE for the 'Redirect' method option
defaults to 'on'.

This option will have no effect when talking to any non-secondary
CVS server. For more on write proxies and secondary servers,
please see *note Write proxies::.

This method option first appeared in CVS version 1.12.11 and is
valid only as a modifcation to the 'ext' connection method.

As a further example, to combine both the 'CVS_RSH' and 'CVS_SERVER'
options, a method specification like the following would work:

:ext;CVS_RSH=/path/to/ssh/command;CVS_SERVER=/path/to/cvs/command:

This means that you would not need to have the 'CVS_SERVER' or
'CVS_RSH' environment variables set correctly. See *note Connecting via
rsh::, for more details on these environment variables.

File: cvs.info, Node: Connecting via rsh, Next: Password authenticated, Prev: The connection method, Up: Remote repositories

2.9.3 Connecting with rsh
-------------------------

CVS uses the 'rsh' protocol to perform these operations, so the remote
user host needs to have a '.rhosts' file which grants access to the
local user. Note that the program that CVS uses for this purpose may be
specified using the '--with-rsh' flag to configure.

For example, suppose you are the user 'mozart' on the local machine
'toe.example.com', and the server machine is 'faun.example.org'. On
faun, put the following line into the file '.rhosts' in 'bach''s home
directory:

toe.example.com mozart

Then test that 'rsh' is working with

rsh -l bach faun.example.org 'echo $PATH'

Next you have to make sure that 'rsh' will be able to find the
server. Make sure that the path which 'rsh' printed in the above
example includes the directory containing a program named 'cvs' which is
the server. You need to set the path in '.bashrc', '.cshrc', etc., not
'.login' or '.profile'. Alternately, you can set the environment
variable 'CVS_SERVER' on the client machine to the filename of the
server you want to use, for example '/usr/local/bin/cvs-1.6'. For the
'ext' and 'fork' methods, you may also specify CVS_SERVER as an option
in the CVSROOT so that you may use different servers for differnt roots.
See *note Remote repositories:: for more details.

There is no need to edit 'inetd.conf' or start a CVS server daemon.

There are two access methods that you use in 'CVSROOT' for rsh.
':server:' specifies an internal rsh client, which is supported only by
some CVS ports. This is not supported on most Unix-style systems.
':ext:' specifies an external rsh program. By default this is 'rsh'
(unless otherwise specified by the '--with-rsh' flag to configure) but
you may set the 'CVS_RSH' environment variable to invoke another program
which can access the remote server (for example, 'remsh' on HP-UX 9
because 'rsh' is something different, or 'ssh' to allow the use of
secure and/or compressed connections). It must be a program which can
transmit data to and from the server without modifying it; for example
the Windows NT 'rsh' is not suitable since it by default translates
between CRLF and LF. The OS/2 CVS port has a hack to pass '-b' to 'rsh'
to get around this, but since this could potentially cause problems for
programs other than the standard 'rsh', it may change in the future. If
you set 'CVS_RSH' to 'SSH' or some other rsh replacement, the
instructions in the rest of this section concerning '.rhosts' and so on
are likely to be inapplicable; consult the documentation for your rsh
replacement.

In the Debian and MirBSD versions of CVS, you can also specify
':extssh:' to force use of the Secure Shell, or ':ext=prog:' or
':ext=/path/to/prog:' to specify the remote shell to use without needing
to touch the 'CVS_RSH' environment variable.

You may choose to specify the CVS_RSH option as a method option in
the CVSROOT string to allow you to use different connection tools for
different roots (*note The connection method::). For example, allowing
some roots to use 'CVS_RSH=remsh' and some to use 'CVS_RSH=ssh' for the
'ext' method. See also the *note Remote repositories:: for more
details.

Continuing our example, supposing you want to access the module 'foo'
in the repository '/usr/local/cvsroot/', on machine 'faun.example.org',
you are ready to go:

cvs -d :ext:bach AT faun.org:/usr/local/cvsroot checkout foo

(The 'bach@' can be omitted if the username is the same on both the
local and remote hosts.)

File: cvs.info, Node: Password authenticated, Next: GSSAPI authenticated, Prev: Connecting via rsh, Up: Remote repositories

2.9.4 Direct connection with password authentication
----------------------------------------------------

The CVS client can also connect to the server using a password protocol.
This is particularly useful if using 'rsh' is not feasible (for example,
the server is behind a firewall), and Kerberos also is not available.

To use this method, it is necessary to make some adjustments on both
the server and client sides.

* Menu:

* Password authentication server:: Setting up the server
* Password authentication client:: Using the client
* Password authentication security:: What this method does and does not do

File: cvs.info, Node: Password authentication server, Next: Password authentication client, Up: Password authenticated

2.9.4.1 Setting up the server for password authentication
.........................................................

First of all, you probably want to tighten the permissions on the
'$CVSROOT' and '$CVSROOT/CVSROOT' directories. See *note Password
authentication security::, for more details.

On the server side, the file '/etc/inetd.conf' needs to be edited so
'inetd' knows to run the command 'cvs pserver' when it receives a
connection on the right port. By default, the port number is 2401; it
would be different if your client were compiled with 'CVS_AUTH_PORT'
defined to something else, though. This can also be specified in the
CVSROOT variable (*note Remote repositories::) or overridden with the
CVS_CLIENT_PORT environment variable (*note Environment variables::).

If your 'inetd' allows raw port numbers in '/etc/inetd.conf', then
the following (all on a single line in 'inetd.conf') should be
sufficient:

2401 stream tcp nowait root /usr/local/bin/cvs
cvs -f --allow-root=/usr/cvsroot pserver

(You could also use the '-T' option to specify a temporary directory.)

The '--allow-root' option specifies the allowable CVSROOT directory.
Clients which attempt to use a different CVSROOT directory will not be
allowed to connect. To allow a whole class of CVSROOT, specify a POSIX
extended regular expression to match allowed directories with the
'--allow-root-regexp' option. These options may be used in conjunction,
and both options may be repeated to allow access to multiple CVSROOT
directories and classes of directories. (Unfortunately, many versions
of 'inetd' have very small limits on the number of arguments and/or the
total length of the command. The usual solution to this problem is to
have 'inetd' run a shell script which then invokes CVS with the
necessary arguments.)

If your 'inetd' wants a symbolic service name instead of a raw port
number, then put this in '/etc/services':

cvspserver 2401/tcp

and put 'cvspserver' instead of '2401' in 'inetd.conf'.

If your system uses 'xinetd' instead of 'inetd', the procedure is
slightly different. Create a file called '/etc/xinetd.d/cvspserver'
containing the following:

service cvspserver
{
port = 2401
socket_type = stream
protocol = tcp
wait = no
user = root
passenv = PATH
server = /usr/local/bin/cvs
server_args = -f --allow-root=/usr/cvsroot pserver
}

(If 'cvspserver' is defined in '/etc/services', you can omit the 'port'
line.)

Once the above is taken care of, restart your 'inetd', or do whatever
is necessary to force it to reread its initialization files.

If you are having trouble setting this up, see *note Connection::.

Because the client stores and transmits passwords in cleartext
(almost--see *note Password authentication security::, for details), a
separate CVS password file is generally used, so people don't compromise
their regular passwords when they access the repository. This file is
'$CVSROOT/CVSROOT/passwd' (*note Intro administrative files::). It uses
a colon-separated format, similar to '/etc/passwd' on Unix systems,
except that it has fewer fields: CVS username, optional password, and an
optional system username for CVS to run as if authentication succeeds.
Here is an example 'passwd' file with five entries:

anonymous:
bach:ULtgRLXo7NRxs
spwang:1sOp854gDF3DY
melissa:tGX1fS8sun6rY:pubcvs
qproj:XR4EZcEs0szik:pubcvs

(The passwords are encrypted according to the standard Unix 'crypt()'
function, so it is possible to paste in passwords directly from regular
Unix '/etc/passwd' files.)

The first line in the example will grant access to any CVS client
attempting to authenticate as user 'anonymous', no matter what password
they use, including an empty password. (This is typical for sites
granting anonymous read-only access; for information on how to do the
"read-only" part, see *note Read-only access::.)

The second and third lines will grant access to 'bach' and 'spwang'
if they supply their respective plaintext passwords.

The fourth line will grant access to 'melissa', if she supplies the
correct password, but her CVS operations will actually run on the server
side under the system user 'pubcvs'. Thus, there need not be any system
user named 'melissa', but there _must_ be one named 'pubcvs'.

The fifth line shows that system user identities can be shared: any
client who successfully authenticates as 'qproj' will actually run as
'pubcvs', just as 'melissa' does. That way you could create a single,
shared system user for each project in your repository, and give each
developer their own line in the '$CVSROOT/CVSROOT/passwd' file. The CVS
username on each line would be different, but the system username would
be the same. The reason to have different CVS usernames is that CVS
will log their actions under those names: when 'melissa' commits a
change to a project, the checkin is recorded in the project's history
under the name 'melissa', not 'pubcvs'. And the reason to have them
share a system username is so that you can arrange permissions in the
relevant area of the repository such that only that account has
write-permission there.

If the system-user field is present, all password-authenticated CVS
commands run as that user; if no system user is specified, CVS simply
takes the CVS username as the system username and runs commands as that
user. In either case, if there is no such user on the system, then the
CVS operation will fail (regardless of whether the client supplied a
valid password).

The password and system-user fields can both be omitted (and if the
system-user field is omitted, then also omit the colon that would have
separated it from the encrypted password). For example, this would be a
valid '$CVSROOT/CVSROOT/passwd' file:

anonymous::pubcvs
fish:rKa5jzULzmhOo:kfogel
sussman:1sOp854gDF3DY

When the password field is omitted or empty, then the client's
authentication attempt will succeed with any password, including the
empty string. However, the colon after the CVS username is always
necessary, even if the password is empty.

CVS can also fall back to use system authentication. When
authenticating a password, the server first checks for the user in the
'$CVSROOT/CVSROOT/passwd' file. If it finds the user, it will use that
entry for authentication as described above. But if it does not find
the user, or if the CVS 'passwd' file does not exist, then the server
can try to authenticate the username and password using the operating
system's user-lookup routines (this "fallback" behavior can be disabled
by setting 'SystemAuth=no' in the CVS 'config' file, *note config::).

The default fallback behavior is to look in '/etc/passwd' for this
system user unless your system has PAM (Pluggable Authentication
Modules) and your CVS server executable was configured to use it at
compile time (using './configure --enable-pam' - see the INSTALL file
for more). In this case, PAM will be consulted instead. This means
that CVS can be configured to use any password authentication source PAM
can be configured to use (possibilities include a simple UNIX password,
NIS, LDAP, and others) in its global configuration file (usually
'/etc/pam.conf' or possibly '/etc/pam.d/cvs'). See your PAM
documentation for more details on PAM configuration.

Note that PAM is an experimental feature in CVS and feedback is
encouraged. Please send a mail to one of the CVS mailing lists
('info-cvs AT nongnu.org' or 'bug-cvs AT nongnu.org') if you use the CVS PAM
support.

_WARNING: Using PAM gives the system administrator much more
flexibility about how CVS users are authenticated but no more security
than other methods. See below for more._

CVS needs an "auth", "account" and "session" module in the PAM
configuration file. A typical PAM configuration would therefore have
the following lines in '/etc/pam.conf' to emulate the standard CVS
system '/etc/passwd' authentication:

cvs auth required pam_unix.so
cvs account required pam_unix.so
cvs session required pam_unix.so

The the equivalent '/etc/pam.d/cvs' would contain

auth required pam_unix.so
account required pam_unix.so
session required pam_unix.so

Some systems require a full path to the module so that 'pam_unix.so'
(Linux) would become something like
'/usr/lib/security/$ISA/pam_unix.so.1' (Sun Solaris). See the
'contrib/pam' subdirectory of the CVS source distribution for further
example configurations.

The PAM service name given above as "cvs" is just the service name in
the default configuration and can be set using './configure
--with-hardcoded-pam-service-name=<pam-service-name>' before compiling.
CVS can also be configured to use whatever name it is invoked as as its
PAM service name using './configure
--without-hardcoded-pam-service-name', but this feature should not be
used if you may not have control of the name CVS will be invoked as.

Be aware, also, that falling back to system authentication might be a
security risk: CVS operations would then be authenticated with that
user's regular login password, and the password flies across the network
in plaintext. See *note Password authentication security:: for more on
this. This may be more of a problem with PAM authentication because it
is likely that the source of the system password is some central
authentication service like LDAP which is also used to authenticate
other services.

On the other hand, PAM makes it very easy to change your password
regularly. If they are given the option of a one-password system for
all of their activities, users are often more willing to change their
password on a regular basis.

In the non-PAM configuration where the password is stored in the
'CVSROOT/passwd' file, it is difficult to change passwords on a regular
basis since only administrative users (or in some cases processes that
act as an administrative user) are typically given access to modify this
file. Either there needs to be some hand-crafted web page or set-uid
program to update the file, or the update needs to be done by submitting
a request to an administrator to perform the duty by hand. In the first
case, having to remember to update a separate password on a periodic
basis can be difficult. In the second case, the manual nature of the
change will typically mean that the password will not be changed unless
it is absolutely necessary.

Note that PAM administrators should probably avoid configuring
one-time-passwords (OTP) for CVS authentication/authorization. If OTPs
are desired, the administrator may wish to encourage the use of one of
the other Client/Server access methods. See the section on *note Remote
repositories:: for a list of other methods.

Right now, the only way to put a password in the CVS 'passwd' file is
to paste it there from somewhere else. Someday, there may be a 'cvs
passwd' command.

Unlike many of the files in '$CVSROOT/CVSROOT', it is normal to edit
the 'passwd' file in-place, rather than via CVS. This is because of the
possible security risks of having the 'passwd' file checked out to
people's working copies. If you do want to include the 'passwd' file in
checkouts of '$CVSROOT/CVSROOT', see *note checkoutlist::.

File: cvs.info, Node: Password authentication client, Next: Password authentication security, Prev: Password authentication server, Up: Password authenticated

2.9.4.2 Using the client with password authentication
.....................................................

To run a CVS command on a remote repository via the
password-authenticating server, one specifies the 'pserver' protocol,
optional username, repository host, an optional port number, and path to
the repository. For example:

cvs -d :pserver:faun.example.org:/usr/local/cvsroot checkout someproj

CVSROOT=:pserver:bach AT faun.org:2401/usr/local/cvsroot
cvs checkout someproj

However, unless you're connecting to a public-access repository
(i.e., one where that username doesn't require a password), you'll need
to supply a password or "log in" first. Logging in verifies your
password with the repository and stores it in a file. It's done with
the 'login' command, which will prompt you interactively for the
password if you didn't supply one as part of $CVSROOT:

cvs -d :pserver:bach AT faun.org:/usr/local/cvsroot login
CVS password:

cvs -d :pserver:bach:p4ss30rd AT faun.org:/usr/local/cvsroot login

After you enter the password, CVS verifies it with the server. If
the verification succeeds, then that combination of username, host,
repository, and password is permanently recorded, so future transactions
with that repository won't require you to run 'cvs login'. (If
verification fails, CVS will exit complaining that the password was
incorrect, and nothing will be recorded.)

The records are stored, by default, in the file '$HOME/.cvspass'.
That file's format is human-readable, and to a degree human-editable,
but note that the passwords are not stored in cleartext--they are
trivially encoded to protect them from "innocent" compromise (i.e.,
inadvertent viewing by a system administrator or other non-malicious
person).

You can change the default location of this file by setting the
'CVS_PASSFILE' environment variable. If you use this variable, make
sure you set it _before_ 'cvs login' is run. If you were to set it
after running 'cvs login', then later CVS commands would be unable to
look up the password for transmission to the server.

Once you have logged in, all CVS commands using that remote
repository and username will authenticate with the stored password. So,
for example

cvs -d :pserver:bach AT faun.org:/usr/local/cvsroot checkout foo

should just work (unless the password changes on the server side, in
which case you'll have to re-run 'cvs login').

Note that if the ':pserver:' were not present in the repository
specification, CVS would assume it should use 'rsh' to connect with the
server instead (*note Connecting via rsh::).

Of course, once you have a working copy checked out and are running
CVS commands from within it, there is no longer any need to specify the
repository explicitly, because CVS can deduce the repository from the
working copy's 'CVS' subdirectory.

The password for a given remote repository can be removed from the
'CVS_PASSFILE' by using the 'cvs logout' command.

File: cvs.info, Node: Password authentication security, Prev: Password authentication client, Up: Password authenticated

2.9.4.3 Security considerations with password authentication
............................................................

The passwords are stored on the client side in a trivial encoding of the
cleartext, and transmitted in the same encoding. The encoding is done
only to prevent inadvertent password compromises (i.e., a system
administrator accidentally looking at the file), and will not prevent
even a naive attacker from gaining the password.

The separate CVS password file (*note Password authentication
server::) allows people to use a different password for repository
access than for login access. On the other hand, once a user has
non-read-only access to the repository, she can execute programs on the
server system through a variety of means. Thus, repository access
implies fairly broad system access as well. It might be possible to
modify CVS to prevent that, but no one has done so as of this writing.

Note that because the '$CVSROOT/CVSROOT' directory contains 'passwd'
and other files which are used to check security, you must control the
permissions on this directory as tightly as the permissions on '/etc'.
The same applies to the '$CVSROOT' directory itself and any directory
above it in the tree. Anyone who has write access to such a directory
will have the ability to become any user on the system. Note that these
permissions are typically tighter than you would use if you are not
using pserver.

In summary, anyone who gets the password gets repository access
(which may imply some measure of general system access as well). The
password is available to anyone who can sniff network packets or read a
protected (i.e., user read-only) file. If you want real security, get
Kerberos.

File: cvs.info, Node: GSSAPI authenticated, Next: Kerberos authenticated, Prev: Password authenticated, Up: Remote repositories

2.9.5 Direct connection with GSSAPI
-----------------------------------

GSSAPI is a generic interface to network security systems such as
Kerberos 5. If you have a working GSSAPI library, you can have CVS
connect via a direct TCP connection, authenticating with GSSAPI.

To do this, CVS needs to be compiled with GSSAPI support; when
configuring CVS it tries to detect whether GSSAPI libraries using
Kerberos version 5 are present. You can also use the '--with-gssapi'
flag to configure.

The connection is authenticated using GSSAPI, but the message stream
is _not_ authenticated by default. You must use the '-a' global option
to request stream authentication.

The data transmitted is _not_ encrypted by default. Encryption
support must be compiled into both the client and the server; use the
'--enable-encrypt' configure option to turn it on. You must then use
the '-x' global option to request encryption.

GSSAPI connections are handled on the server side by the same server
which handles the password authentication server; see *note Password
authentication server::. If you are using a GSSAPI mechanism such as
Kerberos which provides for strong authentication, you will probably
want to disable the ability to authenticate via cleartext passwords. To
do so, create an empty 'CVSROOT/passwd' password file, and set
'SystemAuth=no' in the config file (*note config::).

The GSSAPI server uses a principal name of cvs/HOSTNAME, where
HOSTNAME is the canonical name of the server host. You will have to set
this up as required by your GSSAPI mechanism.

To connect using GSSAPI, use the ':gserver:' method. For example,

cvs -d :gserver:faun.example.org:/usr/local/cvsroot checkout foo

File: cvs.info, Node: Kerberos authenticated, Next: Connecting via fork, Prev: GSSAPI authenticated, Up: Remote repositories

2.9.6 Direct connection with Kerberos
-------------------------------------

The easiest way to use Kerberos is to use the Kerberos 'rsh', as
described in *note Connecting via rsh::. The main disadvantage of using
rsh is that all the data needs to pass through additional programs, so
it may be slower. So if you have Kerberos installed you can connect via
a direct TCP connection, authenticating with Kerberos.

This section concerns the Kerberos network security system, version
4. Kerberos version 5 is supported via the GSSAPI generic network
security interface, as described in the previous section.

To do this, CVS needs to be compiled with Kerberos support; when
configuring CVS it tries to detect whether Kerberos is present or you
can use the '--with-krb4' flag to configure.

The data transmitted is _not_ encrypted by default. Encryption
support must be compiled into both the client and server; use the
'--enable-encryption' configure option to turn it on. You must then use
the '-x' global option to request encryption.

The CVS client will attempt to connect to port 1999 by default.

When you want to use CVS, get a ticket in the usual way (generally
'kinit'); it must be a ticket which allows you to log into the server
machine. Then you are ready to go:

cvs -d :kserver:faun.example.org:/usr/local/cvsroot checkout foo

Previous versions of CVS would fall back to a connection via rsh;
this version will not do so.

File: cvs.info, Node: Connecting via fork, Next: Write proxies, Prev: Kerberos authenticated, Up: Remote repositories

2.9.7 Connecting with fork
--------------------------

This access method allows you to connect to a repository on your local
disk via the remote protocol. In other words it does pretty much the
same thing as ':local:', but various quirks, bugs and the like are those
of the remote CVS rather than the local CVS.

For day-to-day operations you might prefer either ':local:' or
':fork:', depending on your preferences. Of course ':fork:' comes in
particularly handy in testing or debugging 'cvs' and the remote
protocol. Specifically, we avoid all of the network-related
setup/configuration, timeouts, and authentication inherent in the other
remote access methods but still create a connection which uses the
remote protocol.

To connect using the 'fork' method, use ':fork:' and the pathname to
your local repository. For example:

cvs -d :fork:/usr/local/cvsroot checkout foo

As with ':ext:', the server is called 'cvs' by default, or the value
of the 'CVS_SERVER' environment variable.

File: cvs.info, Node: Write proxies, Prev: Connecting via fork, Up: Remote repositories

2.9.8 Distributing load across several CVS servers
--------------------------------------------------

CVS can be configured to distribute usage across several CVS servers.
This is accomplished by means of one or more "write proxies", or
"secondary servers", for a single "primary server".

When a CVS client accesses a secondary server and only sends read
requests, then the secondary server handles the entire request. If the
client sends any write requests, however, the secondary server asks the
client to redirect its write request to the primary server, if the
client supports redirect requests, and otherwise becomes a transparent
proxy for the primary server, which actually handles the write request.

In this manner, any number of read-only secondary servers may be
configured as write proxies for the primary server, effectively
distributing the load from all read operations between the secondary
servers and restricting the load on the primary server to write
operations and pushing changes to the secondaries.

Primary servers will not automatically push changes to secondaries.
This must be configured via 'loginfo', 'postadmin', 'posttag', &
'postwatch' scripts (*note Trigger Scripts::) like the following:

ALL rsync -gopr -essh ./ secondary:/cvsroot/%p &

You would probably actually want to lock directories for write on the
secondary and for read on the primary before running the 'rsync' in the
above example, but describing such a setup is beyond the scope of this
document.

A secondary advantage of a write proxy setup is that users pointing
at the secondary server can still execute fast read operations while on
a network that connects to the primary over a slow link or even one
where the link to the primary is periodically broken. Only write
operations will require the network link to the primary.

To configure write proxies, the primary must be specified with the
'PrimaryServer' option in 'CVSROOT/config' (*note config::). For the
transparent proxy mode to work, all secondary servers must also be
running the same version of the CVS server, or at least one that
provides the same list of supported requests to the client as the
primary server. This is not necessary for redirection.

Once a primary server is configured, secondary servers may be
configured by:

1. Duplicating the primary repository at the new location.
2. Setting up the 'loginfo', 'postadmin', 'posttag', and 'postwatch'
files on the primary to propagate writes to the new secondary.
3. Configure remote access to the secondary(ies) as you would
configure access to any other CVS server (*note Remote
repositories::).
4. Ensuring that '--allow-root=SECONDARY-CVSROOT' is passed to *all*
incovations of the secondary server if the path to the CVS
repository directory is different on the two servers and you wish
to support clients that do not handle the 'Redirect' resopnse (CVS
1.12.9 and earlier clients do not handle the 'Redirect' response).

Please note, again, that writethrough proxy suport requires
'--allow-root=SECONDARY-CVSROOT' to be specified for *all*
incovations of the secondary server, not just 'pserver'
invocations. This may require a wrapper script for the CVS
executable on your server machine.

File: cvs.info, Node: Read-only access, Next: Server temporary directory, Prev: Remote repositories, Up: Repository

2.10 Read-only repository access
================================

It is possible to grant read-only repository access to people using the
password-authenticated server (*note Password authenticated::). (The
other access methods do not have explicit support for read-only users
because those methods all assume login access to the repository machine
anyway, and therefore the user can do whatever local file permissions
allow her to do.)

A user who has read-only access can do only those CVS operations
which do not modify the repository, except for certain "administrative"
files (such as lock files and the history file). It may be desirable to
use this feature in conjunction with user-aliasing (*note Password
authentication server::).

Unlike with previous versions of CVS, read-only users should be able
merely to read the repository, and not to execute programs on the server
or otherwise gain unexpected levels of access. Or to be more accurate,
the _known_ holes have been plugged. Because this feature is new and
has not received a comprehensive security audit, you should use whatever
level of caution seems warranted given your attitude concerning
security.

There are two ways to specify read-only access for a user: by
inclusion, and by exclusion.

"Inclusion" means listing that user specifically in the
'$CVSROOT/CVSROOT/readers' file, which is simply a newline-separated
list of users. Here is a sample 'readers' file:

melissa
splotnik
jrandom

(Don't forget the newline after the last user.)

"Exclusion" means explicitly listing everyone who has _write_
access--if the file

$CVSROOT/CVSROOT/writers

exists, then only those users listed in it have write access, and
everyone else has read-only access (of course, even the read-only users
still need to be listed in the CVS 'passwd' file). The 'writers' file
has the same format as the 'readers' file.

Note: if your CVS 'passwd' file maps cvs users onto system users
(*note Password authentication server::), make sure you deny or grant
read-only access using the _cvs_ usernames, not the system usernames.
That is, the 'readers' and 'writers' files contain cvs usernames, which
may or may not be the same as system usernames.

Here is a complete description of the server's behavior in deciding
whether to grant read-only or read-write access:

If 'readers' exists, and this user is listed in it, then she gets
read-only access. Or if 'writers' exists, and this user is NOT listed
in it, then she also gets read-only access (this is true even if
'readers' exists but she is not listed there). Otherwise, she gets full
read-write access.

Of course there is a conflict if the user is listed in both files.
This is resolved in the more conservative way, it being better to
protect the repository too much than too little: such a user gets
read-only access.

File: cvs.info, Node: Server temporary directory, Prev: Read-only access, Up: Repository

2.11 Temporary directories for the server
=========================================

While running, the CVS server creates temporary directories. They are
named

cvs-servPID

where PID is the process identification number of the server. They are
located in the directory specified by the '-T' global option (*note
Global options::), the 'TMPDIR' environment variable (*note Environment
variables::), or, failing that, '/tmp'.

In most cases the server will remove the temporary directory when it
is done, whether it finishes normally or abnormally. However, there are
a few cases in which the server does not or cannot remove the temporary
directory, for example:

* If the server aborts due to an internal server error, it may
preserve the directory to aid in debugging

* If the server is killed in a way that it has no way of cleaning up
(most notably, 'kill -KILL' on unix).

* If the system shuts down without an orderly shutdown, which tells
the server to clean up.

In cases such as this, you will need to manually remove the
'cvs-servPID' directories. As long as there is no server running with
process identification number PID, it is safe to do so.

File: cvs.info, Node: Starting a new project, Next: Revisions, Prev: Repository, Up: Top

3 Starting a project with CVS
*****************************

Because renaming files and moving them between directories is somewhat
inconvenient, the first thing you do when you start a new project should
be to think through your file organization. It is not impossible to
rename or move files, but it does increase the potential for confusion
and CVS does have some quirks particularly in the area of renaming
directories. *Note Moving files::.

What to do next depends on the situation at hand.

* Menu:

* Setting up the files:: Getting the files into the repository
* Defining the module:: How to make a module of the files

File: cvs.info, Node: Setting up the files, Next: Defining the module, Up: Starting a new project

3.1 Setting up the files
========================

The first step is to create the files inside the repository. This can
be done in a couple of different ways.

* Menu:

* From files:: This method is useful with old projects
where files already exists.
* From other version control systems:: Old projects where you want to
preserve history from another system.
* From scratch:: Creating a directory tree from scratch.

File: cvs.info, Node: From files, Next: From other version control systems, Up: Setting up the files

3.1.1 Creating a directory tree from a number of files
------------------------------------------------------

When you begin using CVS, you will probably already have several
projects that can be put under CVS control. In these cases the easiest
way is to use the 'import' command. An example is probably the easiest
way to explain how to use it. If the files you want to install in CVS
reside in 'WDIR', and you want them to appear in the repository as
'$CVSROOT/yoyodyne/RDIR', you can do this:

$ cd WDIR
$ cvs import -m "Imported sources" yoyodyne/RDIR yoyo start

Unless you supply a log message with the '-m' flag, CVS starts an
editor and prompts for a message. The string 'yoyo' is a "vendor tag",
and 'start' is a "release tag". They may fill no purpose in this
context, but since CVS requires them they must be present. *Note
Tracking sources::, for more information about them.

You can now verify that it worked, and remove your original source
directory.

$ cd ..
$ cvs checkout yoyodyne/RDIR # Explanation below
$ diff -r WDIR yoyodyne/RDIR
$ rm -r WDIR

Erasing the original sources is a good idea, to make sure that you do
not accidentally edit them in WDIR, bypassing CVS. Of course, it would
be wise to make sure that you have a backup of the sources before you
remove them.

The 'checkout' command can either take a module name as argument (as
it has done in all previous examples) or a path name relative to
'$CVSROOT', as it did in the example above.

It is a good idea to check that the permissions CVS sets on the
directories inside '$CVSROOT' are reasonable, and that they belong to
the proper groups. *Note File permissions::.

If some of the files you want to import are binary, you may want to
use the wrappers features to specify which files are binary and which
are not. *Note Wrappers::.

File: cvs.info, Node: From other version control systems, Next: From scratch, Prev: From files, Up: Setting up the files

3.1.2 Creating Files From Other Version Control Systems
-------------------------------------------------------

If you have a project which you are maintaining with another version
control system, such as RCS, you may wish to put the files from that
project into CVS, and preserve the revision history of the files.

From RCS
If you have been using RCS, find the RCS files--usually a file
named 'foo.c' will have its RCS file in 'RCS/foo.c,v' (but it could
be other places; consult the RCS documentation for details). Then
create the appropriate directories in CVS if they do not already
exist. Then copy the files into the appropriate directories in the
CVS repository (the name in the repository must be the name of the
source file with ',v' added; the files go directly in the
appropriate directory of the repository, not in an 'RCS'
subdirectory). This is one of the few times when it is a good idea
to access the CVS repository directly, rather than using CVS
commands. Then you are ready to check out a new working directory.

The RCS file should not be locked when you move it into CVS; if it
is, CVS will have trouble letting you operate on it.

From another version control system
Many version control systems have the ability to export RCS files
in the standard format. If yours does, export the RCS files and
then follow the above instructions.

Failing that, probably your best bet is to write a script that will
check out the files one revision at a time using the command line
interface to the other system, and then check the revisions into
CVS. The 'sccs2rcs' script mentioned below may be a useful example
to follow.

From SCCS
There is a script in the 'contrib' directory of the CVS source
distribution called 'sccs2rcs' which converts SCCS files to RCS
files. Note: you must run it on a machine which has both SCCS and
RCS installed, and like everything else in contrib it is
unsupported (your mileage may vary).

From PVCS
There is a script in the 'contrib' directory of the CVS source
distribution called 'pvcs_to_rcs' which converts PVCS archives to
RCS files. You must run it on a machine which has both PVCS and
RCS installed, and like everything else in contrib it is
unsupported (your mileage may vary). See the comments in the
script for details.

File: cvs.info, Node: From scratch, Prev: From other version control systems, Up: Setting up the files

3.1.3 Creating a directory tree from scratch
--------------------------------------------

For a new project, the easiest thing to do is probably to create an
empty directory structure, like this:

$ mkdir tc
$ mkdir tc/man
$ mkdir tc/testing

After that, you use the 'import' command to create the corresponding
(empty) directory structure inside the repository:

$ cd tc
$ cvs import -m "Created directory structure" yoyodyne/DIR yoyo start

This will add yoyodyne/DIR as a directory under '$CVSROOT'.

Use 'checkout' to get the new project. Then, use 'add' to add files
(and new directories) as needed.

$ cd ..
$ cvs co yoyodyne/DIR

Check that the permissions CVS sets on the directories inside
'$CVSROOT' are reasonable.

File: cvs.info, Node: Defining the module, Prev: Setting up the files, Up: Starting a new project

3.2 Defining the module
=======================

The next step is to define the module in the 'modules' file. This is
not strictly necessary, but modules can be convenient in grouping
together related files and directories.

In simple cases these steps are sufficient to define a module.

1. Get a working copy of the modules file.

$ cvs checkout CVSROOT/modules
$ cd CVSROOT

2. Edit the file and insert a line that defines the module. *Note
Intro administrative files::, for an introduction. *Note
modules::, for a full description of the modules file. You can use
the following line to define the module 'tc':

tc yoyodyne/tc

3. Commit your changes to the modules file.

$ cvs commit -m "Added the tc module." modules

4. Release the modules module.

$ cd ..
$ cvs release -d CVSROOT

File: cvs.info, Node: Revisions, Next: Branching and merging, Prev: Starting a new project, Up: Top

4 Revisions
***********

For many uses of CVS, one doesn't need to worry too much about revision
numbers; CVS assigns numbers such as '1.1', '1.2', and so on, and that
is all one needs to know. However, some people prefer to have more
knowledge and control concerning how CVS assigns revision numbers.

If one wants to keep track of a set of revisions involving more than
one file, such as which revisions went into a particular release, one
uses a "tag", which is a symbolic revision which can be assigned to a
numeric revision in each file.

* Menu:

* Revision numbers:: The meaning of a revision number
* Versions revisions releases:: Terminology used in this manual
* Assigning revisions:: Assigning revisions
* Tags:: Tags-Symbolic revisions
* Tagging the working directory:: The cvs tag command
* Tagging by date/tag:: The cvs rtag command
* Modifying tags:: Adding, renaming, and deleting tags
* Tagging add/remove:: Tags with adding and removing files
* Sticky tags:: Certain tags are persistent

File: cvs.info, Node: Revision numbers, Next: Versions revisions releases, Up: Revisions

4.1 Revision numbers
====================

Each version of a file has a unique "revision number". Revision numbers
look like '1.1', '1.2', '1.3.2.2' or even '1.3.2.2.4.5'. A revision
number always has an even number of period-separated decimal integers.
By default revision 1.1 is the first revision of a file. Each
successive revision is given a new number by increasing the rightmost
number by one. The following figure displays a few revisions, with
newer revisions to the right.

+-----+ +-----+ +-----+ +-----+ +-----+
! 1.1 !----! 1.2 !----! 1.3 !----! 1.4 !----! 1.5 !
+-----+ +-----+ +-----+ +-----+ +-----+

It is also possible to end up with numbers containing more than one
period, for example '1.3.2.2'. Such revisions represent revisions on
branches (*note Branching and merging::); such revision numbers are
explained in detail in *note Branches and revisions::.

File: cvs.info, Node: Versions revisions releases, Next: Assigning revisions, Prev: Revision numbers, Up: Revisions

4.2 Versions, revisions and releases
====================================

A file can have several versions, as described above. Likewise, a
software product can have several versions. A software product is often
given a version number such as '4.1.1'.

Versions in the first sense are called "revisions" in this document,
and versions in the second sense are called "releases". To avoid
confusion, the word "version" is almost never used in this document.

File: cvs.info, Node: Assigning revisions, Next: Tags, Prev: Versions revisions releases, Up: Revisions

4.3 Assigning revisions
=======================

By default, CVS will assign numeric revisions by leaving the first
number the same and incrementing the second number. For example, '1.1',
'1.2', '1.3', etc.

When adding a new file, the second number will always be one and the
first number will equal the highest first number of any file in that
directory. For example, the current directory contains files whose
highest numbered revisions are '1.7', '3.1', and '4.12', then an added
file will be given the numeric revision '4.1'. (When using
client/server CVS, only files that are actually sent to the server are
considered.)

Normally there is no reason to care about the revision numbers--it is
easier to treat them as internal numbers that CVS maintains, and tags
provide a better way to distinguish between things like release 1 versus
release 2 of your product (*note Tags::). However, if you want to set
the numeric revisions, the '-r' option to 'cvs commit' can do that. The
'-r' option implies the '-f' option, in the sense that it causes the
files to be committed even if they are not modified.

For example, to bring all your files up to revision 3.0 (including
those that haven't changed), you might invoke:

$ cvs commit -r 3.0

Note that the number you specify with '-r' must be larger than any
existing revision number. That is, if revision 3.0 exists, you cannot
'cvs commit -r 1.3'. If you want to maintain several releases in
parallel, you need to use a branch (*note Branching and merging::).

File: cvs.info, Node: Tags, Next: Tagging the working directory, Prev: Assigning revisions, Up: Revisions

4.4 Tags-Symbolic revisions
===========================

The revision numbers live a life of their own. They need not have
anything at all to do with the release numbers of your software product.
Depending on how you use CVS the revision numbers might change several
times between two releases. As an example, some of the source files
that make up RCS 5.6 have the following revision numbers:

ci.c 5.21
co.c 5.9
ident.c 5.3
rcs.c 5.12
rcsbase.h 5.11
rcsdiff.c 5.10
rcsedit.c 5.11
rcsfcmp.c 5.9
rcsgen.c 5.10
rcslex.c 5.11
rcsmap.c 5.2
rcsutil.c 5.10

You can use the 'tag' command to give a symbolic name to a certain
revision of a file. You can use the '-v' flag to the 'status' command
to see all tags that a file has, and which revision numbers they
represent. Tag names must start with an uppercase or lowercase letter
and can contain uppercase and lowercase letters, digits, '-', and '_'.
The two tag names 'BASE' and 'HEAD' are reserved for use by CVS. It is
expected that future names which are special to CVS will be specially
named, for example by starting with '.', rather than being named
analogously to 'BASE' and 'HEAD', to avoid conflicts with actual tag
names.

You'll want to choose some convention for naming tags, based on
information such as the name of the program and the version number of
the release. For example, one might take the name of the program,
immediately followed by the version number with '.' changed to '-', so
that CVS 1.9 would be tagged with the name 'cvs1-9'. If you choose a
consistent convention, then you won't constantly be guessing whether a
tag is 'cvs-1-9' or 'cvs1_9' or what. You might even want to consider
enforcing your convention in the 'taginfo' file (*note taginfo::).

The following example shows how you can add a tag to a file. The
commands must be issued inside your working directory. That is, you
should issue the command in the directory where 'backend.c' resides.

$ cvs tag rel-0-4 backend.c
T backend.c
$ cvs status -v backend.c
===================================================================
File: backend.c Status: Up-to-date

Version: 1.4 Tue Dec 1 14:39:01 1992
RCS Version: 1.4 /u/cvsroot/yoyodyne/tc/backend.c,v
Sticky Tag: (none)
Sticky Date: (none)
Sticky Options: (none)

Existing Tags:
rel-0-4 (revision: 1.4)

For a complete summary of the syntax of 'cvs tag', including the
various options, see *note Invoking CVS::.

There is seldom reason to tag a file in isolation. A more common use
is to tag all the files that constitute a module with the same tag at
strategic points in the development life-cycle, such as when a release
is made.

$ cvs tag rel-1-0 .
cvs tag: Tagging .
T Makefile
T backend.c
T driver.c
T frontend.c
T parser.c

(When you give CVS a directory as argument, it generally applies the
operation to all the files in that directory, and (recursively), to any
subdirectories that it may contain. *Note Recursive behavior::.)

The 'checkout' command has a flag, '-r', that lets you check out a
certain revision of a module. This flag makes it easy to retrieve the
sources that make up release 1.0 of the module 'tc' at any time in the
future:

$ cvs checkout -r rel-1-0 tc

This is useful, for instance, if someone claims that there is a bug in
that release, but you cannot find the bug in the current working copy.

You can also check out a module as it was on any branch at any given
date. *Note checkout options::. When specifying '-r' or '-D' to any of
these commands, you will need beware of sticky tags; see *note Sticky
tags::.

When you tag more than one file with the same tag you can think about
the tag as "a curve drawn through a matrix of filename vs. revision
number." Say we have 5 files with the following revisions:

file1 file2 file3 file4 file5

1.1 1.1 1.1 1.1 /--1.1* <-*- TAG
1.2*- 1.2 1.2 -1.2*-
1.3 \- 1.3*- 1.3 / 1.3
1.4 \ 1.4 / 1.4
\-1.5*- 1.5
1.6

At some time in the past, the '*' versions were tagged. You can
think of the tag as a handle attached to the curve drawn through the
tagged revisions. When you pull on the handle, you get all the tagged
revisions. Another way to look at it is that you "sight" through a set
of revisions that is "flat" along the tagged revisions, like this:

file1 file2 file3 file4 file5

1.1
1.2
1.1 1.3 _
1.1 1.2 1.4 1.1 /
1.2*----1.3*----1.5*----1.2*----1.1* (--- <--- Look here
1.3 1.6 1.3 \_
1.4 1.4
1.5

File: cvs.info, Node: Tagging the working directory, Next: Tagging by date/tag, Prev: Tags, Up: Revisions

4.5 Specifying what to tag from the working directory
=====================================================

The example in the previous section demonstrates one of the most common
ways to choose which revisions to tag. Namely, running the 'cvs tag'
command without arguments causes CVS to select the revisions which are
checked out in the current working directory. For example, if the copy
of 'backend.c' in working directory was checked out from revision 1.4,
then CVS will tag revision 1.4. Note that the tag is applied
immediately to revision 1.4 in the repository; tagging is not like
modifying a file, or other operations in which one first modifies the
working directory and then runs 'cvs commit' to transfer that
modification to the repository.

One potentially surprising aspect of the fact that 'cvs tag' operates
on the repository is that you are tagging the checked-in revisions,
which may differ from locally modified files in your working directory.
If you want to avoid doing this by mistake, specify the '-c' option to
'cvs tag'. If there are any locally modified files, CVS will abort with
an error before it tags any files:

$ cvs tag -c rel-0-4
cvs tag: backend.c is locally modified
cvs [tag aborted]: correct the above errors first!

File: cvs.info, Node: Tagging by date/tag, Next: Modifying tags, Prev: Tagging the working directory, Up: Revisions

4.6 Specifying what to tag by date or revision
==============================================

The 'cvs rtag' command tags the repository as of a certain date or time
(or can be used to tag the latest revision). 'rtag' works directly on
the repository contents (it requires no prior checkout and does not look
for a working directory).

The following options specify which date or revision to tag. See
*note Common options::, for a complete description of them.

'-D DATE'
Tag the most recent revision no later than DATE.

'-f'
Only useful with the '-D' or '-r' flags. If no matching revision
is found, use the most recent revision (instead of ignoring the
file).

'-r TAG[:DATE]'
Tag the revision already tagged with TAG or, when DATE is specified
and TAG is a branch tag, the version from the branch TAG as it
existed on DATE. See *note Common options::.

The 'cvs tag' command also allows one to specify files by revision or
date, using the same '-r', '-D', and '-f' options. However, this
feature is probably not what you want. The reason is that 'cvs tag'
chooses which files to tag based on the files that exist in the working
directory, rather than the files which existed as of the given tag/date.
Therefore, you are generally better off using 'cvs rtag'. The
exceptions might be cases like:

cvs tag -r 1.4 stable backend.c

File: cvs.info, Node: Modifying tags, Next: Tagging add/remove, Prev: Tagging by date/tag, Up: Revisions

4.7 Deleting, moving, and renaming tags
=======================================

Normally one does not modify tags. They exist in order to record the
history of the repository and so deleting them or changing their meaning
would, generally, not be what you want.

However, there might be cases in which one uses a tag temporarily or
accidentally puts one in the wrong place. Therefore, one might delete,
move, or rename a tag.

_WARNING: the commands in this section are dangerous; they permanently
discard historical information and it can be difficult or impossible to
recover from errors. If you are a CVS administrator, you may consider
restricting these commands with the 'taginfo' file (*note taginfo::)._

To delete a tag, specify the '-d' option to either 'cvs tag' or 'cvs
rtag'. For example:

cvs rtag -d rel-0-4 tc

deletes the non-branch tag 'rel-0-4' from the module 'tc'. In the event
that branch tags are encountered within the repository with the given
name, a warning message will be issued and the branch tag will not be
deleted. If you are absolutely certain you know what you are doing, the
'-B' option may be specified to allow deletion of branch tags. In that
case, any non-branch tags encountered will trigger warnings and will not
be deleted.

_WARNING: Moving branch tags is very dangerous! If you think you need
the '-B' option, think again and ask your CVS administrator about it (if
that isn't you). There is almost certainly another way to accomplish
what you want to accomplish._

When we say "move" a tag, we mean to make the same name point to
different revisions. For example, the 'stable' tag may currently point
to revision 1.4 of 'backend.c' and perhaps we want to make it point to
revision 1.6. To move a non-branch tag, specify the '-F' option to
either 'cvs tag' or 'cvs rtag'. For example, the task just mentioned
might be accomplished as:

cvs tag -r 1.6 -F stable backend.c

If any branch tags are encountered in the repository with the given
name, a warning is issued and the branch tag is not disturbed. If you
are absolutely certain you wish to move the branch tag, the '-B' option
may be specified. In that case, non-branch tags encountered with the
given name are ignored with a warning message.

When we say "rename" a tag, we mean to make a different name point to
the same revisions as the old tag. For example, one may have misspelled
the tag name and want to correct it (hopefully before others are relying
on the old spelling). To rename a tag, first create a new tag using the
'-r' option to 'cvs rtag', and then delete the old name. (Caution: this
method will not work with branch tags.) This leaves the new tag on
exactly the same files as the old tag. For example:

cvs rtag -r old-name-0-4 rel-0-4 tc
cvs rtag -d old-name-0-4 tc

File: cvs.info, Node: Tagging add/remove, Next: Sticky tags, Prev: Modifying tags, Up: Revisions

4.8 Tagging and adding and removing files
=========================================

The subject of exactly how tagging interacts with adding and removing
files is somewhat obscure; for the most part CVS will keep track of
whether files exist or not without too much fussing. By default, tags
are applied to only files which have a revision corresponding to what is
being tagged. Files which did not exist yet, or which were already
removed, simply omit the tag, and CVS knows to treat the absence of a
tag as meaning that the file didn't exist as of that tag.

However, this can lose a small amount of information. For example,
suppose a file was added and then removed. Then, if the tag is missing
for that file, there is no way to know whether the tag refers to the
time before the file was added, or the time after it was removed. If
you specify the '-r' option to 'cvs rtag', then CVS tags the files which
have been removed, and thereby avoids this problem. For example, one
might specify '-r HEAD' to tag the head.

On the subject of adding and removing files, the 'cvs rtag' command
has a '-a' option which means to clear the tag from removed files that
would not otherwise be tagged. For example, one might specify this
option in conjunction with '-F' when moving a tag. If one moved a tag
without '-a', then the tag in the removed files might still refer to the
old revision, rather than reflecting the fact that the file had been
removed. I don't think this is necessary if '-r' is specified, as noted
above.

File: cvs.info, Node: Sticky tags, Prev: Tagging add/remove, Up: Revisions

4.9 Sticky tags
===============

Sometimes a working copy's revision has extra data associated with it,
for example it might be on a branch (*note Branching and merging::), or
restricted to versions prior to a certain date by 'checkout -D' or
'update -D'. Because this data persists - that is, it applies to
subsequent commands in the working copy - we refer to it as "sticky".

Most of the time, stickiness is an obscure aspect of CVS that you
don't need to think about. However, even if you don't want to use the
feature, you may need to know _something_ about sticky tags (for
example, how to avoid them!).

You can use the 'status' command to see if any sticky tags or dates
are set:

$ cvs status driver.c
===================================================================
File: driver.c Status: Up-to-date

Version: 1.7.2.1 Sat Dec 5 19:35:03 1992
RCS Version: 1.7.2.1 /u/cvsroot/yoyodyne/tc/driver.c,v
Sticky Tag: rel-1-0-patches (branch: 1.7.2)
Sticky Date: (none)
Sticky Options: (none)

The sticky tags will remain on your working files until you delete
them with 'cvs update -A'. The '-A' option merges local changes into
the version of the file from the head of the trunk, removing any sticky
tags, dates, or options. See *note update:: for more on the operation
of 'cvs update'.

The most common use of sticky tags is to identify which branch one is
working on, as described in *note Accessing branches::. However,
non-branch sticky tags have uses as well. For example, suppose that you
want to avoid updating your working directory, to isolate yourself from
possibly destabilizing changes other people are making. You can, of
course, just refrain from running 'cvs update'. But if you want to
avoid updating only a portion of a larger tree, then sticky tags can
help. If you check out a certain revision (such as 1.4) it will become
sticky. Subsequent 'cvs update' commands will not retrieve the latest
revision until you reset the tag with 'cvs update -A'. Likewise, use of
the '-D' option to 'update' or 'checkout' sets a "sticky date", which,
similarly, causes that date to be used for future retrievals.

People often want to retrieve an old version of a file without
setting a sticky tag. This can be done with the '-p' option to
'checkout' or 'update', which sends the contents of the file to standard
output. For example:
$ cvs update -p -r 1.1 file1 >file1
===================================================================
Checking out file1
RCS: /tmp/cvs-sanity/cvsroot/first-dir/Attic/file1,v
VERS: 1.1
***************
$

However, this isn't the easiest way, if you are asking how to undo a
previous checkin (in this example, put 'file1' back to the way it was as
of revision 1.1). In that case you are better off using the '-j' option
to 'update'; for further discussion see *note Merging two revisions::.

File: cvs.info, Node: Branching and merging, Next: Recursive behavior, Prev: Revisions, Up: Top

5 Branching and merging
***********************

CVS allows you to isolate changes onto a separate line of development,
known as a "branch". When you change files on a branch, those changes
do not appear on the main trunk or other branches.

Later you can move changes from one branch to another branch (or the
main trunk) by "merging". Merging involves first running 'cvs update
-j', to merge the changes into the working directory. You can then
commit that revision, and thus effectively copy the changes onto another
branch.

* Menu:

* Branches motivation:: What branches are good for
* Creating a branch:: Creating a branch
* Accessing branches:: Checking out and updating branches
* Branches and revisions:: Branches are reflected in revision numbers
* Magic branch numbers:: Magic branch numbers
* Merging a branch:: Merging an entire branch
* Merging more than once:: Merging from a branch several times
* Merging two revisions:: Merging differences between two revisions
* Merging adds and removals:: What if files are added or removed?
* Merging and keywords:: Avoiding conflicts due to keyword substitution

File: cvs.info, Node: Branches motivation, Next: Creating a branch, Up: Branching and merging

5.1 What branches are good for
==============================

Suppose that release 1.0 of tc has been made. You are continuing to
develop tc, planning to create release 1.1 in a couple of months. After
a while your customers start to complain about a fatal bug. You check
out release 1.0 (*note Tags::) and find the bug (which turns out to have
a trivial fix). However, the current revision of the sources are in a
state of flux and are not expected to be stable for at least another
month. There is no way to make a bug fix release based on the newest
sources.

The thing to do in a situation like this is to create a "branch" on
the revision trees for all the files that make up release 1.0 of tc.
You can then make modifications to the branch without disturbing the
main trunk. When the modifications are finished you can elect to either
incorporate them on the main trunk, or leave them on the branch.

File: cvs.info, Node: Creating a branch, Next: Accessing branches, Prev: Branches motivation, Up: Branching and merging

5.2 Creating a branch
=====================

You can create a branch with 'tag -b'; for example, assuming you're in a
working copy:

$ cvs tag -b rel-1-0-patches

This splits off a branch based on the current revisions in the
working copy, assigning that branch the name 'rel-1-0-patches'.

It is important to understand that branches get created in the
repository, not in the working copy. Creating a branch based on current
revisions, as the above example does, will _not_ automatically switch
the working copy to be on the new branch. For information on how to do
that, see *note Accessing branches::.

You can also create a branch without reference to any working copy,
by using 'rtag':

$ cvs rtag -b -r rel-1-0 rel-1-0-patches tc

'-r rel-1-0' says that this branch should be rooted at the revision
that corresponds to the tag 'rel-1-0'. It need not be the most recent
revision - it's often useful to split a branch off an old revision (for
example, when fixing a bug in a past release otherwise known to be
stable).

As with 'tag', the '-b' flag tells 'rtag' to create a branch (rather
than just a symbolic revision name). Note that the numeric revision
number that matches 'rel-1-0' will probably be different from file to
file.

So, the full effect of the command is to create a new branch - named
'rel-1-0-patches' - in module 'tc', rooted in the revision tree at the
point tagged by 'rel-1-0'.

File: cvs.info, Node: Accessing branches, Next: Branches and revisions, Prev: Creating a branch, Up: Branching and merging

5.3 Accessing branches
======================

You can retrieve a branch in one of two ways: by checking it out fresh
from the repository, or by switching an existing working copy over to
the branch.

To check out a branch from the repository, invoke 'checkout' with the
'-r' flag, followed by the tag name of the branch (*note Creating a
branch::):

$ cvs checkout -r rel-1-0-patches tc

Or, if you already have a working copy, you can switch it to a given
branch with 'update -r':

$ cvs update -r rel-1-0-patches tc

or equivalently:

$ cd tc
$ cvs update -r rel-1-0-patches

It does not matter if the working copy was originally on the main
trunk or on some other branch - the above command will switch it to the
named branch. And similarly to a regular 'update' command, 'update -r'
merges any changes you have made, notifying you of conflicts where they
occur.

Once you have a working copy tied to a particular branch, it remains
there until you tell it otherwise. This means that changes checked in
from the working copy will add new revisions on that branch, while
leaving the main trunk and other branches unaffected.

To find out what branch a working copy is on, you can use the
'status' command. In its output, look for the field named 'Sticky tag'
(*note Sticky tags::) - that's CVS's way of telling you the branch, if
any, of the current working files:

$ cvs status -v driver.c backend.c
===================================================================
File: driver.c Status: Up-to-date

Version: 1.7 Sat Dec 5 18:25:54 1992
RCS Version: 1.7 /u/cvsroot/yoyodyne/tc/driver.c,v
Sticky Tag: rel-1-0-patches (branch: 1.7.2)
Sticky Date: (none)
Sticky Options: (none)

Existing Tags:
rel-1-0-patches (branch: 1.7.2)
rel-1-0 (revision: 1.7)

===================================================================
File: backend.c Status: Up-to-date

Version: 1.4 Tue Dec 1 14:39:01 1992
RCS Version: 1.4 /u/cvsroot/yoyodyne/tc/backend.c,v
Sticky Tag: rel-1-0-patches (branch: 1.4.2)
Sticky Date: (none)
Sticky Options: (none)

Existing Tags:
rel-1-0-patches (branch: 1.4.2)
rel-1-0 (revision: 1.4)
rel-0-4 (revision: 1.4)

Don't be confused by the fact that the branch numbers for each file
are different ('1.7.2' and '1.4.2' respectively). The branch tag is the
same, 'rel-1-0-patches', and the files are indeed on the same branch.
The numbers simply reflect the point in each file's revision history at
which the branch was made. In the above example, one can deduce that
'driver.c' had been through more changes than 'backend.c' before this
branch was created.

See *note Branches and revisions:: for details about how branch
numbers are constructed.

File: cvs.info, Node: Branches and revisions, Next: Magic branch numbers, Prev: Accessing branches, Up: Branching and merging

5.4 Branches and revisions
==========================

Ordinarily, a file's revision history is a linear series of increments
(*note Revision numbers::):

+-----+ +-----+ +-----+ +-----+ +-----+
! 1.1 !----! 1.2 !----! 1.3 !----! 1.4 !----! 1.5 !
+-----+ +-----+ +-----+ +-----+ +-----+

However, CVS is not limited to linear development. The "revision
tree" can be split into "branches", where each branch is a
self-maintained line of development. Changes made on one branch can
easily be moved back to the main trunk.

Each branch has a "branch number", consisting of an odd number of
period-separated decimal integers. The branch number is created by
appending an integer to the revision number where the corresponding
branch forked off. Having branch numbers allows more than one branch to
be forked off from a certain revision.

All revisions on a branch have revision numbers formed by appending
an ordinal number to the branch number. The following figure
illustrates branching with an example.

+-------------+
Branch 1.2.2.3.2 -> ! 1.2.2.3.2.1 !
/ +-------------+
/
/
+---------+ +---------+ +---------+
Branch 1.2.2 -> _! 1.2.2.1 !----! 1.2.2.2 !----! 1.2.2.3 !
/ +---------+ +---------+ +---------+
/
/
+-----+ +-----+ +-----+ +-----+ +-----+
! 1.1 !----! 1.2 !----! 1.3 !----! 1.4 !----! 1.5 ! <- The main trunk
+-----+ +-----+ +-----+ +-----+ +-----+
!
!
! +---------+ +---------+ +---------+
Branch 1.2.4 -> +---! 1.2.4.1 !----! 1.2.4.2 !----! 1.2.4.3 !
+---------+ +---------+ +---------+

The exact details of how the branch number is constructed is not
something you normally need to be concerned about, but here is how it
works: When CVS creates a branch number it picks the first unused even
integer, starting with 2. So when you want to create a branch from
revision 6.4 it will be numbered 6.4.2. All branch numbers ending in a
zero (such as 6.4.0) are used internally by CVS (*note Magic branch
numbers::). The branch 1.1.1 has a special meaning. *Note Tracking
sources::.

File: cvs.info, Node: Magic branch numbers, Next: Merging a branch, Prev: Branches and revisions, Up: Branching and merging

5.5 Magic branch numbers
========================

This section describes a CVS feature called "magic branches". For most
purposes, you need not worry about magic branches; CVS handles them for
you. However, they are visible to you in certain circumstances, so it
may be useful to have some idea of how it works.

Externally, branch numbers consist of an odd number of dot-separated
decimal integers. *Note Revision numbers::. That is not the whole
truth, however. For efficiency reasons CVS sometimes inserts an extra 0
in the second rightmost position (1.2.4 becomes 1.2.0.4, 8.9.10.11.12
becomes 8.9.10.11.0.12 and so on).

CVS does a pretty good job at hiding these so called magic branches,
but in a few places the hiding is incomplete:

* The magic branch number appears in the output from 'cvs log'.

* You cannot specify a symbolic branch name to 'cvs admin'.

You can use the 'admin' command to reassign a symbolic name to a
branch the way RCS expects it to be. If 'R4patches' is assigned to the
branch 1.4.2 (magic branch number 1.4.0.2) in file 'numbers.c' you can
do this:

$ cvs admin -NR4patches:1.4.2 numbers.c

It only works if at least one revision is already committed on the
branch. Be very careful so that you do not assign the tag to the wrong
number. (There is no way to see how the tag was assigned yesterday).

File: cvs.info, Node: Merging a branch, Next: Merging more than once, Prev: Magic branch numbers, Up: Branching and merging

5.6 Merging an entire branch
============================

You can merge changes made on a branch into your working copy by giving
the '-j BRANCHNAME' flag to the 'update' subcommand. With one '-j
BRANCHNAME' option it merges the changes made between the greatest
common ancestor (GCA) of the branch and the destination revision (in the
simple case below the GCA is the point where the branch forked) and the
newest revision on that branch into your working copy.

The '-j' stands for "join".

Consider this revision tree:

+-----+ +-----+ +-----+ +-----+
! 1.1 !----! 1.2 !----! 1.3 !----! 1.4 ! <- The main trunk
+-----+ +-----+ +-----+ +-----+
!
!
! +---------+ +---------+
Branch R1fix -> +---! 1.2.2.1 !----! 1.2.2.2 !
+---------+ +---------+

The branch 1.2.2 has been given the tag (symbolic name) 'R1fix'. The
following example assumes that the module 'mod' contains only one file,
'm.c'.

$ cvs checkout mod # Retrieve the latest revision, 1.4

$ cvs update -j R1fix m.c # Merge all changes made on the branch,
# i.e. the changes between revision 1.2
# and 1.2.2.2, into your working copy
# of the file.

$ cvs commit -m "Included R1fix" # Create revision 1.5.

A conflict can result from a merge operation. If that happens, you
should resolve it before committing the new revision. *Note Conflicts
example::.

If your source files contain keywords (*note Keyword substitution::),
you might be getting more conflicts than strictly necessary. See *note
Merging and keywords::, for information on how to avoid this.

The 'checkout' command also supports the '-j BRANCHNAME' flag. The
same effect as above could be achieved with this:

$ cvs checkout -j R1fix mod
$ cvs commit -m "Included R1fix"

It should be noted that 'update -j TAGNAME' will also work but may
not produce the desired result. *Note Merging adds and removals::, for
more.

File: cvs.info, Node: Merging more than once, Next: Merging two revisions, Prev: Merging a branch, Up: Branching and merging

5.7 Merging from a branch several times
=======================================

Continuing our example, the revision tree now looks like this:

+-----+ +-----+ +-----+ +-----+ +-----+
! 1.1 !----! 1.2 !----! 1.3 !----! 1.4 !----! 1.5 ! <- The main trunk
+-----+ +-----+ +-----+ +-----+ +-----+
! *
! *
! +---------+ +---------+
Branch R1fix -> +---! 1.2.2.1 !----! 1.2.2.2 !
+---------+ +---------+

where the starred line represents the merge from the 'R1fix' branch to
the main trunk, as just discussed.

Now suppose that development continues on the 'R1fix' branch:

+-----+ +-----+ +-----+ +-----+ +-----+
! 1.1 !----! 1.2 !----! 1.3 !----! 1.4 !----! 1.5 ! <- The main trunk
+-----+ +-----+ +-----+ +-----+ +-----+
! *
! *
! +---------+ +---------+ +---------+
Branch R1fix -> +---! 1.2.2.1 !----! 1.2.2.2 !----! 1.2.2.3 !
+---------+ +---------+ +---------+

and then you want to merge those new changes onto the main trunk. If
you just use the 'cvs update -j R1fix m.c' command again, CVS will
attempt to merge again the changes which you have already merged, which
can have undesirable side effects.

So instead you need to specify that you only want to merge the
changes on the branch which have not yet been merged into the trunk. To
do that you specify two '-j' options, and CVS merges the changes from
the first revision to the second revision. For example, in this case
the simplest way would be

cvs update -j 1.2.2.2 -j R1fix m.c # Merge changes from 1.2.2.2 to the
# head of the R1fix branch

The problem with this is that you need to specify the 1.2.2.2
revision manually. A slightly better approach might be to use the date
the last merge was done:

cvs update -j R1fix:yesterday -j R1fix m.c

Better yet, tag the R1fix branch after every merge into the trunk,
and then use that tag for subsequent merges:

cvs update -j merged_from_R1fix_to_trunk -j R1fix m.c

File: cvs.info, Node: Merging two revisions, Next: Merging adds and removals, Prev: Merging more than once, Up: Branching and merging

5.8 Merging differences between any two revisions
=================================================

With two '-j REVISION' flags, the 'update' (and 'checkout') command can
merge the differences between any two revisions into your working file.

$ cvs update -j 1.5 -j 1.3 backend.c

will undo all changes made between revision 1.3 and 1.5. Note the order
of the revisions!

If you try to use this option when operating on multiple files,
remember that the numeric revisions will probably be very different
between the various files. You almost always use symbolic tags rather
than revision numbers when operating on multiple files.

Specifying two '-j' options can also undo file removals or additions.
For example, suppose you have a file named 'file1' which existed as
revision 1.1, and you then removed it (thus adding a dead revision 1.2).
Now suppose you want to add it again, with the same contents it had
previously. Here is how to do it:

$ cvs update -j 1.2 -j 1.1 file1
U file1
$ cvs commit -m test
Checking in file1;
/tmp/cvs-sanity/cvsroot/first-dir/file1,v <-- file1
new revision: 1.3; previous revision: 1.2
done
$

File: cvs.info, Node: Merging adds and removals, Next: Merging and keywords, Prev: Merging two revisions, Up: Branching and merging

5.9 Merging can add or remove files
===================================

If the changes which you are merging involve removing or adding some
files, 'update -j' will reflect such additions or removals.

For example:
cvs update -A
touch a b c
cvs add a b c ; cvs ci -m "added" a b c
cvs tag -b branchtag
cvs update -r branchtag
touch d ; cvs add d
rm a ; cvs rm a
cvs ci -m "added d, removed a"
cvs update -A
cvs update -jbranchtag

After these commands are executed and a 'cvs commit' is done, file
'a' will be removed and file 'd' added in the main branch.

Note that using a single static tag ('-j TAGNAME') rather than a
dynamic tag ('-j BRANCHNAME') to merge changes from a branch will
usually not remove files which were removed on the branch since CVS does
not automatically add static tags to dead revisions. The exception to
this rule occurs when a static tag has been attached to a dead revision
manually. Use the branch tag to merge all changes from the branch or
use two static tags as merge endpoints to be sure that all intended
changes are propagated in the merge.

File: cvs.info, Node: Merging and keywords, Prev: Merging adds and removals, Up: Branching and merging

5.10 Merging and keywords
=========================

If you merge files containing keywords (*note Keyword substitution::),
you will normally get numerous conflicts during the merge, because the
keywords are expanded differently in the revisions which you are
merging.

Therefore, you will often want to specify the '-kk' (*note
Substitution modes::) switch to the merge command line. By substituting
just the name of the keyword, not the expanded value of that keyword,
this option ensures that the revisions which you are merging will be the
same as each other, and avoid spurious conflicts.

For example, suppose you have a file like this:

+---------+
_! 1.1.2.1 ! <- br1
/ +---------+
/
/
+-----+ +-----+
! 1.1 !----! 1.2 !
+-----+ +-----+

and your working directory is currently on the trunk (revision 1.2).
Then you might get the following results from a merge:

$ cat file1
key $Revision: 1.2 $
. . .
$ cvs update -j br1
U file1
RCS file: /cvsroot/first-dir/file1,v
retrieving revision 1.1
retrieving revision 1.1.2.1
Merging differences between 1.1 and 1.1.2.1 into file1
rcsmerge: warning: conflicts during merge
$ cat file1
<<<<<<< file1
key $Revision: 1.2 $
=======
key $Revision: 1.1.2.1 $
>>>>>>> 1.1.2.1
. . .

What happened was that the merge tried to merge the differences
between 1.1 and 1.1.2.1 into your working directory. So, since the
keyword changed from 'Revision: 1.1' to 'Revision: 1.1.2.1', CVS tried
to merge that change into your working directory, which conflicted with
the fact that your working directory had contained 'Revision: 1.2'.

Here is what happens if you had used '-kk':

$ cat file1
key $Revision: 1.2 $
. . .
$ cvs update -kk -j br1
U file1
RCS file: /cvsroot/first-dir/file1,v
retrieving revision 1.1
retrieving revision 1.1.2.1
Merging differences between 1.1 and 1.1.2.1 into file1
$ cat file1
key $Revision$
. . .

What is going on here is that revision 1.1 and 1.1.2.1 both expand as
plain 'Revision', and therefore merging the changes between them into
the working directory need not change anything. Therefore, there is no
conflict.

_WARNING: In versions of CVS prior to 1.12.2, there was a major
problem with using '-kk' on merges. Namely, '-kk' overrode any default
keyword expansion mode set in the archive file in the repository. This
could, unfortunately for some users, cause data corruption in binary
files (with a default keyword expansion mode set to '-kb'). Therefore,
when a repository contained binary files, conflicts had to be dealt with
manually rather than using '-kk' in a merge command._

In CVS version 1.12.2 and later, the keyword expansion mode provided
on the command line to any CVS command no longer overrides the '-kb'
keyword expansion mode setting for binary files, though it will still
override other default keyword expansion modes. You can now safely
merge using '-kk' to avoid spurious conflicts on lines containing RCS
keywords, even when your repository contains binary files.

File: cvs.info, Node: Recursive behavior, Next: Adding and removing, Prev: Branching and merging, Up: Top

6 Recursive behavior
********************

Almost all of the subcommands of CVS work recursively when you specify a
directory as an argument. For instance, consider this directory
structure:

$HOME
|
+--tc
| |
+--CVS
| (internal CVS files)
+--Makefile
+--backend.c
+--driver.c
+--frontend.c
+--parser.c
+--man
| |
| +--CVS
| | (internal CVS files)
| +--tc.1
|
+--testing
|
+--CVS
| (internal CVS files)
+--testpgm.t
+--test2.t

If 'tc' is the current working directory, the following is true:

* 'cvs update testing' is equivalent to

cvs update testing/testpgm.t testing/test2.t

* 'cvs update testing man' updates all files in the subdirectories

* 'cvs update .' or just 'cvs update' updates all files in the 'tc'
directory

If no arguments are given to 'update' it will update all files in the
current working directory and all its subdirectories. In other words,
'.' is a default argument to 'update'. This is also true for most of
the CVS subcommands, not only the 'update' command.

The recursive behavior of the CVS subcommands can be turned off with
the '-l' option. Conversely, the '-R' option can be used to force
recursion if '-l' is specified in '~/.cvsrc' (*note ~/.cvsrc::).

$ cvs update -l # Don't update files in subdirectories

File: cvs.info, Node: Adding and removing, Next: History browsing, Prev: Recursive behavior, Up: Top

7 Adding, removing, and renaming files and directories
******************************************************

In the course of a project, one will often add new files. Likewise with
removing or renaming, or with directories. The general concept to keep
in mind in all these cases is that instead of making an irreversible
change you want CVS to record the fact that a change has taken place,
just as with modifying an existing file. The exact mechanisms to do
this in CVS vary depending on the situation.

* Menu:

* Adding files:: Adding files
* Removing files:: Removing files
* Removing directories:: Removing directories
* Moving files:: Moving and renaming files
* Moving directories:: Moving and renaming directories

File: cvs.info, Node: Adding files, Next: Removing files, Up: Adding and removing

7.1 Adding files to a directory
===============================

To add a new file to a directory, follow these steps.

* You must have a working copy of the directory. *Note Getting the
source::.

* Create the new file inside your working copy of the directory.

* Use 'cvs add FILENAME' to tell CVS that you want to version control
the file. If the file contains binary data, specify '-kb' (*note
Binary files::).

* Use 'cvs commit FILENAME' to actually check in the file into the
repository. Other developers cannot see the file until you perform
this step.

You can also use the 'add' command to add a new directory.

Unlike most other commands, the 'add' command is not recursive. You
have to expcicitly name files and directories that you wish to add to
the repository. However, each directory will need to be added
separately before you will be able to add new files to those
directories.

$ mkdir -p foo/bar
$ cp ~/myfile foo/bar/myfile
$ cvs add foo foo/bar
$ cvs add foo/bar/myfile

-- Command: cvs add ['-k' kflag] ['-m' message] files ...

Schedule FILES to be added to the repository. The files or
directories specified with 'add' must already exist in the current
directory. To add a whole new directory hierarchy to the source
repository (for example, files received from a third-party vendor),
use the 'import' command instead. *Note import::.

The added files are not placed in the source repository until you
use 'commit' to make the change permanent. Doing an 'add' on a
file that was removed with the 'remove' command will undo the
effect of the 'remove', unless a 'commit' command intervened.
*Note Removing files::, for an example.

The '-k' option specifies the default way that this file will be
checked out; for more information see *note Substitution modes::.

The '-m' option specifies a description for the file. This
description appears in the history log (if it is enabled, *note
history file::). It will also be saved in the version history
inside the repository when the file is committed. The 'log'
command displays this description. The description can be changed
using 'admin -t'. *Note admin::. If you omit the '-m DESCRIPTION'
flag, an empty string will be used. You will not be prompted for a
description.

For example, the following commands add the file 'backend.c' to the
repository:

$ cvs add backend.c
$ cvs commit -m "Early version. Not yet compilable." backend.c

When you add a file it is added only on the branch which you are
working on (*note Branching and merging::). You can later merge the
additions to another branch if you want (*note Merging adds and
removals::).

File: cvs.info, Node: Removing files, Next: Removing directories, Prev: Adding files, Up: Adding and removing

7.2 Removing files
==================

Directories change. New files are added, and old files disappear.
Still, you want to be able to retrieve an exact copy of old releases.

Here is what you can do to remove a file, but remain able to retrieve
old revisions:

* Make sure that you have not made any uncommitted modifications to
the file. *Note Viewing differences::, for one way to do that.
You can also use the 'status' or 'update' command. If you remove
the file without committing your changes, you will of course not be
able to retrieve the file as it was immediately before you deleted
it.

* Remove the file from your working copy of the directory. You can
for instance use 'rm'.

* Use 'cvs remove FILENAME' to tell CVS that you really want to
delete the file.

* Use 'cvs commit FILENAME' to actually perform the removal of the
file from the repository.

When you commit the removal of the file, CVS records the fact that
the file no longer exists. It is possible for a file to exist on only
some branches and not on others, or to re-add another file with the same
name later. CVS will correctly create or not create the file, based on
the '-r' and '-D' options specified to 'checkout' or 'update'.

-- Command: cvs remove [options] files ...

Schedule file(s) to be removed from the repository (files which
have not already been removed from the working directory are not
processed). This command does not actually remove the file from
the repository until you commit the removal. For a full list of
options, see *note Invoking CVS::.

Here is an example of removing several files:

$ cd test
$ rm *.c
$ cvs remove
cvs remove: Removing .
cvs remove: scheduling a.c for removal
cvs remove: scheduling b.c for removal
cvs remove: use 'cvs commit' to remove these files permanently
$ cvs ci -m "Removed unneeded files"
cvs commit: Examining .
cvs commit: Committing .

As a convenience you can remove the file and 'cvs remove' it in one
step, by specifying the '-f' option. For example, the above example
could also be done like this:

$ cd test
$ cvs remove -f *.c
cvs remove: scheduling a.c for removal
cvs remove: scheduling b.c for removal
cvs remove: use 'cvs commit' to remove these files permanently
$ cvs ci -m "Removed unneeded files"
cvs commit: Examining .
cvs commit: Committing .

If you execute 'remove' for a file, and then change your mind before
you commit, you can undo the 'remove' with an 'add' command.

$ ls
CVS ja.h oj.c
$ rm oj.c
$ cvs remove oj.c
cvs remove: scheduling oj.c for removal
cvs remove: use 'cvs commit' to remove this file permanently
$ cvs add oj.c
U oj.c
cvs add: oj.c, version 1.1.1.1, resurrected

If you realise your mistake before you run the 'remove' command you
can use 'update' to resurrect the file:

$ rm oj.c
$ cvs update oj.c
cvs update: warning: oj.c was lost
U oj.c

When you remove a file it is removed only on the branch which you are
working on (*note Branching and merging::). You can later merge the
removals to another branch if you want (*note Merging adds and
removals::).

File: cvs.info, Node: Removing directories, Next: Moving files, Prev: Removing files, Up: Adding and removing

7.3 Removing directories
========================

In concept, removing directories is somewhat similar to removing
files--you want the directory to not exist in your current working
directories, but you also want to be able to retrieve old releases in
which the directory existed.

The way that you remove a directory is to remove all the files in it.
You don't remove the directory itself; there is no way to do that.
Instead you specify the '-P' option to 'cvs update' or 'cvs checkout',
which will cause CVS to remove empty directories from working
directories. (Note that 'cvs export' always removes empty directories.)
Probably the best way to do this is to always specify '-P'; if you want
an empty directory then put a dummy file (for example '.keepme') in it
to prevent '-P' from removing it.

Note that '-P' is implied by the '-r' or '-D' options of 'checkout'.
This way, CVS will be able to correctly create the directory or not
depending on whether the particular version you are checking out
contains any files in that directory.

File: cvs.info, Node: Moving files, Next: Moving directories, Prev: Removing directories, Up: Adding and removing

7.4 Moving and renaming files
=============================

Moving files to a different directory or renaming them is not difficult,
but some of the ways in which this works may be non-obvious. (Moving or
renaming a directory is even harder. *Note Moving directories::.).

The examples below assume that the file OLD is renamed to NEW.

* Menu:

* Outside:: The normal way to Rename
* Inside:: A tricky, alternative way
* Rename by copying:: Another tricky, alternative way

File: cvs.info, Node: Outside, Next: Inside, Up: Moving files

7.4.1 The Normal way to Rename
------------------------------

The normal way to move a file is to copy OLD to NEW, and then issue the
normal CVS commands to remove OLD from the repository, and add NEW to
it.

$ mv OLD NEW
$ cvs remove OLD
$ cvs add NEW
$ cvs commit -m "Renamed OLD to NEW" OLD NEW

This is the simplest way to move a file, it is not error-prone, and
it preserves the history of what was done. Note that to access the
history of the file you must specify the old or the new name, depending
on what portion of the history you are accessing. For example, 'cvs log
OLD' will give the log up until the time of the rename.

When NEW is committed its revision numbers will start again, usually
at 1.1, so if that bothers you, use the '-r TAG' option to commit. For
more information see *note Assigning revisions::.

File: cvs.info, Node: Inside, Next: Rename by copying, Prev: Outside, Up: Moving files

7.4.2 Moving the history file
-----------------------------

This method is more dangerous, since it involves moving files inside the
repository. Read this entire section before trying it out!

$ cd $CVSROOT/DIR
$ mv OLD,v NEW,v

Advantages:

* The log of changes is maintained intact.

* The revision numbers are not affected.

Disadvantages:

* Old releases cannot easily be fetched from the repository. (The
file will show up as NEW even in revisions from the time before it
was renamed).

* There is no log information of when the file was renamed.

* Nasty things might happen if someone accesses the history file
while you are moving it. Make sure no one else runs any of the CVS
commands while you move it.

File: cvs.info, Node: Rename by copying, Prev: Inside, Up: Moving files

7.4.3 Copying the history file
------------------------------

This way also involves direct modifications to the repository. It is
safe, but not without drawbacks.

# Copy the RCS file inside the repository
$ cd $CVSROOT/DIR
$ cp OLD,v NEW,v
# Remove the old file
$ cd ~/DIR
$ rm OLD
$ cvs remove OLD
$ cvs commit OLD
# Remove all tags from NEW
$ cvs update NEW
$ cvs log NEW # Remember the non-branch tag names
$ cvs tag -d TAG1 NEW
$ cvs tag -d TAG2 NEW
...

By removing the tags you will be able to check out old revisions.

Advantages:

* Checking out old revisions works correctly, as long as you use '-r
TAG' and not '-D DATE' to retrieve the revisions.

* The log of changes is maintained intact.

* The revision numbers are not affected.

Disadvantages:

* You cannot easily see the history of the file across the rename.

File: cvs.info, Node: Moving directories, Prev: Moving files, Up: Adding and removing

7.5 Moving and renaming directories
===================================

The normal way to rename or move a directory is to rename or move each
file within it as described in *note Outside::. Then check out with the
'-P' option, as described in *note Removing directories::.

If you really want to hack the repository to rename or delete a
directory in the repository, you can do it like this:

1. Inform everyone who has a checked out copy of the directory that
the directory will be renamed. They should commit all their
changes in all their copies of the project containing the directory
to be removed, and remove all their working copies of said project,
before you take the steps below.

2. Rename the directory inside the repository.

$ cd $CVSROOT/PARENT-DIR
$ mv OLD-DIR NEW-DIR

3. Fix the CVS administrative files, if necessary (for instance if you
renamed an entire module).

4. Tell everyone that they can check out again and continue working.

If someone had a working copy the CVS commands will cease to work for
him, until he removes the directory that disappeared inside the
repository.

It is almost always better to move the files in the directory instead
of moving the directory. If you move the directory you are unlikely to
be able to retrieve old releases correctly, since they probably depend
on the name of the directories.

File: cvs.info, Node: History browsing, Next: Binary files, Prev: Adding and removing, Up: Top

8 History browsing
******************

Once you have used CVS to store a version control history--what files
have changed when, how, and by whom, there are a variety of mechanisms
for looking through the history.

* Menu:

* log messages:: Log messages
* history database:: The history database
* user-defined logging:: User-defined logging

File: cvs.info, Node: log messages, Next: history database, Up: History browsing

8.1 Log messages
================

Whenever you commit a file you specify a log message.

To look through the log messages which have been specified for every
revision which has been committed, use the 'cvs log' command (*note
log::).

File: cvs.info, Node: history database, Next: user-defined logging, Prev: log messages, Up: History browsing

8.2 The history database
========================

You can use the history file (*note history file::) to log various CVS
actions. To retrieve the information from the history file, use the
'cvs history' command (*note history::).

Note: you can control what is logged to this file by using the
'LogHistory' keyword in the 'CVSROOT/config' file (*note config::).

File: cvs.info, Node: user-defined logging, Prev: history database, Up: History browsing

8.3 User-defined logging
========================

You can customise CVS to log various kinds of actions, in whatever
manner you choose. These mechanisms operate by executing a script at
various times. The script might append a message to a file listing the
information and the programmer who created it, or send mail to a group
of developers, or, perhaps, post a message to a particular newsgroup.
To log commits, use the 'loginfo' file (*note loginfo::), and to log
tagging operations, use the 'taginfo' file (*note taginfo::).

To log commits, checkouts, exports, and tags, respectively, you can
also use the '-i', '-o', '-e', and '-t' options in the modules file.
For a more flexible way of giving notifications to various users, which
requires less in the way of keeping centralised scripts up to date, use
the 'cvs watch add' command (*note Getting Notified::); this command is
useful even if you are not using 'cvs watch on'.

File: cvs.info, Node: Binary files, Next: Multiple developers, Prev: History browsing, Up: Top

9 Handling binary files
***********************

The most common use for CVS is to store text files. With text files,
CVS can merge revisions, display the differences between revisions in a
human-visible fashion, and other such operations. However, if you are
willing to give up a few of these abilities, CVS can store binary files.
For example, one might store a web site in CVS including both text files
and binary images.

* Menu:

* Binary why:: More details on issues with binary files
* Binary howto:: How to store them

File: cvs.info, Node: Binary why, Next: Binary howto, Up: Binary files

9.1 The issues with binary files
================================

While the need to manage binary files may seem obvious if the files that
you customarily work with are binary, putting them into version control
does present some additional issues.

One basic function of version control is to show the differences
between two revisions. For example, if someone else checked in a new
version of a file, you may wish to look at what they changed and
determine whether their changes are good. For text files, CVS provides
this functionality via the 'cvs diff' command. For binary files, it may
be possible to extract the two revisions and then compare them with a
tool external to CVS (for example, word processing software often has
such a feature). If there is no such tool, one must track changes via
other mechanisms, such as urging people to write good log messages, and
hoping that the changes they actually made were the changes that they
intended to make.

Another ability of a version control system is the ability to merge
two revisions. For CVS this happens in two contexts. The first is when
users make changes in separate working directories (*note Multiple
developers::). The second is when one merges explicitly with the
'update -j' command (*note Branching and merging::).

In the case of text files, CVS can merge changes made independently,
and signal a conflict if the changes conflict. With binary files, the
best that CVS can do is present the two different copies of the file,
and leave it to the user to resolve the conflict. The user may choose
one copy or the other, or may run an external merge tool which knows
about that particular file format, if one exists. Note that having the
user merge relies primarily on the user to not accidentally omit some
changes, and thus is potentially error prone.

If this process is thought to be undesirable, the best choice may be
to avoid merging. To avoid the merges that result from separate working
directories, see the discussion of reserved checkouts (file locking) in
*note Multiple developers::. To avoid the merges resulting from
branches, restrict use of branches.

File: cvs.info, Node: Binary howto, Prev: Binary why, Up: Binary files

9.2 How to store binary files
=============================

There are two issues with using CVS to store binary files. The first is
that CVS by default converts line endings between the canonical form in
which they are stored in the repository (linefeed only), and the form
appropriate to the operating system in use on the client (for example,
carriage return followed by line feed for Windows NT).

The second is that a binary file might happen to contain data which
looks like a keyword (*note Keyword substitution::), so keyword
expansion must be turned off.

The '-kb' option available with some CVS commands insures that
neither line ending conversion nor keyword expansion will be done.

Here is an example of how you can create a new file using the '-kb'
flag:

$ echo '$Id$' > kotest
$ cvs add -kb -m"A test file" kotest
$ cvs ci -m"First checkin; contains a keyword" kotest

If a file accidentally gets added without '-kb', one can use the 'cvs
admin' command to recover. For example:

$ echo '$Id$' > kotest
$ cvs add -m"A test file" kotest
$ cvs ci -m"First checkin; contains a keyword" kotest
$ cvs admin -kb kotest
$ cvs update -A kotest
# For non-unix systems:
# Copy in a good copy of the file from outside CVS
$ cvs commit -m "make it binary" kotest

When you check in the file 'kotest' the file is not preserved as a
binary file, because you did not check it in as a binary file. The 'cvs
admin -kb' command sets the default keyword substitution method for this
file, but it does not alter the working copy of the file that you have.
If you need to cope with line endings (that is, you are using CVS on a
non-unix system), then you need to check in a new copy of the file, as
shown by the 'cvs commit' command above. On unix, the 'cvs update -A'
command suffices. (Note that you can use 'cvs log' to determine the
default keyword substitution method for a file and 'cvs status' to
determine the keyword substitution method for a working copy.)

However, in using 'cvs admin -k' to change the keyword expansion, be
aware that the keyword expansion mode is not version controlled. This
means that, for example, that if you have a text file in old releases,
and a binary file with the same name in new releases, CVS provides no
way to check out the file in text or binary mode depending on what
version you are checking out. There is no good workaround for this
problem.

You can also set a default for whether 'cvs add' and 'cvs import'
treat a file as binary based on its name; for example you could say that
files who names end in '.exe' are binary. *Note Wrappers::. There is
currently no way to have CVS detect whether a file is binary based on
its contents. The main difficulty with designing such a feature is that
it is not clear how to distinguish between binary and non-binary files,
and the rules to apply would vary considerably with the operating
system.

File: cvs.info, Node: Multiple developers, Next: Revision management, Prev: Binary files, Up: Top

10 Multiple developers
**********************

When more than one person works on a software project things often get
complicated. Often, two people try to edit the same file
simultaneously. One solution, known as "file locking" or "reserved
checkouts", is to allow only one person to edit each file at a time.
This is the only solution with some version control systems, including
RCS and SCCS. Currently the usual way to get reserved checkouts with
CVS is the 'cvs admin -l' command (*note admin options::). This is not
as nicely integrated into CVS as the watch features, described below,
but it seems that most people with a need for reserved checkouts find it
adequate.

As of CVS version 1.12.10, another technique for getting most of the
effect of reserved checkouts is to enable advisory locks. To enable
advisory locks, have all developers put "edit -c", "commit -c" in their
.cvsrc file, and turn on watches in the repository. This prevents them
from doing a 'cvs edit' if anyone is already editing the file. It also
may be possible to use plain watches together with suitable procedures
(not enforced by software), to avoid having two people edit at the same
time.

The default model with CVS is known as "unreserved checkouts". In
this model, developers can edit their own "working copy" of a file
simultaneously. The first person that commits his changes has no
automatic way of knowing that another has started to edit it. Others
will get an error message when they try to commit the file. They must
then use CVS commands to bring their working copy up to date with the
repository revision. This process is almost automatic.

CVS also supports mechanisms which facilitate various kinds of
communication, without actually enforcing rules like reserved checkouts
do.

The rest of this chapter describes how these various models work, and
some of the issues involved in choosing between them.

* Menu:

* File status:: A file can be in several states
* Updating a file:: Bringing a file up-to-date
* Conflicts example:: An informative example
* Informing others:: To cooperate you must inform
* Concurrency:: Simultaneous repository access
* Watches:: Mechanisms to track who is editing files
* Choosing a model:: Reserved or unreserved checkouts?

File: cvs.info, Node: File status, Next: Updating a file, Up: Multiple developers

10.1 File status
================

Based on what operations you have performed on a checked out file, and
what operations others have performed to that file in the repository,
one can classify a file in a number of states. The states, as reported
by the 'status' command, are:

Up-to-date
The file is identical with the latest revision in the repository
for the branch in use.

Locally Modified
You have edited the file, and not yet committed your changes.

Locally Added
You have added the file with 'add', and not yet committed your
changes.

Locally Removed
You have removed the file with 'remove', and not yet committed your
changes.

Needs Checkout
Someone else has committed a newer revision to the repository. The
name is slightly misleading; you will ordinarily use 'update'
rather than 'checkout' to get that newer revision.

Needs Patch
Like Needs Checkout, but the CVS server will send a patch rather
than the entire file. Sending a patch or sending an entire file
accomplishes the same thing.

Needs Merge
Someone else has committed a newer revision to the repository, and
you have also made modifications to the file.

Unresolved Conflict
A file with the same name as this new file has been added to the
repository from a second workspace. This file will need to be
moved out of the way to allow an 'update' to complete.

File had conflicts on merge
This is like Locally Modified, except that a previous 'update'
command gave a conflict. If you have not already done so, you need
to resolve the conflict as described in *note Conflicts example::.

Unknown
CVS doesn't know anything about this file. For example, you have
created a new file and have not run 'add'.

To help clarify the file status, 'status' also reports the 'Working
revision' which is the revision that the file in the working directory
derives from, and the 'Repository revision' which is the latest revision
in the repository for the branch in use. The 'Commit Identifier'
reflects the unique commitid of the 'commit'.

The options to 'status' are listed in *note Invoking CVS::. For
information on its 'Sticky tag' and 'Sticky date' output, see *note
Sticky tags::. For information on its 'Sticky options' output, see the
'-k' option in *note update options::.

You can think of the 'status' and 'update' commands as somewhat
complementary. You use 'update' to bring your files up to date, and you
can use 'status' to give you some idea of what an 'update' would do (of
course, the state of the repository might change before you actually run
'update'). In fact, if you want a command to display file status in a
more brief format than is displayed by the 'status' command, you can
invoke

$ cvs -n -q update

The '-n' option means to not actually do the update, but merely to
display statuses; the '-q' option avoids printing the name of each
directory. For more information on the 'update' command, and these
options, see *note Invoking CVS::.

File: cvs.info, Node: Updating a file, Next: Conflicts example, Prev: File status, Up: Multiple developers

10.2 Bringing a file up to date
===============================

When you want to update or merge a file, use the 'cvs update -d'
command. For files that are not up to date this is roughly equivalent
to a 'checkout' command: the newest revision of the file is extracted
from the repository and put in your working directory. The '-d' option,
not necessary with 'checkout', tells CVS that you wish it to create
directories added by other developers.

Your modifications to a file are never lost when you use 'update'.
If no newer revision exists, running 'update' has no effect. If you
have edited the file, and a newer revision is available, CVS will merge
all changes into your working copy.

For instance, imagine that you checked out revision 1.4 and started
editing it. In the meantime someone else committed revision 1.5, and
shortly after that revision 1.6. If you run 'update' on the file now,
CVS will incorporate all changes between revision 1.4 and 1.6 into your
file.

If any of the changes between 1.4 and 1.6 were made too close to any
of the changes you have made, an "overlap" occurs. In such cases a
warning is printed, and the resulting file includes both versions of the
lines that overlap, delimited by special markers. *Note update::, for a
complete description of the 'update' command.

File: cvs.info, Node: Conflicts example, Next: Informing others, Prev: Updating a file, Up: Multiple developers

10.3 Conflicts example
======================

Suppose revision 1.4 of 'driver.c' contains this:

#include <stdio.h>

void main()
{
parse();
if (nerr == 0)
gencode();
else
fprintf(stderr, "No code generated.\n");
exit(nerr == 0 ? 0 : 1);
}

Revision 1.6 of 'driver.c' contains this:

#include <stdio.h>

int main(int argc,
char **argv)
{
parse();
if (argc != 1)
{
fprintf(stderr, "tc: No args expected.\n");
exit(1);
}
if (nerr == 0)
gencode();
else
fprintf(stderr, "No code generated.\n");
exit(!!nerr);
}

Your working copy of 'driver.c', based on revision 1.4, contains this
before you run 'cvs update':

#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>

void main()
{
init_scanner();
parse();
if (nerr == 0)
gencode();
else
fprintf(stderr, "No code generated.\n");
exit(nerr == 0 ? EXIT_SUCCESS : EXIT_FAILURE);
}

You run 'cvs update':

$ cvs update driver.c
RCS file: /usr/local/cvsroot/yoyodyne/tc/driver.c,v
retrieving revision 1.4
retrieving revision 1.6
Merging differences between 1.4 and 1.6 into driver.c
rcsmerge warning: overlaps during merge
cvs update: conflicts found in driver.c
C driver.c

CVS tells you that there were some conflicts. Your original working
file is saved unmodified in '.#driver.c.1.4'. The new version of
'driver.c' contains this:

#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>

int main(int argc,
char **argv)
{
init_scanner();
parse();
if (argc != 1)
{
fprintf(stderr, "tc: No args expected.\n");
exit(1);
}
if (nerr == 0)
gencode();
else
fprintf(stderr, "No code generated.\n");
<<<<<<< driver.c
exit(nerr == 0 ? EXIT_SUCCESS : EXIT_FAILURE);
=======
exit(!!nerr);
>>>>>>> 1.6
}

Note how all non-overlapping modifications are incorporated in your
working copy, and that the overlapping section is clearly marked with
'<<<<<<<', '=======' and '>>>>>>>'.

You resolve the conflict by editing the file, removing the markers
and the erroneous line. Suppose you end up with this file:
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>

You can now go ahead and commit this as revision 1.7.

$ cvs commit -m "Initialise scanner. Use symbolic exit values." driver.c
Checking in driver.c;
/usr/local/cvsroot/yoyodyne/tc/driver.c,v <-- driver.c
new revision: 1.7; previous revision: 1.6
done

For your protection, CVS will refuse to check in a file if a conflict
occurred and you have not resolved the conflict. Currently to resolve a
conflict, you must change the timestamp on the file. In previous
versions of CVS, you also needed to insure that the file contains no
conflict markers. Because your file may legitimately contain conflict
markers (that is, occurrences of '>>>>>>> ' at the start of a line that
don't mark a conflict), the current version of CVS will print a warning
and proceed to check in the file.

If you use release 1.04 or later of pcl-cvs (a GNU Emacs front-end
for CVS) you can use an Emacs package called emerge to help you resolve
conflicts. See the documentation for pcl-cvs.

File: cvs.info, Node: Informing others, Next: Concurrency, Prev: Conflicts example, Up: Multiple developers

10.4 Informing others about commits
===================================

It is often useful to inform others when you commit a new revision of a
file. The '-i' option of the 'modules' file, or the 'loginfo' file, can
be used to automate this process. *Note modules::. *Note loginfo::.
You can use these features of CVS to, for instance, instruct CVS to mail
a message to all developers, or post a message to a local newsgroup.

File: cvs.info, Node: Concurrency, Next: Watches, Prev: Informing others, Up: Multiple developers

10.5 Several developers simultaneously attempting to run CVS
============================================================

If several developers try to run CVS at the same time, one may get the
following message:

[11:43:23] waiting for bach's lock in /usr/local/cvsroot/foo

CVS will try again every 30 seconds, and either continue with the
operation or print the message again, if it still needs to wait. If a
lock seems to stick around for an undue amount of time, find the person
holding the lock and ask them about the cvs command they are running.
If they aren't running a cvs command, look in the repository directory
mentioned in the message and remove files which they own whose names
start with '#cvs.rfl', '#cvs.wfl', or '#cvs.lock'.

Note that these locks are to protect CVS's internal data structures
and have no relationship to the word "lock" in the sense used by
RCS--which refers to reserved checkouts (*note Multiple developers::).

Any number of people can be reading from a given repository at a
time; only when someone is writing do the locks prevent other people
from reading or writing.

One might hope for the following property:

If someone commits some changes in one cvs command, then an update
by someone else will either get all the changes, or none of them.

but CVS does _not_ have this property. For example, given the files

a/one.c
a/two.c
b/three.c
b/four.c

if someone runs

cvs ci a/two.c b/three.c

and someone else runs 'cvs update' at the same time, the person running
'update' might get only the change to 'b/three.c' and not the change to
'a/two.c'.

File: cvs.info, Node: Watches, Next: Choosing a model, Prev: Concurrency, Up: Multiple developers

10.6 Mechanisms to track who is editing files
=============================================

For many groups, use of CVS in its default mode is perfectly
satisfactory. Users may sometimes go to check in a modification only to
find that another modification has intervened, but they deal with it and
proceed with their check in. Other groups prefer to be able to know who
is editing what files, so that if two people try to edit the same file
they can choose to talk about who is doing what when rather than be
surprised at check in time. The features in this section allow such
coordination, while retaining the ability of two developers to edit the
same file at the same time.

For maximum benefit developers should use 'cvs edit' (not 'chmod') to
make files read-write to edit them, and 'cvs release' (not 'rm') to
discard a working directory which is no longer in use, but CVS is not
able to enforce this behavior.

If a development team wants stronger enforcement of watches and all
team members are using a CVS client version 1.12.10 or greater to access
a CVS server version 1.12.10 or greater, they can enable advisory locks.
To enable advisory locks, have all developers put "edit -c" and "commit
-c" into all .cvsrc files, and make files default to read only by
turning on watches or putting "cvs -r" into all .cvsrc files. This
prevents multiple people from editing a file at the same time (unless
explicitly overriden with '-f').

* Menu:

* Setting a watch:: Telling CVS to watch certain files
* Getting Notified:: Telling CVS to notify you
* Editing files:: How to edit a file which is being watched
* Watch information:: Information about who is watching and editing
* Watches Compatibility:: Watches interact poorly with CVS 1.6 or earlier

File: cvs.info, Node: Setting a watch, Next: Getting Notified, Up: Watches

10.6.1 Telling CVS to watch certain files
-----------------------------------------

To enable the watch features, you first specify that certain files are
to be watched.

-- Command: cvs watch on ['-lR'] [FILES]...

Specify that developers should run 'cvs edit' before editing FILES.
CVS will create working copies of FILES read-only, to remind
developers to run the 'cvs edit' command before working on them.

If FILES includes the name of a directory, CVS arranges to watch
all files added to the corresponding repository directory, and sets
a default for files added in the future; this allows the user to
set notification policies on a per-directory basis. The contents
of the directory are processed recursively, unless the '-l' option
is given. The '-R' option can be used to force recursion if the
'-l' option is set in '~/.cvsrc' (*note ~/.cvsrc::).

If FILES is omitted, it defaults to the current directory.

-- Command: cvs watch off ['-lR'] [FILES]...

Do not create FILES read-only on checkout; thus, developers will
not be reminded to use 'cvs edit' and 'cvs unedit'.

The FILES and options are processed as for 'cvs watch on'.

File: cvs.info, Node: Getting Notified, Next: Editing files, Prev: Setting a watch, Up: Watches

10.6.2 Telling CVS to notify you
--------------------------------

You can tell CVS that you want to receive notifications about various
actions taken on a file. You can do this without using 'cvs watch on'
for the file, but generally you will want to use 'cvs watch on', to
remind developers to use the 'cvs edit' command.

-- Command: cvs watch add ['-lR'] ['-a' ACTION]... [FILES]...

Add the current user to the list of people to receive notification
of work done on FILES.

The '-a' option specifies what kinds of events CVS should notify
the user about. ACTION is one of the following:

'edit'
Another user has applied the 'cvs edit' command (described
below) to a watched file.

'commit'
Another user has committed changes to one of the named FILES.

'unedit'
Another user has abandoned editing a file (other than by
committing changes). They can do this in several ways, by:

* applying the 'cvs unedit' command (described below) to
the file

* applying the 'cvs release' command (*note release::) to
the file's parent directory (or recursively to a
directory more than one level up)

* deleting the file and allowing 'cvs update' to recreate
it

'all'
All of the above.

'none'
None of the above. (This is useful with 'cvs edit', described
below.)

The '-a' option may appear more than once, or not at all. If
omitted, the action defaults to 'all'.

The FILES and options are processed as for 'cvs watch on'.

-- Command: cvs watch remove ['-lR'] ['-a' ACTION]... [FILES]...

Remove a notification request established using 'cvs watch add';
the arguments are the same. If the '-a' option is present, only
watches for the specified actions are removed.

When the conditions exist for notification, CVS calls the 'notify'
administrative file. Edit 'notify' as one edits the other
administrative files (*note Intro administrative files::). This file
follows the usual conventions for administrative files (*note syntax::),
where each line is a regular expression followed by a command to
execute. The command should contain a single occurrence of '%s' which
will be replaced by the user to notify; the rest of the information
regarding the notification will be supplied to the command on standard
input. The standard thing to put in the 'notify' file is the single
line:

ALL mail %s -s "CVS notification"

This causes users to be notified by electronic mail.

Note that if you set this up in the straightforward way, users
receive notifications on the server machine. One could of course write
a 'notify' script which directed notifications elsewhere, but to make
this easy, CVS allows you to associate a notification address for each
user. To do so create a file 'users' in 'CVSROOT' with a line for each
user in the format USER:VALUE. Then instead of passing the name of the
user to be notified to 'notify', CVS will pass the VALUE (normally an
email address on some other machine).

CVS does not notify you for your own changes. Currently this check
is done based on whether the user name of the person taking the action
which triggers notification matches the user name of the person getting
notification. In fact, in general, the watches features only track one
edit by each user. It probably would be more useful if watches tracked
each working directory separately, so this behavior might be worth
changing.

File: cvs.info, Node: Editing files, Next: Watch information, Prev: Getting Notified, Up: Watches

10.6.3 How to edit a file which is being watched
------------------------------------------------

Since a file which is being watched is checked out read-only, you cannot
simply edit it. To make it read-write, and inform others that you are
planning to edit it, use the 'cvs edit' command. Some systems call this
a "checkout", but CVS uses that term for obtaining a copy of the sources
(*note Getting the source::), an operation which those systems call a
"get" or a "fetch".

-- Command: cvs edit ['-lR'] ['-a' ACTION]... [FILES]...

Prepare to edit the working files FILES. CVS makes the FILES
read-write, and notifies users who have requested 'edit'
notification for any of FILES.

The 'cvs edit' command accepts the same options as the 'cvs watch
add' command, and establishes a temporary watch for the user on
FILES; CVS will remove the watch when FILES are 'unedit'ed or
'commit'ted. If the user does not wish to receive notifications,
she should specify '-a none'.

The FILES and the options are processed as for the 'cvs watch'
commands.

There are two additional options that 'cvs edit' understands as of
CVS client and server versions 1.12.10 but 'cvs watch' does not.
The first is '-c', which causes 'cvs edit' to fail if anyone else
is editing the file. This is probably only useful when 'edit -c'
and 'commit -c' are specified in all developers' '.cvsrc' files.
This behavior may be overriden this via the '-f' option, which
overrides '-c' and allows multiple edits to succeed.

Normally when you are done with a set of changes, you use the 'cvs
commit' command, which checks in your changes and returns the watched
files to their usual read-only state. But if you instead decide to
abandon your changes, or not to make any changes, you can use the 'cvs
unedit' command.

-- Command: cvs unedit ['-lR'] [FILES]...

Abandon work on the working files FILES, and revert them to the
repository versions on which they are based. CVS makes those FILES
read-only for which users have requested notification using 'cvs
watch on'. CVS notifies users who have requested 'unedit'
notification for any of FILES.

The FILES and options are processed as for the 'cvs watch'
commands.

If watches are not in use, the 'unedit' command probably does not
work, and the way to revert to the repository version is with the
command 'cvs update -C file' (*note update::). The meaning is not
precisely the same; the latter may also bring in some changes which
have been made in the repository since the last time you updated.

When using client/server CVS, you can use the 'cvs edit' and 'cvs
unedit' commands even if CVS is unable to successfully communicate with
the server; the notifications will be sent upon the next successful CVS
command.

File: cvs.info, Node: Watch information, Next: Watches Compatibility, Prev: Editing files, Up: Watches

10.6.4 Information about who is watching and editing
----------------------------------------------------

-- Command: cvs watchers ['-lR'] [FILES]...

List the users currently watching changes to FILES. The report
includes the files being watched, and the mail address of each
watcher.

The FILES and options are processed as for the 'cvs watch'
commands.

-- Command: cvs editors ['-lR'] [FILES]...

List the users currently working on FILES. The report includes the
mail address of each user, the time when the user began working
with the file, and the host and path of the working directory
containing the file.

The FILES and options are processed as for the 'cvs watch'
commands.

File: cvs.info, Node: Watches Compatibility, Prev: Watch information, Up: Watches

10.6.5 Using watches with old versions of CVS
---------------------------------------------

If you use the watch features on a repository, it creates 'CVS'
directories in the repository and stores the information about watches
in that directory. If you attempt to use CVS 1.6 or earlier with the
repository, you get an error message such as the following (all on one
line):

cvs update: cannot open CVS/Entries for reading:
No such file or directory

and your operation will likely be aborted. To use the watch features,
you must upgrade all copies of CVS which use that repository in local or
server mode. If you cannot upgrade, use the 'watch off' and 'watch
remove' commands to remove all watches, and that will restore the
repository to a state which CVS 1.6 can cope with.

File: cvs.info, Node: Choosing a model, Prev: Watches, Up: Multiple developers

10.7 Choosing between reserved or unreserved checkouts
======================================================

Reserved and unreserved checkouts each have pros and cons. Let it be
said that a lot of this is a matter of opinion or what works given
different groups' working styles, but here is a brief description of
some of the issues. There are many ways to organise a team of
developers. CVS does not try to enforce a certain organization. It is
a tool that can be used in several ways.

Reserved checkouts can be very counter-productive. If two persons
want to edit different parts of a file, there may be no reason to
prevent either of them from doing so. Also, it is common for someone to
take out a lock on a file, because they are planning to edit it, but
then forget to release the lock.

People, especially people who are familiar with reserved checkouts,
often wonder how often conflicts occur if unreserved checkouts are used,
and how difficult they are to resolve. The experience with many groups
is that they occur rarely and usually are relatively straightforward to
resolve.

The rarity of serious conflicts may be surprising, until one realises
that they occur only when two developers disagree on the proper design
for a given section of code; such a disagreement suggests that the team
has not been communicating properly in the first place. In order to
collaborate under _any_ source management regimen, developers must agree
on the general design of the system; given this agreement, overlapping
changes are usually straightforward to merge.

In some cases unreserved checkouts are clearly inappropriate. If no
merge tool exists for the kind of file you are managing (for example
word processor files or files edited by Computer Aided Design programs),
and it is not desirable to change to a program which uses a mergeable
data format, then resolving conflicts is going to be unpleasant enough
that you generally will be better off to simply avoid the conflicts
instead, by using reserved checkouts.

The watches features described above in *note Watches:: can be
considered to be an intermediate model between reserved checkouts and
unreserved checkouts. When you go to edit a file, it is possible to
find out who else is editing it. And rather than having the system
simply forbid both people editing the file, it can tell you what the
situation is and let you figure out whether it is a problem in that
particular case or not. Therefore, for some groups watches can be
considered the best of both the reserved checkout and unreserved
checkout worlds.

As of CVS client and server versions 1.12.10, you may also enable
advisory locks by putting 'edit -c' and 'commit -c' in all developers'
'.cvsrc' files. After this is done, 'cvs edit' will fail if there are
any other editors, and 'cvs commit' will fail if the committer has not
registered to edit the file via 'cvs edit'. This is most effective in
conjunction with files checked out read-only by default, which may be
enabled by turning on watches in the repository or by putting 'cvs -r'
in all '.cvsrc' files.

File: cvs.info, Node: Revision management, Next: Keyword substitution, Prev: Multiple developers, Up: Top

11 Revision management
**********************

If you have read this far, you probably have a pretty good grasp on what
CVS can do for you. This chapter talks a little about things that you
still have to decide.

If you are doing development on your own using CVS you could probably
skip this chapter. The questions this chapter takes up become more
important when more than one person is working in a repository.

* Menu:

* When to commit:: Some discussion on the subject

File: cvs.info, Node: When to commit, Up: Revision management

11.1 When to commit?
====================

Your group should decide which policy to use regarding commits. Several
policies are possible, and as your experience with CVS grows you will
probably find out what works for you.

If you commit files too quickly you might commit files that do not
even compile. If your partner updates his working sources to include
your buggy file, he will be unable to compile the code. On the other
hand, other persons will not be able to benefit from the improvements
you make to the code if you commit very seldom, and conflicts will
probably be more common.

It is common to only commit files after making sure that they can be
compiled. Some sites require that the files pass a test suite.
Policies like this can be enforced using the commitinfo file (*note
commitinfo::), but you should think twice before you enforce such a
convention. By making the development environment too controlled it
might become too regimented and thus counter-productive to the real
goal, which is to get software written.

File: cvs.info, Node: Keyword substitution, Next: Tracking sources, Prev: Revision management, Up: Top

12 Keyword substitution
***********************

As long as you edit source files inside a working directory you can
always find out the state of your files via 'cvs status' and 'cvs log'.
But as soon as you export the files from your development environment it
becomes harder to identify which revisions they are.

CVS can use a mechanism known as "keyword substitution" (or "keyword
expansion") to help identifying the files. Embedded strings of the form
'$KEYWORD$' and '$KEYWORD:...$' in a file are replaced with strings of
the form '$KEYWORD:VALUE$' whenever you obtain a new revision of the
file.

* Menu:

* Keyword list:: Keywords
* Using keywords:: Using keywords
* Avoiding substitution:: Avoiding substitution
* Substitution modes:: Substitution modes
* Configuring keyword expansion:: Configuring keyword expansion
* Log keyword:: Problems with the $Log$ keyword.

File: cvs.info, Node: Keyword list, Next: Using keywords, Up: Keyword substitution

12.1 Keyword List
=================

This is a list of the keywords:

'$Author$'
The login name of the user who checked in the revision.

'$CVSHeader$'
A standard header (similar to $Header$, but with the CVS root
stripped off). It contains the relative pathname of the RCS file
to the CVS root, the revision number, the date (UTC), the author,
the state, and the locker (if locked). Files will normally never
be locked when you use CVS.

Note that this keyword has only been recently introduced to CVS and
may cause problems with existing installations if $CVSHeader$ is
already in the files for a different purpose. This keyword may be
excluded using the 'KeywordExpand=eCVSHeader' in the
'CVSROOT/config' file. See *note Configuring keyword expansion::
for more details.

'$Date$'
The date and time (UTC) the revision was checked in.

'$Mdocdate$'
The date (UTC) the revision was checked in, in a format suitable
for the Berkeley mdoc macro processing.

$Mdocdate: January 30 2021 $

'$Header$'
A standard header containing the full pathname of the RCS file, the
revision number, the date (UTC), the author, the state, and the
locker (if locked). Files will normally never be locked when you
use CVS.

'$Id$'
Same as '$Header$', except that the RCS filename is without a path.

'$Name$'
Tag name used to check out this file. The keyword is expanded only
if one checks out with an explicit tag name. For example, when
running the command 'cvs co -r first', the keyword expands to
'Name: first'.

'$Locker$'
The login name of the user who locked the revision (empty if not
locked, which is the normal case unless 'cvs admin -l' is in use).

'$Log$'
The log message supplied during commit, preceded by a header
containing the RCS filename, the revision number, the author, and
the date (UTC). Existing log messages are _not_ replaced. Instead,
the new log message is inserted after '$Log:...$'. By default,
each new line is prefixed with the same string which precedes the
'$Log$' keyword, unless it exceeds the 'MaxCommentLeaderLength' set
in 'CVSROOT/config'.

For example, if the file contains:

/* Here is what people have been up to:
*
* $Log: frob.c,v $
* Revision 1.1 1997/01/03 14:23:51 joe
* Add the superfrobnicate option
*
*/

then additional lines which are added when expanding the '$Log$'
keyword will be preceded by ' * '. Unlike previous versions of CVS
and RCS, the "comment leader" from the RCS file is not used. The
'$Log$' keyword is useful for accumulating a complete change log in
a source file, but for several reasons it can be problematic.

If the prefix of the '$Log$' keyword turns out to be longer than
the 'CVSROOT/config' setting 'MaxCommentLeaderLength', CVS will
skip expansion of this keyword unless 'UseArchiveCommentLeader' is
also set in 'CVSROOT/config' and a 'comment leader' is set in the
RCS archive file, in which case the comment leader will be used
instead. For more on setting the comment leader in the RCS archive
file, *Note admin::. For more on configuring the default '$Log$'
substitution behavior, *Note config::.

*Note Log keyword::.

'$RCSfile$'
The name of the RCS file without a path.

'$Revision$'
The revision number assigned to the revision.

'$Source$'
The full pathname of the RCS file.

'$State$'
The state assigned to the revision. States can be assigned with
'cvs admin -s'--see *note admin options::.

'Local keyword'
The 'LocalKeyword' option in the 'CVSROOT/config' file may be used
to specify a local keyword which is to be used as an alias for one
of the keywords: $Id$, $Header$, or $CVSHeader$. For example, if
the 'CVSROOT/config' file contains a line with
'LocalKeyword=MYBSD=CVSHeader', then a file with the local keyword
$MYBSD$ will be expanded as if it were a $CVSHeader$ keyword. If
the src/frob.c file contained this keyword, it might look something
like this:

/*
* $MYBSD: src/frob.c,v 1.1 2003/05/04 09:27:45 john Exp $
*/

Many repositories make use of a such a "local keyword" feature. An
old patch to CVS provided the 'LocalKeyword' feature using a 'tag='
option and called this the "custom tag" or "local tag" feature. It
was used in conjunction with the what they called the 'tagexpand='
option. In CVS this other option is known as the 'KeywordExpand'
option. See *note Configuring keyword expansion:: for more
details.

Examples from popular projects include: $FreeBSD$, $NetBSD$,
$OpenBSD$, $XFree86$, $Xorg$.

The advantage of this is that you can include your local version
information in a file using this local keyword without disrupting
the upstream version information (which may be a different local
keyword or a standard keyword). Allowing bug reports and the like
to more properly identify the source of the original bug to the
third-party and reducing the number of conflicts that arise during
an import of a new version.

All keyword expansion except the local keyword may be disabled
using the 'KeywordExpand' option in the 'CVSROOT/config' file--see
*note Configuring keyword expansion:: for more details.

File: cvs.info, Node: Using keywords, Next: Avoiding substitution, Prev: Keyword list, Up: Keyword substitution

12.2 Using keywords
===================

To include a keyword string you simply include the relevant text string,
such as '$Id$', inside the file, and commit the file. CVS will
automatically (Or, more accurately, as part of the update run that
automatically happens after a commit.) expand the string as part of the
commit operation.

It is common to embed the '$Id$' string in the source files so that
it gets passed through to generated files. For example, if you are
managing computer program source code, you might include a variable
which is initialised to contain that string. Or some C compilers may
provide a '#pragma ident' directive. Or a document management system
might provide a way to pass a string through to generated files.

The 'ident' command (which is part of the RCS package) can be used to
extract keywords and their values from a file. This can be handy for
text files, but it is even more useful for extracting keywords from
binary files.

$ ident samp.c
samp.c:
$Id: samp.c,v 1.5 1993/10/19 14:57:32 ceder Exp $
$ gcc samp.c
$ ident a.out
a.out:
$Id: samp.c,v 1.5 1993/10/19 14:57:32 ceder Exp $

SCCS is another popular revision control system. It has a command,
'what', which is very similar to 'ident' and used for the same purpose.
Many sites without RCS have SCCS. Since 'what' looks for the character
sequence '@(#)' it is easy to include keywords that are detected by
either command. Simply prefix the keyword with the magic SCCS phrase,
like this:

static char *id="@(#) $Id: ab.c,v 1.5 1993/10/19 14:57:32 ceder Exp $";

File: cvs.info, Node: Avoiding substitution, Next: Substitution modes, Prev: Using keywords, Up: Keyword substitution

12.3 Avoiding substitution
==========================

Keyword substitution has its disadvantages. Sometimes you might want
the literal text string '$Author$' to appear inside a file without CVS
interpreting it as a keyword and expanding it into something like
'$Author: ceder $'.

There is unfortunately no way to selectively turn off keyword
substitution. You can use '-ko' (*note Substitution modes::) to turn
off keyword substitution entirely.

In many cases you can avoid using keywords in the source, even though
they appear in the final product. For example, the source for this
manual contains '$@asis{}Author$' whenever the text '$Author$' should
appear. In 'nroff' and 'troff' you can embed the null-character '\&'
inside the keyword for a similar effect.

It is also possible to specify an explicit list of keywords to
include or exclude using the 'KeywordExpand' option in the
'CVSROOT/config' file-see *note Configuring keyword expansion:: for more
details. This feature is intended primarily for use with the
'LocalKeyword' option-see *note Keyword list::.

File: cvs.info, Node: Substitution modes, Next: Configuring keyword expansion, Prev: Avoiding substitution, Up: Keyword substitution

12.4 Substitution modes
=======================

Each file has a stored default substitution mode, and each working
directory copy of a file also has a substitution mode. The former is
set by the '-k' option to 'cvs add' and 'cvs admin'; the latter is set
by the '-k' or '-A' options to 'cvs checkout' or 'cvs update'. 'cvs
diff' and 'cvs rdiff' also have '-k' options. For some examples, see
*note Binary files::, and *note Merging and keywords::.

The modes available are:

'-kkv'
Generate keyword strings using the default form, e.g. '$Revision:
5.7 $' for the 'Revision' keyword.

'-kkvl'
Like '-kkv', except that a locker's name is always inserted if the
given revision is currently locked. The locker's name is only
relevant if 'cvs admin -l' is in use.

'-kk'
Generate only keyword names in keyword strings; omit their values.
For example, for the 'Revision' keyword, generate the string
'$Revision$' instead of '$Revision: 5.7 $'. This option is useful
to ignore differences due to keyword substitution when comparing
different revisions of a file (*note Merging and keywords::).

'-ko'
Generate the old keyword string, present in the working file just
before it was checked in. For example, for the 'Revision' keyword,
generate the string '$Revision: 1.1 $' instead of '$Revision: 5.7
$' if that is how the string appeared when the file was checked in.

'-kb'
Like '-ko', but also inhibit conversion of line endings between the
canonical form in which they are stored in the repository (linefeed
only), and the form appropriate to the operating system in use on
the client. For systems, like unix, which use linefeed only to
terminate lines, this is very similar to '-ko'. For more
information on binary files, see *note Binary files::. In CVS
version 1.12.2 and later '-kb', as set by 'cvs add', 'cvs admin',
or 'cvs import' may not be overridden by a '-k' option specified on
the command line.

'-kv'
Generate only keyword values for keyword strings. For example, for
the 'Revision' keyword, generate the string '5.7' instead of
'$Revision: 5.7 $'. This can help generate files in programming
languages where it is hard to strip keyword delimiters like
'$Revision: $' from a string. However, further keyword
substitution cannot be performed once the keyword names are
removed, so this option should be used with care.

One often would like to use '-kv' with 'cvs export'--*note
export::. But be aware that doesn't handle an export containing
binary files correctly.

File: cvs.info, Node: Configuring keyword expansion, Next: Log keyword, Prev: Substitution modes, Up: Keyword substitution

12.5 Configuring Keyword Expansion
==================================

In a repository that includes third-party software on vendor branches,
it is sometimes helpful to configure CVS to use a local keyword instead
of the standard $Id$ or $Header$ keywords. Examples from real projects
include $Xorg$, $XFree86$, $FreeBSD$, $NetBSD$, $OpenBSD$, and even
$dotat$. The advantage of this is that you can include your local
version information in a file using this local keyword (sometimes called
a "custom tag" or a "local tag") without disrupting the upstream version
information (which may be a different local keyword or a standard
keyword). In these cases, it is typically desirable to disable the
expansion of all keywords except the configured local keyword.

The 'KeywordExpand' option in the 'CVSROOT/config' file is intended
to allow for the either the explicit exclusion of a keyword or list of
keywords, or for the explicit inclusion of a keyword or a list of
keywords. This list may include the 'LocalKeyword' that has been
configured.

The 'KeywordExpand' option is followed by '=' and the next character
may either be 'i' to start an inclusion list or 'e' to start an
exclusion list. If the following lines were added to the
'CVSROOT/config' file:

# Add a "MyBSD" keyword and restrict keyword
# expansion
LocalKeyword=MyBSD=CVSHeader
KeywordExpand=iMyBSD

then only the $MyBSD$ keyword would be expanded. A list may be used.
The this example:

# Add a "MyBSD" keyword and restrict keyword expansion
# to the MyBSD, Name, Date and Mdocdate keywords.
LocalKeyword=MyBSD=CVSHeader
KeywordExpand=iMyBSD,Name,Date,Mdocdate

would allow $MyBSD$, $Name$, $Mdocdate and $Date$ to be expanded.

It is also possible to configure an exclusion list using the
following:

# Do not expand the non-RCS keyword CVSHeader
KeywordExpand=eCVSHeader

This allows CVS to ignore the recently introduced $CVSHeader$ keyword
and retain all of the others. The exclusion entry could also contain
the standard RCS keyword list, but this could be confusing to users that
expect RCS keywords to be expanded, so care should be taken to properly
set user expectations for a repository that is configured in that
manner.

If there is a desire to not have any RCS keywords expanded and not
use the '-ko' flags everywhere, an administrator may disable all keyword
expansion using the 'CVSROOT/config' line:

# Do not expand any RCS keywords
KeywordExpand=i

this could be confusing to users that expect RCS keywords like $Id$
to be expanded properly, so care should be taken to properly set user
expectations for a repository so configured.

It should be noted that a patch to provide both the 'KeywordExpand'
and 'LocalKeyword' features has been around a long time. However, that
patch implemented these features using 'tag=' and 'tagexpand=' keywords
and those keywords are NOT recognised.

File: cvs.info, Node: Log keyword, Prev: Configuring keyword expansion, Up: Keyword substitution

12.6 Problems with the $Log$ keyword.
=====================================

The '$Log$' keyword is somewhat controversial. As long as you are
working on your development system the information is easily accessible
even if you do not use the '$Log$' keyword--just do a 'cvs log'. Once
you export the file the history information might be useless anyhow.

A more serious concern is that CVS is not good at handling '$Log$'
entries when a branch is merged onto the main trunk. Conflicts often
result from the merging operation.

People also tend to "fix" the log entries in the file (correcting
spelling mistakes and maybe even factual errors). If that is done the
information from 'cvs log' will not be consistent with the information
inside the file. This may or may not be a problem in real life.

It has been suggested that the '$Log$' keyword should be inserted
_last_ in the file, and not in the files header, if it is to be used at
all. That way the long list of change messages will not interfere with
everyday source file browsing.

File: cvs.info, Node: Tracking sources, Next: Builds, Prev: Keyword substitution, Up: Top

13 Tracking third-party sources
*******************************

If you modify a program to better fit your site, you probably want to
include your modifications when the next release of the program arrives.
CVS can help you with this task.

In the terminology used in CVS, the supplier of the program is called
a "vendor". The unmodified distribution from the vendor is checked in
on its own branch, the "vendor branch". CVS reserves branch 1.1.1 for
this use.

When you modify the source and commit it, your revision will end up
on the main trunk. When a new release is made by the vendor, you commit
it on the vendor branch and copy the modifications onto the main trunk.

Use the 'import' command to create and update the vendor branch.
When you import a new file, (usually) the vendor branch is made the
'head' revision, so anyone that checks out a copy of the file gets that
revision. When a local modification is committed it is placed on the
main trunk, and made the 'head' revision.

* Menu:

* First import:: Importing for the first time
* Update imports:: Updating with the import command
* Reverting local changes:: Reverting to the latest vendor release
* Binary files in imports:: Binary files require special handling
* Keywords in imports:: Keyword substitution might be undesirable
* Multiple vendor branches:: What if you get sources from several places?

File: cvs.info, Node: First import, Next: Update imports, Up: Tracking sources

13.1 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

13.2 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

_WARNING: If you use a release tag that already exists in one of the
repository archives, files removed by an import may not be detected._

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.

However, it is much better to use the two release tags rather than
using a date on the branch as suggested above:

$ cvs checkout -jWDIFF_0_04 -jWDIFF_0_05 wdiff

The reason this is better is that using a date, as suggested above,
assumes that you do not import more than one release of a product per
day. More importantly, using the release tags allows CVS to detect
files that were removed between the two vendor releases and mark them
for removal. Since 'import' has no way to detect removed files, you
should do a merge like this even if 'import' doesn't tell you to.

File: cvs.info, Node: Reverting local changes, Next: Binary files in imports, Prev: Update imports, Up: Tracking sources

13.3 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. This does, however, produce weird results if you should
ever edit this file again, for anyone looking at the output from the
'log' command or CVSweb. To fix this, first commit a revision of the
file which equals the vendor branch, then use 'admin' '-b'. 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 -bFSF_DIST .

You must specify the '-bFSF_DIST' 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

13.4 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

13.5 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

13.6 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'.

Vendor branches can only be in the format 1.1.x where 'x' is an
_uneven_ number, because branch tags use even numbers.

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

14 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 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

15 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

Appendix A 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::, and for an
alphabetical list of all CVS commands, *note CVS command list::).

* Menu:

* Structure:: Overall structure of CVS commands
* Exit status:: Indicating CVS's success or failure
* ~/.cvsrc:: Default options with the ~/.cvsrc file
* Global options:: Options you give to the left of cvs_command
* Common options:: Options you give to the right of cvs_command
* Date input formats:: Acceptable formats for date specifications
* admin:: Administration front-end for RCS
* annotate:: What revision modified each line of a file?
* 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 repository access history
* import:: Import sources into CVS, using vendor branches
* log:: Print out history information for files
* ls & rls:: List files in the repository
* rdiff:: Create 'patch' format diffs between revisions
* release:: Indicate that a directory is no longer in use
* server & pserver:: Act as a server for a client on stdin/stdout
* suck:: Download RCS ,v file raw
* update:: Bring work tree in sync with repository

File: cvs.info, Node: Structure, Next: Exit status, Up: CVS commands

A.1 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'. When given as a 'cvs_option', some options only
affect some of the commands. When given as a 'command_option' it may
have a different meaning, and be 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

A.2 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

A.3 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 -uN
rdiff -u
update -Pd
checkout -P
release -d

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

A.4 Global options
==================

The available 'cvs_options' (that are given to the left of
'cvs_command') are:

'--allow-root=ROOTDIR'
May be invoked multiple times to specify one legal CVSROOT
directory with each invocation. Also causes CVS to preparse the
configuration file for each specified root, which can be useful
when configuring write proxies, See *note Password authentication
server:: & *note Write proxies::.

'-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.

The CVS client and server store temporary files in a temporary
directory. The path to this temporary directory is set via, in
order of precedence:

* The argument to the global '-T' option.

* The value set for 'TmpDir' in the config file (server only -
*note config::).

* The contents of the '$TMPDIR' environment variable ('%TMPDIR%'
on Windows - *note Environment variables::).

* /tmp

Temporary directories should always be specified as an absolute
pathname. When running a CVS client, '-T' affects only the local
process; specifying '-T' for the client has no effect on the server
and vice versa.

'-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.

'-g'
Forges group-writable permissions on files in the working copy.
This option is typically used when you have multiple users sharing
a single checked out source tree, allowing them to operate their
shells with a less dangerous umask at the expense of CVS security.
To use this feature, create a directory to hold the checked-out
source tree, set it to a private group, and set up the directory
such that files created under it inherit the gid of the directory.
On BSD systems, this occurs automatically. On SYSV systems and
GNU/Linux, the sgid bit must be set on the directory for this. The
users who are to share the checked out tree must be placed in that
group which owns the directory.

Note that the sharing of a single checked-out source tree is very
different from giving several users access to a common CVS
repository. Access to a common CVS repository already maintains
shared group-write permissions and does not require this option.

Due to the security implications, setting this option globally in
your '.cvsrc' file is strongly discouraged; if you must, ensure all
source checkouts are "firewalled" within a private group or a
private mode 0700 directory.

This option is a MidnightBSD extension merged into Debian and
MirBSD CVS.

'-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.

'-R'
Turns on read-only repository mode. This allows one to check out
from a read-only repository, such as within an anoncvs server, or
from a CD-ROM repository.

Same effect as if the 'CVSREADONLYFS' environment variable is set.
Using '-R' can also considerably speed up checkouts over NFS.

'-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 LEVEL'
Request compression LEVEL for network traffic. CVS interprets
LEVEL identically to the 'gzip' program. Valid levels are 1 (high
speed, low compression) to 9 (low speed, high compression), or 0 to
disable compression (the default). Data sent to the server will be
compressed at the requested level and the client will request the
server use the same compression level for data returned. The
server will use the closest level allowed by the server
administrator to compress returned data. This option only has an
effect when passed to the CVS client.

File: cvs.info, Node: Common options, Next: Date input formats, Prev: Global options, Up: CVS commands

A.5 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).

_Note: 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 'annotate', 'checkout', 'diff',
'export', 'history', 'ls', 'rdiff', 'rls', 'rtag', 'tag', and
'update' commands. (The 'history' command uses this option in a
slightly different way; *note history options::).

For a complete description of the date formats accepted by CVS,
*note Date input formats::.

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'
Override the default processing of RCS keywords other than '-kb'.
*Note Keyword substitution::, for the meaning of KFLAG. Used with
the 'checkout' and 'update' commands, your KFLAG specification is
"sticky"; that is, when you use this option with a 'checkout' or
'update' command, CVS associates your selected KFLAG with any files
it operates on, and continues to use that KFLAG with future
commands on the same files until you specify otherwise.

The '-k' option is available with the 'add', 'checkout', 'diff',
'export', 'import', 'rdiff', and 'update' commands.

_WARNING: Prior to CVS version 1.12.2, the '-k' flag overrode the
'-kb' indication for a binary file. This could sometimes corrupt
binary files. *Note Merging and keywords::, for more._

'-l'
Local; run only in current working directory, rather than recursing
through subdirectories.

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 tag program. (A program can be specified to run in
the modules database (*note modules::); this option bypasses it).

_Note: this is not the same as the 'cvs -n' program 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 the default for all CVS
commands, with the exception of 'ls' & 'rls'.

Available with the following commands: 'annotate', 'checkout',
'commit', 'diff', 'edit', 'editors', 'export', 'ls', 'rdiff',
'remove', 'rls', 'rtag', 'status', 'tag', 'unedit', 'update',
'watch', and 'watchers'.

'-r TAG'
'-r TAG[:DATE]'
Use the revision specified by the TAG argument (and the DATE
argument for the commands which accept it) 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 (also
known as the tip of the 'MAIN' branch, also known as trunk; the
name of a branch refers to its tip; this version of CVS introduces
'.bhead', but only for the DIFF command, for the same), 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::. When TAG is the name of a branch, some
commands accept the optional DATE argument to specify the revision
as of the given date on the branch. When a command expects a
specific revision, the name of a branch is interpreted as the most
recent revision on that branch.

As a Debian and MirBSD CVS extension, specifying 'BASE' as the DATE
portion of the argument yields the _base revision_ of the branch
specified by the TAG portion of the argument, i.e. the revision on
the parent branch the TAG branch split off, or, where both branches
were the same. This option has not received very much testing,
beware!

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.

_Note: this is not the same as the overall 'cvs -r' option, which
you can specify to the left of a CVS command!_

'-r TAG' is available with the 'commit' and 'history' commands.

'-r TAG[:DATE]' is available with the 'annotate', 'checkout',
'diff', '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: Date input formats, Next: admin, Prev: Common options, Up: CVS commands

A.6 Date input formats
======================

First, a quote:

Our units of temporal measurement, from seconds on up to months,
are so complicated, asymmetrical and disjunctive so as to make
coherent mental reckoning in time all but impossible. Indeed, had
some tyrannical god contrived to enslave our minds to time, to make
it all but impossible for us to escape subjection to sodden
routines and unpleasant surprises, he could hardly have done better
than handing down our present system. It is like a set of
trapezoidal building blocks, with no vertical or horizontal
surfaces, like a language in which the simplest thought demands
ornate constructions, useless particles and lengthy
circumlocutions. Unlike the more successful patterns of language
and science, which enable us to face experience boldly or at least
level-headedly, our system of temporal calculation silently and
persistently encourages our terror of time.

... It is as though architects had to measure length in feet, width
in meters and height in ells; as though basic instruction manuals
demanded a knowledge of five different languages. It is no wonder
then that we often look into our own immediate past or future, last
Tuesday or a week from Sunday, with feelings of helpless confusion.
...

-- Robert Grudin, 'Time and the Art of Living'.

This section describes the textual date representations that GNU
programs accept. These are the strings you, as a user, can supply as
arguments to the various programs. The C interface (via the 'get_date'
function) is not described here.

* Menu:

* General date syntax:: Common rules.
* Calendar date items:: 19 Dec 1994.
* Time of day items:: 9:20pm.
* Time zone items:: EST, PDT, GMT.
* Day of week items:: Monday and others.
* Relative items in date strings:: next tuesday, 2 years ago.
* Pure numbers in date strings:: 19931219, 1440.
* Seconds since the Epoch:: @1101064456
* Authors of get_date:: Bellovin, Eggert, Salz, Berets, et al.

File: cvs.info, Node: General date syntax, Next: Calendar date items, Up: Date input formats

A.6.1 General date syntax
-------------------------

A "date" is a string, possibly empty, containing many items separated by
whitespace. The whitespace may be omitted when no ambiguity arises.
The empty string means the beginning of today (i.e., midnight). Order
of the items is immaterial. A date string may contain many flavors of
items:

* calendar date items
* time of day items
* time zone items
* day of the week items
* relative items
* pure numbers.

We describe each of these item types in turn, below.

A few ordinal numbers may be written out in words in some contexts.
This is most useful for specifying day of the week items or relative
items (see below). Among the most commonly used ordinal numbers, the
word 'last' stands for -1, 'this' stands for 0, and 'first' and 'next'
both stand for 1. Because the word 'second' stands for the unit of time
there is no way to write the ordinal number 2, but for convenience
'third' stands for 3, 'fourth' for 4, 'fifth' for 5, 'sixth' for 6,
'seventh' for 7, 'eighth' for 8, 'ninth' for 9, 'tenth' for 10,
'eleventh' for 11 and 'twelfth' for 12.

When a month is written this way, it is still considered to be
written numerically, instead of being "spelled in full"; this changes
the allowed strings.

In the current implementation, only English is supported for words
and abbreviations like 'AM', 'DST', 'EST', 'first', 'January', 'Sunday',
'tomorrow', and 'year'.

The output of 'date' is not always acceptable as a date string, not
only because of the language problem, but also because there is no
standard meaning for time zone items like 'IST'. When using 'date' to
generate a date string intended to be parsed later, specify a date
format that is independent of language and that does not use time zone
items other than 'UTC' and 'Z'. Here are some ways to do this:

$ LC_ALL=C TZ=UTC0 date
Fri Dec 15 19:48:05 UTC 2000
$ TZ=UTC0 date +"%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%SZ"
2000-12-15 19:48:05Z
$ date --iso-8601=seconds # a GNU extension
2000-12-15T11:48:05-0800
$ date --iso-8601=ns # a GNU extension
2004-02-29T16:21:42,692722128-0800
$ date --iso-8601=ns | tr T ' ' # --iso-8601 is a GNU extension.
2004-02-29 16:21:42,692722128-0800
$ date --rfc-2822 # a GNU extension
Fri, 15 Dec 2000 11:48:05 -0800
$ date +"%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S %z" # %z is a GNU extension.
2000-12-15 11:48:05 -0800
$ date +'@%s' # %s is a MirBSD extension.
@1101064210
$ date +'@%s.%N' # %s and %N are GNU extensions.
@1078100502.692722128

Alphabetic case is completely ignored in dates. Comments may be
introduced between round parentheses, as long as included parentheses
are properly nested. Hyphens not followed by a digit are currently
ignored. Leading zeros on numbers are ignored.

File: cvs.info, Node: Calendar date items, Next: Time of day items, Prev: General date syntax, Up: Date input formats

A.6.2 Calendar date items
-------------------------

A "calendar date item" specifies a day of the year. It is specified
differently, depending on whether the month is specified numerically or
literally. All these strings specify the same calendar date:

1972-09-24 # ISO 8601.
72-9-24 # Assume 19xx for 69 through 99,
# 20xx for 00 through 68.
72-09-24 # Leading zeros are ignored.
9/24/72 # Common U.S. writing.
24 September 1972
24 Sept 72 # September has a special abbreviation.
24 Sep 72 # Three-letter abbreviations always allowed.
Sep 24, 1972
24-sep-72
24sep72

The year can also be omitted. In this case, the last specified year
is used, or the current year if none. For example:

9/24
sep 24

Here are the rules.

For numeric months, the ISO 8601 format 'YEAR-MONTH-DAY' is allowed,
where YEAR is any positive number, MONTH is a number between 01 and 12,
and DAY is a number between 01 and 31. A leading zero must be present
if a number is less than ten. If YEAR is 68 or smaller, then 2000 is
added to it; otherwise, if YEAR is less than 100, then 1900 is added to
it. The construct 'MONTH/DAY/YEAR', popular in the United States, is
accepted. Also 'MONTH/DAY', omitting the year.

Literal months may be spelled out in full: 'January', 'February',
'March', 'April', 'May', 'June', 'July', 'August', 'September',
'October', 'November' or 'December'. Literal months may be abbreviated
to their first three letters, possibly followed by an abbreviating dot.
It is also permitted to write 'Sept' instead of 'September'.

When months are written literally, the calendar date may be given as
any of the following:

DAY MONTH YEAR
DAY MONTH
MONTH DAY YEAR
DAY-MONTH-YEAR

Or, omitting the year:

MONTH DAY

File: cvs.info, Node: Time of day items, Next: Time zone items, Prev: Calendar date items, Up: Date input formats

A.6.3 Time of day items
-----------------------

A "time of day item" in date strings specifies the time on a given day.
Here are some examples, all of which represent the same time:

20:02:00.000000
20:02
8:02pm
20:02-0500 # In EST (U.S. Eastern Standard Time).

More generally, the time of day may be given as 'HOUR:MINUTE:SECOND',
where HOUR is a number between 0 and 23, MINUTE is a number between 0
and 59, and SECOND is a number between 0 and 59, with an optional
fraction separated by '.' or ',' consisting of digits. Alternatively,
':SECOND' can be omitted, in which case it is taken to be zero.

If the time is followed by 'am' or 'pm' (or 'a.m.' or 'p.m.'), HOUR
is restricted to run from 1 to 12, and ':MINUTE' may be omitted (taken
to be zero). 'am' indicates the first half of the day, 'pm' indicates
the second half of the day. In this notation, 12 is the predecessor of
1: midnight is '12am' while noon is '12pm'. (This is the zero-oriented
interpretation of '12am' and '12pm', as opposed to the old tradition
derived from Latin which uses '12m' for noon and '12pm' for midnight.)

The time may alternatively be followed by a time zone correction,
expressed as 'SHHMM', where S is '+' or '-', HH is a number of zone
hours and MM is a number of zone minutes. You can also separate HH from
MM with a colon. When a time zone correction is given this way, it
forces interpretation of the time relative to Coordinated Universal Time
(UTC), overriding any previous specification for the time zone or the
local time zone. For example, '+0530' and '+05:30' both stand for the
time zone 5.5 hours ahead of UTC (e.g., India). The MINUTE part of the
time of day may not be elided when a time zone correction is used. This
is the best way to specify a time zone correction by fractional parts of
an hour.

Either 'am'/'pm' or a time zone correction may be specified, but not
both.

File: cvs.info, Node: Time zone items, Next: Day of week items, Prev: Time of day items, Up: Date input formats

A.6.4 Time zone items
---------------------

A "time zone item" specifies an international time zone, indicated by a
small set of letters, e.g., 'UTC' or 'Z' for Coordinated Universal Time.
Any included periods are ignored. By following a non-daylight-saving
time zone by the string 'DST' in a separate word (that is, separated by
some white space), the corresponding daylight saving time zone may be
specified. Alternatively, a non-daylight-saving time zone can be
followed by a time zone correction, to add the two values. This is
normally done only for 'UTC'; for example, 'UTC+05:30' is equivalent to
'+05:30'.

Time zone items other than 'UTC' and 'Z' are obsolescent and are not
recommended, because they are ambiguous; for example, 'EST' has a
different meaning in Australia than in the United States. Instead, it's
better to use unambiguous numeric time zone corrections like '-0500', as
described in the previous section.

If neither a time zone item nor a time zone correction is supplied,
time stamps are interpreted using the rules of the default time zone.

File: cvs.info, Node: Day of week items, Next: Relative items in date strings, Prev: Time zone items, Up: Date input formats

A.6.5 Day of week items
-----------------------

The explicit mention of a day of the week will forward the date (only if
necessary) to reach that day of the week in the future.

Days of the week may be spelled out in full: 'Sunday', 'Monday',
'Tuesday', 'Wednesday', 'Thursday', 'Friday' or 'Saturday'. Days may be
abbreviated to their first three letters, optionally followed by a
period. The special abbreviations 'Tues' for 'Tuesday', 'Wednes' for
'Wednesday' and 'Thur' or 'Thurs' for 'Thursday' are also allowed.

A number may precede a day of the week item to move forward
supplementary weeks. It is best used in expression like 'third monday'.
In this context, 'last DAY' or 'next DAY' is also acceptable; they move
one week before or after the day that DAY by itself would represent.

A comma following a day of the week item is ignored.

File: cvs.info, Node: Relative items in date strings, Next: Pure numbers in date strings, Prev: Day of week items, Up: Date input formats

A.6.6 Relative items in date strings
------------------------------------

"Relative items" adjust a date (or the current date if none) forward or
backward. The effects of relative items accumulate. Here are some
examples:

1 year
1 year ago
3 years
2 days

The unit of time displacement may be selected by the string 'year' or
'month' for moving by whole years or months. These are fuzzy units, as
years and months are not all of equal duration. More precise units are
'fortnight' which is worth 14 days, 'week' worth 7 days, 'day' worth 24
hours, 'hour' worth 60 minutes, 'minute' or 'min' worth 60 seconds, and
'second' or 'sec' worth one second. An 's' suffix on these units is
accepted and ignored.

The unit of time may be preceded by a multiplier, given as an
optionally signed number. Unsigned numbers are taken as positively
signed. No number at all implies 1 for a multiplier. Following a
relative item by the string 'ago' is equivalent to preceding the unit by
a multiplier with value -1.

The string 'tomorrow' is worth one day in the future (equivalent to
'day'), the string 'yesterday' is worth one day in the past (equivalent
to 'day ago').

The strings 'now' or 'today' are relative items corresponding to
zero-valued time displacement, these strings come from the fact a
zero-valued time displacement represents the current time when not
otherwise changed by previous items. They may be used to stress other
items, like in '12:00 today'. The string 'this' also has the meaning of
a zero-valued time displacement, but is preferred in date strings like
'this thursday'.

When a relative item causes the resulting date to cross a boundary
where the clocks were adjusted, typically for daylight-saving time, the
resulting date and time are adjusted accordingly.

The fuzz in units can cause problems with relative items. For
example, '2003-07-31 -1 month' might evaluate to 2003-07-01, because
2003-06-31 is an invalid date. To determine the previous month more
reliably, you can ask for the month before the 15th of the current
month. For example:

$ date -R
Thu, 31 Jul 2003 13:02:39 -0700
$ date --date="-1 month" +'Last month was %B?'
Last month was July?
$ date --date="$(date +%Y-%m-15) -1 month" +'Last month was %B!'
Last month was June!

Also, take care when manipulating dates around clock changes such as
daylight saving leaps. In a few cases these have added or subtracted as
much as 24 hours from the clock, so it is often wise to adopt universal
time by setting the 'TZ' environment variable to 'UTC0' before embarking
on calendrical calculations.

File: cvs.info, Node: Pure numbers in date strings, Next: Seconds since the Epoch, Prev: Relative items in date strings, Up: Date input formats

A.6.7 Pure numbers in date strings
----------------------------------

The precise interpretation of a pure decimal number depends on the
context in the date string.

If the decimal number is of the form YYYYMMDD and no other calendar
date item (*note Calendar date items::) appears before it in the date
string, then YYYY is read as the year, MM as the month number and DD as
the day of the month, for the specified calendar date.

If the decimal number is of the form HHMM and no other time of day
item appears before it in the date string, then HH is read as the hour
of the day and MM as the minute of the hour, for the specified time of
day. MM can also be omitted.

If both a calendar date and a time of day appear to the left of a
number in the date string, but no relative item, then the number
overrides the year.

File: cvs.info, Node: Seconds since the Epoch, Next: Authors of get_date, Prev: Pure numbers in date strings, Up: Date input formats

A.6.8 Seconds since the Epoch
-----------------------------

If you give a string consisting of '@' followed by a decimal number, it
is parsed as an internal time stamp, UTC for POSIX compliant systems,
TAI for systems which keep time correctly, and directly mapped to a
kernel time. The implementation handles an optional fraction separated
by '.' or ',' and truncates to a supported internal precision, rounding
towards the negative infinity. Since the kernel time stamp represents
complete date and time information, it cannot be combined with any other
format given.

Although the date syntax here can represent any possible time since
the year zero, computer integers often cannot represent such a wide
range of time. On POSIX systems, the clock starts at 1970-01-01
00:00:00 UTC: POSIX does not require support for times before the POSIX
Epoch and times far in the future. GNU and traditional Unix systems
have 32-bit signed 'time_t' and can represent times from 1901-12-13
20:45:52 through 2038-01-19 03:14:07 UTC, such that '@0' represents the
epoch, '@1' represents 1970-01-01 00:00:01 UTC, and so forth, whereas
'@-1', not mandated by POSIX, represents 1969-12-31 23:59:59 UTC.
Systems with 64-bit signed 'time_t' can represent all the times in the
known lifetime of the universe. Modern UNIX systems also can give
precise timecounters in the nanosecond or even attosecond range with a
resolution often only a small multiply, like 10000, of the CPU frequency
(on fast machines).

POSIX conformant systems do not count leap seconds, and their kernel
time is a seconds-since-epoch representation of UTC (which is a calendar
time); the MirOS family of operating systems keeps time as seconds since
the epoch, TAI, correctly counting leap seconds and providing conversion
functions. Most MirBSD ports have already switched to a 64-bit signed
'time_t', some are using a DJB-compatible 'tai_t' internally. The rest
of this document has not been throughoutly checked for UTC vs TAI
correctness. For POSIXly broken systems, '@915148799' represents
1998-12-31 23:59:59 UTC, '@915148800' represents 1999-01-01 00:00:00
UTC, and there is no way to represent the intervening leap second
1998-12-31 23:59:60 UTC. Also, calculation of time deltas is wrong,
such as the age of the MirBSD founder is already off by more than 10
seconds in 2000.

File: cvs.info, Node: Authors of get_date, Prev: Seconds since the Epoch, Up: Date input formats

A.6.9 Authors of 'get_date'
---------------------------

'get_date' was originally implemented by Steven M. Bellovin
(<smb AT research.com>) while at the University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill. The code was later tweaked by a couple of people on
Usenet, then completely overhauled by Rich $alz (<rsalz AT bbn.com>) and
Jim Berets (<jberets AT bbn.com>) in August, 1990. Various revisions for
the GNU system were made by David MacKenzie, Jim Meyering, Paul Eggert
and others.

This chapter was originally produced by Franc,ois Pinard
(<pinard AT iro.ca>) from the 'getdate.y' source code, and then
edited by K. Berry (<kb AT cs.edu>).

The version of this chapter you are reading comes with MirBSD GNU CVS
1.12 (also in Debian); it is based upon an older version of the GNU
coreutils manual which is _not_ yet GFDL-licenced. Appropriate changes
for the in-tree 'get_date' version of CVS have been applied. The MirBSD
version is maintained by mirabilos <m AT mirbsd.org>.

File: cvs.info, Node: admin, Next: annotate, Prev: Date input formats, Up: CVS commands

A.7 admin--Administration front-end for RCS
===========================================

* 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' commands, except for those specified using the
'UserAdminOptions' configuration option in the 'CVSROOT/config' file.
Options specified using 'UserAdminOptions' can be run by any user. See
*note config:: for more on 'UserAdminOptions'.

The 'cvsadmin' 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

A.7.1 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 initialises 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 '$Log$' and '$State$'
keywords (*note Keyword substitution::). Note that CVS uses the
'dead' state for its own purposes (*note Attic::); to take a file
to or from the 'dead' state use commands like 'cvs remove' and 'cvs
add' (*note Adding and removing::), 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: annotate, Next: checkout, Prev: admin, Up: CVS commands

A.8 annotate--What revision modified each line of a file?
=========================================================

* Synopsis: annotate [options] files...

rannotate [options] files...
* Requires: repository.
* Changes: nothing.

For each file in FILES, print the head revision of the trunk,
together with information on the last modification for each line. If
backwards annotation is requested, show the first modification after the
specified revision. (Backwards annotation currently appears to be
broken.)

* Menu:

* annotate options:: annotate options
* annotate example:: annotate example

File: cvs.info, Node: annotate options, Next: annotate example, Up: annotate

A.8.1 annotate options
----------------------

These standard options are supported by 'annotate' (*note Common
options::, for a complete description of them):

'-b'
Backwards, show when a line was removed. Currently appears to be
broken.

'-l'
Local directory only, no recursion.

'-R'
Process directories recursively.

'-f'
Use head revision if tag/date not found.

'-F'
Annotate binary files.

'-r TAG[:DATE]'
Annotate file as of specified revision/tag or, when DATE is
specified and TAG is a branch tag, the version from the branch TAG
as it existed on DATE. See *note Common options::.

'-D DATE'
Annotate file as of specified date.

File: cvs.info, Node: annotate example, Prev: annotate options, Up: annotate

A.8.2 annotate example
----------------------

For example:

$ cvs annotate ssfile
Annotations for ssfile
***************
1.1 (mary 27-Mar-96): ssfile line 1
1.2 (joe 28-Mar-96): ssfile line 2

The file 'ssfile' currently contains two lines. The 'ssfile line 1'
line was checked in by 'mary' on March 27. Then, on March 28, 'joe'
added a line 'ssfile line 2', without modifying the 'ssfile line 1'
line. This report doesn't tell you anything about lines which have been
deleted or replaced; you need to use 'cvs diff' for that (*note diff::).

The options to 'cvs annotate' are listed in *note Invoking CVS::, and
can be used to select the files and revisions to annotate. The options
are described in more detail there and in *note Common options::.

File: cvs.info, Node: checkout, Next: commit, Prev: annotate, Up: CVS commands

A.9 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

A.9.1 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' or '-r' 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[:DATE]'
Checkout the revision specified by TAG or, when DATE is specified
and TAG is a branch tag, the version from the branch TAG as it
existed on DATE. This option is sticky, and implies '-P'. See
*note Sticky tags::, for more information on sticky tags/dates.
Also, see *note Common options::.

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 co -d dir 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

A.9.2 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

A.10 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.

At 'commit', a unique commitid is placed in the RCS file inside the
repository. All files committed at once get the same commitid, a string
consisting only of hexadecimal digits (usually 16 in GNU CVS, 19 in
Debian and MirBSD CVS). FSF GNU CVS 1.11 and OpenBSD OpenCVS do not
support commitids yet. The commitid can be retrieved with the 'log' and
'status' command; see *note log:: and *note File status::.

* Menu:

* commit options:: commit options
* commit examples:: commit examples

File: cvs.info, Node: commit options, Next: commit examples, Up: commit

A.10.1 commit options
---------------------

These standard options are supported by 'commit' (*note Common
options::, for a complete description of them):

'-l'
Local; run only in current working directory.

'-R'
Commit directories recursively. This is on by default.

'-r REVISION'
Commit to REVISION. REVISION must be either a branch, or a
revision on the main trunk that is higher than any existing
revision number (*note Assigning revisions::). You cannot commit
to a specific revision on a branch.

'commit' also supports these options:

'-c'
Refuse to commit files unless the user has registered a valid edit
on the file via 'cvs edit'. This is most useful when 'commit -c'
and 'edit -c' have been placed in all '.cvsrc' files. A commit can
be forced anyways by either regestering an edit retroactively via
'cvs edit' (no changes to the file will be lost) or using the '-f'
option to commit. Support for 'commit -c' requires both client and
a server versions 1.12.10 or greater.

'-F FILE'
Read the log message from FILE, instead of invoking an editor.

'-f'
Note that this is not the standard behavior of the '-f' option as
defined in *note Common options::.

Force CVS to commit a new revision even if you haven't made any
changes to the file. As of CVS version 1.12.10, it also causes the
'-c' option to be ignored. If the current revision of FILE is 1.7,
then the following two commands are equivalent:

$ cvs commit -f FILE
$ cvs commit -r 1.8 FILE

The '-f' option disables recursion (i.e., it implies '-l'). To
force CVS to commit a new revision for all files in all
subdirectories, you must use '-f -R'.

'-m MESSAGE'
Use MESSAGE as the log message, instead of invoking an editor.

File: cvs.info, Node: commit examples, Prev: commit options, Up: commit

A.10.2 commit examples
----------------------

A.10.2.1 Committing to a branch
...............................

You can commit to a branch revision (one that has an even number of
dots) with the '-r' option. To create a branch revision, use the '-b'
option of the 'rtag' or 'tag' commands (*note Branching and merging::).
Then, either 'checkout' or 'update' can be used to base your sources on
the newly created branch. From that point on, all 'commit' changes made
within these working sources will be automatically added to a branch
revision, thereby not disturbing main-line development in any way. For
example, if you had to create a patch to the 1.2 version of the product,
even though the 2.0 version is already under development, you might do:

$ cvs rtag -b -r FCS1_2 FCS1_2_Patch product_module
$ cvs checkout -r FCS1_2_Patch product_module
$ cd product_module
[[ hack away ]]
$ cvs commit

This works automatically since the '-r' option is sticky.

A.10.2.2 Creating the branch after editing
..........................................

Say you have been working on some extremely experimental software, based
on whatever revision you happened to checkout last week. If others in
your group would like to work on this software with you, but without
disturbing main-line development, you could commit your change to a new
branch. Others can then checkout your experimental stuff and utilise
the full benefit of CVS conflict resolution. The scenario might look
like:

[[ hacked sources are present ]]
$ cvs tag -b EXPR1
$ cvs update -r EXPR1
$ cvs commit

The 'update' command will make the '-r EXPR1' option sticky on all
files. Note that your changes to the files will never be removed by the
'update' command. The 'commit' will automatically commit to the correct
branch, because the '-r' is sticky. You could also do like this:

[[ hacked sources are present ]]
$ cvs tag -b EXPR1
$ cvs commit -r EXPR1

but then, only those files that were changed by you will have the '-r
EXPR1' sticky flag. If you hack away, and commit without specifying the
'-r EXPR1' flag, some files may accidentally end up on the main trunk.

To work with you on the experimental change, others would simply do

$ cvs checkout -r EXPR1 whatever_module

File: cvs.info, Node: diff, Next: export, Prev: commit, Up: CVS commands

A.11 diff--Show differences between revisions
=============================================

* Synopsis: diff [-lR] [-k kflag] [format_options] [(-r rev1[:date1]
| -D date1) [-r rev2[:date2] | -D date2]] [files...]
* Requires: working directory, repository.
* Changes: nothing.

The 'diff' command is used to compare different revisions of files.
The default action is to compare your working files with the revisions
they were based on, and report any differences that are found.

If any file names are given, only those files are compared. If any
directories are given, all files under them will be compared.

The exit status for diff is different than for other CVS commands;
for details *note Exit status::.

* Menu:

* diff options:: diff options
* diff examples:: diff examples

File: cvs.info, Node: diff options, Next: diff examples, Up: diff

A.11.1 diff options
-------------------

These standard options are supported by 'diff' (*note Common options::,
for a complete description of them):

'-D DATE'
Use the most recent revision no later than DATE. See '-r' for how
this affects the comparison.

'-k KFLAG'
Process keywords according to KFLAG. See *note Keyword
substitution::.

'-l'
Local; run only in current working directory.

'-R'
Examine directories recursively. This option is on by default.

'-r TAG[:DATE]'
Compare with revision specified by TAG or, when DATE is specified
and TAG is a branch tag, the version from the branch TAG as it
existed on DATE. Zero, one or two '-r' options can be present.
With no '-r' option, the working file will be compared with the
revision it was based on. With one '-r', that revision will be
compared to your current working file. With two '-r' options those
two revisions will be compared (and your working file will not
affect the outcome in any way).

One or both '-r' options can be replaced by a '-D DATE' option,
described above.

The following options specify the format of the output. They have
the same meaning as in GNU diff. Most options have two equivalent
names, one of which is a single letter preceded by '-', and the other of
which is a long name preceded by '--'.

'-LINES'
Show LINES (an integer) lines of context. This option does not
specify an output format by itself; it has no effect unless it is
combined with '-c' or '-u'. This option is obsolete. For proper
operation, 'patch' typically needs at least two lines of context.

'-a'
Treat all files as text and compare them line-by-line, even if they
do not seem to be text.

'-b'
Ignore trailing white space and consider all other sequences of one
or more white space characters to be equivalent.

'-B'
Ignore changes that just insert or delete blank lines.

'--binary'
Read and write data in binary mode.

'--brief'
Report only whether the files differ, not the details of the
differences.

'-c'
Use the context output format.

'-C LINES'
'--context[=LINES]'
Use the context output format, showing LINES (an integer) lines of
context, or three if LINES is not given. For proper operation,
'patch' typically needs at least two lines of context.

'--changed-group-format=FORMAT'
Use FORMAT to output a line group containing differing lines from
both files in if-then-else format. *Note Line group formats::.

'-d'
Change the algorithm to perhaps find a smaller set of changes.
This makes 'diff' slower (sometimes much slower).

'-e'
'--ed'
Make output that is a valid 'ed' script.

'--expand-tabs'
Expand tabs to spaces in the output, to preserve the alignment of
tabs in the input files.

'-f'
Make output that looks vaguely like an 'ed' script but has changes
in the order they appear in the file.

'-F REGEXP'
In context and unified format, for each hunk of differences, show
some of the last preceding line that matches REGEXP.

'--forward-ed'
Make output that looks vaguely like an 'ed' script but has changes
in the order they appear in the file.

'-H'
Use heuristics to speed handling of large files that have numerous
scattered small changes.

'--horizon-lines=LINES'
Do not discard the last LINES lines of the common prefix and the
first LINES lines of the common suffix.

'-i'
Ignore changes in case; consider upper- and lower-case letters
equivalent.

'-I REGEXP'
Ignore changes that just insert or delete lines that match REGEXP.

'--ifdef=NAME'
Make merged if-then-else output using NAME.

'--ignore-all-space'
Ignore white space when comparing lines.

'--ignore-blank-lines'
Ignore changes that just insert or delete blank lines.

'--ignore-case'
Ignore changes in case; consider upper- and lower-case to be the
same.

'--ignore-matching-lines=REGEXP'
Ignore changes that just insert or delete lines that match REGEXP.

'--ignore-space-change'
Ignore trailing white space and consider all other sequences of one
or more white space characters to be equivalent.

'--initial-tab'
Output a tab rather than a space before the text of a line in
normal or context format. This causes the alignment of tabs in the
line to look normal.

'-L LABEL'
Use LABEL instead of the file name in the context format and
unified format headers.

'--label=LABEL'
Use LABEL instead of the file name in the context format and
unified format headers.

'--left-column'
Print only the left column of two common lines in side by side
format.

'--line-format=FORMAT'
Use FORMAT to output all input lines in if-then-else format. *Note
Line formats::.

'--minimal'
Change the algorithm to perhaps find a smaller set of changes.
This makes 'diff' slower (sometimes much slower).

'-n'
Output RCS-format diffs; like '-f' except that each command
specifies the number of lines affected.

'-N'
'--new-file'
In directory comparison, if a file is found in only one directory,
treat it as present but empty in the other directory.

'--new-group-format=FORMAT'
Use FORMAT to output a group of lines taken from just the second
file in if-then-else format. *Note Line group formats::.

'--new-line-format=FORMAT'
Use FORMAT to output a line taken from just the second file in
if-then-else format. *Note Line formats::.

'--old-group-format=FORMAT'
Use FORMAT to output a group of lines taken from just the first
file in if-then-else format. *Note Line group formats::.

'--old-line-format=FORMAT'
Use FORMAT to output a line taken from just the first file in
if-then-else format. *Note Line formats::.

'-p'
Show which C function each change is in.

'--rcs'
Output RCS-format diffs; like '-f' except that each command
specifies the number of lines affected.

'--report-identical-files'
'-s'
Report when two files are the same.

'--show-c-function'
Show which C function each change is in.

'--show-function-line=REGEXP'
In context and unified format, for each hunk of differences, show
some of the last preceding line that matches REGEXP.

'--side-by-side'
Use the side by side output format.

'--speed-large-files'
Use heuristics to speed handling of large files that have numerous
scattered small changes.

'--suppress-common-lines'
Do not print common lines in side by side format.

'-t'
Expand tabs to spaces in the output, to preserve the alignment of
tabs in the input files.

'-T'
Output a tab rather than a space before the text of a line in
normal or context format. This causes the alignment of tabs in the
line to look normal.

'--text'
Treat all files as text and compare them line-by-line, even if they
do not appear to be text.

'-u'
Use the unified output format.

'--unchanged-group-format=FORMAT'
Use FORMAT to output a group of common lines taken from both files
in if-then-else format. *Note Line group formats::.

'--unchanged-line-format=FORMAT'
Use FORMAT to output a line common to both files in if-then-else
format. *Note Line formats::.

'-U LINES'
'--unified[=LINES]'
Use the unified output format, showing LINES (an integer) lines of
context, or three if LINES is not given. For proper operation,
'patch' typically needs at least two lines of context.

'-w'
Ignore white space when comparing lines.

'-W COLUMNS'
'--width=COLUMNS'
Use an output width of COLUMNS in side by side format.

'-y'
Use the side by side output format.

* Menu:

* Line group formats:: Line group formats
* Line formats:: Line formats

File: cvs.info, Node: Line group formats, Next: Line formats, Up: diff options

A.11.1.1 Line group formats
...........................

Line group formats let you specify formats suitable for many
applications that allow if-then-else input, including programming
languages and text formatting languages. A line group format specifies
the output format for a contiguous group of similar lines.

For example, the following command compares the TeX file 'myfile'
with the original version from the repository, and outputs a merged file
in which old regions are surrounded by '\begin{em}'-'\end{em}' lines,
and new regions are surrounded by '\begin{bf}'-'\end{bf}' lines.

cvs diff \
--old-group-format='\begin{em}
%<\end{em}
' \
--new-group-format='\begin{bf}
%>\end{bf}
' \
myfile

The following command is equivalent to the above example, but it is a
little more verbose, because it spells out the default line group
formats.

cvs diff \
--old-group-format='\begin{em}
%<\end{em}
' \
--new-group-format='\begin{bf}
%>\end{bf}
' \
--unchanged-group-format='%=' \
--changed-group-format='\begin{em}
%<\end{em}
\begin{bf}
%>\end{bf}
' \
myfile

Here is a more advanced example, which outputs a diff listing with
headers containing line numbers in a "plain English" style.

cvs diff \
--unchanged-group-format='' \
--old-group-format='-------- %dn line%(n=1?:s) deleted at %df:
%<' \
--new-group-format='-------- %dN line%(N=1?:s) added after %de:
%>' \
--changed-group-format='-------- %dn line%(n=1?:s) changed at %df:
%<-------- to:
%>' \
myfile

To specify a line group format, use one of the options listed below.
You can specify up to four line group formats, one for each kind of line
group. You should quote FORMAT, because it typically contains shell
metacharacters.

'--old-group-format=FORMAT'
These line groups are hunks containing only lines from the first
file. The default old group format is the same as the changed
group format if it is specified; otherwise it is a format that
outputs the line group as-is.

'--new-group-format=FORMAT'
These line groups are hunks containing only lines from the second
file. The default new group format is same as the changed group
format if it is specified; otherwise it is a format that outputs
the line group as-is.

'--changed-group-format=FORMAT'
These line groups are hunks containing lines from both files. The
default changed group format is the concatenation of the old and
new group formats.

'--unchanged-group-format=FORMAT'
These line groups contain lines common to both files. The default
unchanged group format is a format that outputs the line group
as-is.

In a line group format, ordinary characters represent themselves;
conversion specifications start with '%' and have one of the following
forms.

'%<'
stands for the lines from the first file, including the trailing
newline. Each line is formatted according to the old line format
(*note Line formats::).

'%>'
stands for the lines from the second file, including the trailing
newline. Each line is formatted according to the new line format.

'%='
stands for the lines common to both files, including the trailing
newline. Each line is formatted according to the unchanged line
format.

'%%'
stands for '%'.

'%c'C''
where C is a single character, stands for C. C may not be a
backslash or an apostrophe. For example, '%c':'' stands for a
colon, even inside the then-part of an if-then-else format, which a
colon would normally terminate.

'%c'\O''
where O is a string of 1, 2, or 3 octal digits, stands for the
character with octal code O. For example, '%c'\0'' stands for a
null character.

'FN'
where F is a 'printf' conversion specification and N is one of the
following letters, stands for N's value formatted with F.

'e'
The line number of the line just before the group in the old
file.

'f'
The line number of the first line in the group in the old
file; equals E + 1.

'l'
The line number of the last line in the group in the old file.

'm'
The line number of the line just after the group in the old
file; equals L + 1.

'n'
The number of lines in the group in the old file; equals L - F
+ 1.

'E, F, L, M, N'
Likewise, for lines in the new file.

The 'printf' conversion specification can be '%d', '%o', '%x', or
'%X', specifying decimal, octal, lower case hexadecimal, or upper
case hexadecimal output respectively. After the '%' the following
options can appear in sequence: a '-' specifying
left-justification; an integer specifying the minimum field width;
and a period followed by an optional integer specifying the minimum
number of digits. For example, '%5dN' prints the number of new
lines in the group in a field of width 5 characters, using the
'printf' format '"%5d"'.

'(A=B?T:E)'
If A equals B then T else E. A and B are each either a decimal
constant or a single letter interpreted as above. This format spec
is equivalent to T if A's value equals B's; otherwise it is
equivalent to E.

For example, '%(N=0?no:%dN) line%(N=1?:s)' is equivalent to 'no
lines' if N (the number of lines in the group in the new file) is
0, to '1 line' if N is 1, and to '%dN lines' otherwise.

File: cvs.info, Node: Line formats, Prev: Line group formats, Up: diff options

A.11.1.2 Line formats
.....................

Line formats control how each line taken from an input file is output as
part of a line group in if-then-else format.

For example, the following command outputs text with a one-column
change indicator to the left of the text. The first column of output is
'-' for deleted lines, '|' for added lines, and a space for unchanged
lines. The formats contain newline characters where newlines are
desired on output.

cvs diff \
--old-line-format='-%l
' \
--new-line-format='|%l
' \
--unchanged-line-format=' %l
' \
myfile

To specify a line format, use one of the following options. You
should quote FORMAT, since it often contains shell metacharacters.

'--old-line-format=FORMAT'
formats lines just from the first file.

'--new-line-format=FORMAT'
formats lines just from the second file.

'--unchanged-line-format=FORMAT'
formats lines common to both files.

'--line-format=FORMAT'
formats all lines; in effect, it sets all three above options
simultaneously.

In a line format, ordinary characters represent themselves;
conversion specifications start with '%' and have one of the following
forms.

'%l'
stands for the contents of the line, not counting its trailing
newline (if any). This format ignores whether the line is
incomplete.

'%L'
stands for the contents of the line, including its trailing newline
(if any). If a line is incomplete, this format preserves its
incompleteness.

'%%'
stands for '%'.

'%c'C''
where C is a single character, stands for C. C may not be a
backslash or an apostrophe. For example, '%c':'' stands for a
colon.

'%c'\O''
where O is a string of 1, 2, or 3 octal digits, stands for the
character with octal code O. For example, '%c'\0'' stands for a
null character.

'Fn'
where F is a 'printf' conversion specification, stands for the line
number formatted with F. For example, '%.5dn' prints the line
number using the 'printf' format '"%.5d"'. *Note Line group
formats::, for more about printf conversion specifications.

The default line format is '%l' followed by a newline character.

If the input contains tab characters and it is important that they
line up on output, you should ensure that '%l' or '%L' in a line format
is just after a tab stop (e.g. by preceding '%l' or '%L' with a tab
character), or you should use the '-t' or '--expand-tabs' option.

Taken together, the line and line group formats let you specify many
different formats. For example, the following command uses a format
similar to 'diff''s normal format. You can tailor this command to get
fine control over 'diff''s output.

cvs diff \
--old-line-format='< %l
' \
--new-line-format='> %l
' \
--old-group-format='%df%(f=l?:,%dl)d%dE
%<' \
--new-group-format='%dea%dF%(F=L?:,%dL)
%>' \
--changed-group-format='%df%(f=l?:,%dl)c%dF%(F=L?:,%dL)
%<---
%>' \
--unchanged-group-format='' \
myfile

File: cvs.info, Node: diff examples, Prev: diff options, Up: diff

A.11.2 diff examples
--------------------

The following line produces a Unidiff ('-u' flag) between revision 1.14
and 1.19 of 'backend.c'. Due to the '-kk' flag no keywords are
substituted, so differences that only depend on keyword substitution are
ignored.

$ cvs diff -kk -u -r 1.14 -r 1.19 backend.c

Suppose the experimental branch EXPR1 was based on a set of files
tagged RELEASE_1_0. To see what has happened on that branch, the
following can be used:

$ cvs diff -r RELEASE_1_0 -r EXPR1

A command like this can be used to produce a context diff between two
releases:

$ cvs diff -c -r RELEASE_1_0 -r RELEASE_1_1 > diffs

If you are maintaining ChangeLogs, a command like the following just
before you commit your changes may help you write the ChangeLog entry.
All local modifications that have not yet been committed will be
printed.

$ cvs diff -u | less

File: cvs.info, Node: export, Next: history, Prev: diff, Up: CVS commands

A.12 export--Export sources from CVS, similar to checkout
=========================================================

* Synopsis: export [-flNnR] (-r rev[:date] | -D date) [-k subst] [-d
dir] module...
* Requires: repository.
* Changes: current directory.

This command is a variant of 'checkout'; use it when you want a copy
of the source for module without the CVS administrative directories.
For example, you might use 'export' to prepare source for shipment
off-site. This command requires that you specify a date or tag (with
'-D' or '-r'), so that you can count on reproducing the source you ship
to others (and thus it always prunes empty directories).

One often would like to use '-kv' with 'cvs export'. This causes any
keywords to be expanded such that an import done at some other site will
not lose the keyword revision information. But be aware that doesn't
handle an export containing binary files correctly. Also be aware that
after having used '-kv', one can no longer use the 'ident' command
(which is part of the RCS suite--see ident(1)) which looks for keyword
strings. If you want to be able to use 'ident' you must not use '-kv'.

* Menu:

* export options:: export options

File: cvs.info, Node: export options, Up: export

A.12.1 export options
---------------------

These standard options are supported by 'export' (*note Common
options::, for a complete description of them):

'-D DATE'
Use the most recent revision no later than DATE.

'-f'
If no matching revision is found, retrieve the most recent revision
(instead of ignoring the file).

'-l'
Local; run only in current working directory.

'-n'
Do not run any checkout program.

'-R'
Export directories recursively. This is on by default.

'-r TAG[:DATE]'
Export the revision specified by TAG or, when DATE is specified and
TAG is a branch tag, the version from the branch TAG as it existed
on DATE. See *note Common options::.

In addition, these options (that are common to 'checkout' and
'export') are also supported:

'-d DIR'
Create a directory called DIR for the working files, instead of
using the module name. *Note checkout options::, for complete
details on how CVS handles this flag.

'-k SUBST'
Set keyword expansion mode (*note Substitution modes::).

'-N'
Only useful together with '-d DIR'. *Note checkout options::, for
complete details on how CVS handles this flag.

File: cvs.info, Node: history, Next: import, Prev: export, Up: CVS commands

A.13 history--Show repository access history
============================================

* Synopsis: history [-report] [-flags] [-options args] [files...]
* Requires: the file '$CVSROOT/CVSROOT/history'
* Changes: nothing.

CVS can keep a history log that tracks each use of most CVS commands.
You can use 'history' to display this information in various formats.

To enable logging, the 'LogHistory' config option must be set to some
value other than the empty string and the history file specified by the
'HistoryLogPath' option must be writable by all users who may run the
CVS executable (*note config::).

To enable the 'history' command, logging must be enabled as above and
the 'HistorySearchPath' config option (*note config::) must be set to
specify some number of the history logs created thereby and these files
must be readable by each user who might run the 'history' command.

Creating a repository via the 'cvs init' command will enable logging
of all possible events to a single history log file
('$CVSROOT/CVSROOT/history') with read and write permissions for all
users (*note Creating a repository::).

_Note: 'history' uses '-f', '-l', '-n', and '-p' in ways that
conflict with the normal use inside CVS (*note Common options::)._

* Menu:

* history options:: history options

File: cvs.info, Node: history options, Up: history

A.13.1 history options
----------------------

Several options (shown above as '-report') control what kind of report
is generated:

'-c'
Report on each time commit was used (i.e., each time the repository
was modified).

'-e'
Everything (all record types). Equivalent to specifying '-x' with
all record types. Of course, '-e' will also include record types
which are added in a future version of CVS; if you are writing a
script which can only handle certain record types, you'll want to
specify '-x'.

'-m MODULE'
Report on a particular module. (You can meaningfully use '-m' more
than once on the command line.)

'-o'
Report on checked-out modules. This is the default report type.

'-T'
Report on all tags.

'-x TYPE'
Extract a particular set of record types TYPE from the CVS history.
The types are indicated by single letters, which you may specify in
combination.

Certain commands have a single record type:

'F'
release
'O'
checkout
'E'
export
'T'
rtag

One of five record types may result from an update:

'C'
A merge was necessary but collisions were detected (requiring
manual merging).
'G'
A merge was necessary and it succeeded.
'U'
A working file was copied from the repository.
'P'
A working file was patched to match the repository.
'W'
The working copy of a file was deleted during update (because
it was gone from the repository).

One of three record types results from commit:

'A'
A file was added for the first time.
'M'
A file was modified.
'R'
A file was removed.

The options shown as '-flags' constrain or expand the report without
requiring option arguments:

'-a'
Show data for all users (the default is to show data only for the
user executing 'history').

'-l'
Show last modification only.

'-w'
Show only the records for modifications done from the same working
directory where 'history' is executing.

The options shown as '-options ARGS' constrain the report based on an
argument:

'-b STR'
Show data back to a record containing the string STR in either the
module name, the file name, or the repository path.

'-D DATE'
Show data since DATE. This is slightly different from the normal
use of '-D DATE', which selects the newest revision older than
DATE.

'-f FILE'
Show data for a particular file (you can specify several '-f'
options on the same command line). This is equivalent to
specifying the file on the command line.

'-n MODULE'
Show data for a particular module (you can specify several '-n'
options on the same command line).

'-p REPOSITORY'
Show data for a particular source repository (you can specify
several '-p' options on the same command line).

'-r REV'
Show records referring to revisions since the revision or tag named
REV appears in individual RCS files. Each RCS file is searched for
the revision or tag.

'-t TAG'
Show records since tag TAG was last added to the history file.
This differs from the '-r' flag above in that it reads only the
history file, not the RCS files, and is much faster.

'-u NAME'
Show records for user NAME.

'-z TIMEZONE'
Show times in the selected records using the specified time zone
instead of UTC.

File: cvs.info, Node: import, Next: log, Prev: history, Up: CVS commands

A.14 import--Import sources into CVS, using vendor branches
===========================================================

* Synopsis: import [-options] repository vendortag releasetag...
* Requires: Repository, source distribution directory.
* Changes: repository.

Use 'import' to incorporate an entire source distribution from an
outside source (e.g., a source vendor) into your source repository
directory. You can use this command both for initial creation of a
repository, and for wholesale updates to the module from the outside
source. *Note Tracking sources::, for a discussion on this subject.

The REPOSITORY argument gives a directory name (or a path to a
directory) under the CVS root directory for repositories; if the
directory did not exist, import creates it.

When you use import for updates to source that has been modified in
your source repository (since a prior import), it will notify you of any
files that conflict in the two branches of development; use 'checkout
-j' to reconcile the differences, as import instructs you to do.

If CVS decides a file should be ignored (*note cvsignore::), it does
not import it and prints 'I ' followed by the filename (*note import
output::, for a complete description of the output).

If the file '$CVSROOT/CVSROOT/cvswrappers' exists, any file whose
names match the specifications in that file will be treated as packages
and the appropriate filtering will be performed on the file/directory
before being imported. *Note Wrappers::.

The outside source is saved in a first-level branch, by default
1.1.1. Updates are leaves of this branch; for example, files from the
first imported collection of source will be revision 1.1.1.1, then files
from the first imported update will be revision 1.1.1.2, and so on.

At least three arguments are required. REPOSITORY is needed to
identify the collection of source. VENDORTAG is a tag for the entire
branch (e.g., for 1.1.1). You must also specify at least one RELEASETAG
to uniquely identify the files at the leaves created each time you
execute 'import'. The RELEASETAG should be new, not previously existing
in the repository file, and uniquely identify the imported release,

* Menu:

* import options:: import options
* import output:: import output
* import examples:: import examples

File: cvs.info, Node: import options, Next: import output, Up: import

A.14.1 import options
---------------------

This standard option is supported by 'import' (*note Common options::,
for a complete description):

'-m MESSAGE'
Use MESSAGE as log information, instead of invoking an editor.

There are the following additional special options.

'-b BRANCH'
See *note Multiple vendor branches::.

'-k SUBST'
Indicate the keyword expansion mode desired. This setting will
apply to all files created during the import, but not to any files
that previously existed in the repository. See *note Substitution
modes::, for a list of valid '-k' settings.

'-I NAME'
Specify file names that should be ignored during import. You can
use this option repeatedly. To avoid ignoring any files at all
(even those ignored by default), specify '-I !'.

NAME can be a file name pattern of the same type that you can
specify in the '.cvsignore' file. *Note cvsignore::.

'-W SPEC'
Specify file names that should be filtered during import. You can
use this option repeatedly.

SPEC can be a file name pattern of the same type that you can
specify in the '.cvswrappers' file. *Note Wrappers::.

'-X'
Modify the algorithm used by CVS when importing new files so that
new files do not immediately appear on the main trunk.

Specifically, this flag causes CVS to mark new files as if they
were deleted on the main trunk, by taking the following steps for
each file in addition to those normally taken on import: creating a
new revision on the main trunk indicating that the new file is
'dead', resetting the new file's default branch, and placing the
file in the Attic (*note Attic::) directory.

Setting the 'ImportNewFilesToVendorBranchOnly' option in
CVSROOT/config (*note config::) forces use of this option on a
repository-wide basis.

File: cvs.info, Node: import output, Next: import examples, Prev: import options, Up: import

A.14.2 import output
--------------------

'import' keeps you informed of its progress by printing a line for each
file, preceded by one character indicating the status of the file:

'U FILE'
The file already exists in the repository and has not been locally
modified; a new revision has been created (if necessary).

'N FILE'
The file is a new file which has been added to the repository.

'C FILE'
The file already exists in the repository but has been locally
modified; you will have to merge the changes.

'I FILE'
The file is being ignored (*note cvsignore::).

'L FILE'
The file is a symbolic link; 'cvs import' ignores symbolic links.
People periodically suggest that this behavior should be changed,
but if there is a consensus on what it should be changed to, it is
not apparent. (Various options in the 'modules' file can be used
to recreate symbolic links on checkout, update, etc.; *note
modules::.)

File: cvs.info, Node: import examples, Prev: import output, Up: import

A.14.3 import examples
----------------------

See *note Tracking sources::, and *note From files::.

File: cvs.info, Node: log, Next: ls & rls, Prev: import, Up: CVS commands

A.15 log--Print out history information for files
=================================================

* Synopsis: log [options] [files...]

rlog [options] [files...]
* Requires: repository, working directory.
* Changes: nothing.

Display log information for files. 'log' used to call the RCS
utility 'rlog'. Although this is no longer true in the current sources,
this history determines the format of the output and the options, which
are not quite in the style of the other CVS commands.

The output includes the location of the RCS file, the "head" revision
(the latest revision on the trunk), all symbolic names (tags) and some
other things. For each revision, the revision number, the date, the
author, the number of lines added/deleted, the commitid and the log
message are printed. All dates are displayed in local time at the
client. This is typically specified in the '$TZ' environment variable,
which can be set to govern how 'log' displays dates.

_Note: 'log' uses '-R' in a way that conflicts with the normal use
inside CVS (*note Common options::)._

* Menu:

* log options:: log options
* log examples:: log examples

File: cvs.info, Node: log options, Next: log examples, Up: log

A.15.1 log options
------------------

By default, 'log' prints all information that is available. All other
options restrict the output. Note that the revision selection options
('-d', '-r', '-s', and '-w') have no effect, other than possibly causing
a search for files in Attic directories, when used in conjunction with
the options that restrict the output to only 'log' header fields ('-b',
'-h', '-R', and '-t') unless the '-S' option is also specified.

'-b'
Print information about the revisions on the default branch,
normally the highest branch on the trunk.

'-d DATES'
Print information about revisions with a checkin date/time in the
range given by the semicolon-separated list of dates. The date
formats accepted are those accepted by the '-D' option to many
other CVS commands (*note Common options::). Dates can be combined
into ranges as follows:

'D1<D2'
'D2>D1'
Select the revisions that were deposited between D1 and D2.

'<D'
'D>'
Select all revisions dated D or earlier.

'D<'
'>D'
Select all revisions dated D or later.

'D'
Select the single, latest revision dated D or earlier.

The '>' or '<' characters may be followed by '=' to indicate an
inclusive range rather than an exclusive one.

Note that the separator is a semicolon (;).

'-h'
Print only the name of the RCS file, name of the file in the
working directory, head, default branch, access list, locks,
symbolic names, and suffix.

'-l'
Local; run only in current working directory. (Default is to run
recursively).

'-N'
Do not print the list of tags for this file. This option can be
very useful when your site uses a lot of tags, so rather than
"more"'ing over 3 pages of tag information, the log information is
presented without tags at all.

'-R'
Print only the name of the RCS file.

'-rREVISIONS'
Print information about revisions given in the comma-separated list
REVISIONS of revisions and ranges. The following table explains
the available range formats:

'REV1:REV2'
Revisions REV1 to REV2 (which must be on the same branch).

'REV1::REV2'
The same, but excluding REV1.

':REV'
'::REV'
Revisions from the beginning of the branch up to and including
REV.

'REV:'
Revisions starting with REV to the end of the branch
containing REV.

'REV::'
Revisions starting just after REV to the end of the branch
containing REV.

'BRANCH'
An argument that is a branch means all revisions on that
branch.

'BRANCH1:BRANCH2'
'BRANCH1::BRANCH2'
A range of branches means all revisions on the branches in
that range.

'BRANCH.'
The latest revision in BRANCH.

A bare '-r' with no revisions means the latest revision on the
default branch, normally the trunk. There can be no space between
the '-r' option and its argument.

'-S'
Suppress the header if no revisions are selected.

'-s STATES'
Print information about revisions whose state attributes match one
of the states given in the comma-separated list STATES. Individual
states may be any text string, though CVS commonly only uses two
states, 'Exp' and 'dead'. See *note admin options:: for more
information.

'-t'
Print the same as '-h', plus the descriptive text.

'-wLOGINS'
Print information about revisions checked in by users with login
names appearing in the comma-separated list LOGINS. If LOGINS is
omitted, the user's login is assumed. There can be no space
between the '-w' option and its argument.

'log' prints the intersection of the revisions selected with the
options '-d', '-s', and '-w', intersected with the union of the
revisions selected by '-b' and '-r'.

File: cvs.info, Node: log examples, Prev: log options, Up: log

A.15.2 log examples
-------------------

Since 'log' shows dates in local time, you might want to see them in
Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) or some other timezone. To do this you
can set your '$TZ' environment variable before invoking CVS:

$ TZ=UTC cvs log foo.c
$ TZ=EST cvs log bar.c

(If you are using a 'csh'-style shell, like 'tcsh', you would need to
prefix the examples above with 'env'.)

File: cvs.info, Node: ls & rls, Next: rdiff, Prev: log, Up: CVS commands

A.16 ls & rls--List files in the repository
===========================================

* ls [-e | -l] [-RP] [-r tag[:date]] [-D date] [path...]

rls [-e | -l] [-RP] [-r tag[:date]] [-D date] [path...]
* Requires: repository for 'rls', repository & working directory for
'ls'.
* Changes: nothing.
* Synonym: 'dir' & 'list' are synonyms for 'ls' and 'rdir' & 'rlist'
are synonyms for 'rls'.

The 'ls' and 'rls' commands are used to list files and directories in
the repository.

By default 'ls' lists the files and directories that belong in your
working directory, what would be there after an 'update'.

By default 'rls' lists the files and directories on the tip of the
trunk in the topmost directory of the repository.

Both commands accept an optional list of file and directory names,
relative to the working directory for 'ls' and the topmost directory of
the repository for 'rls'. Neither is recursive by default.

* Menu:

* ls & rls options:: ls & rls options
* rls examples: rls examples

File: cvs.info, Node: ls & rls options, Next: rls examples, Up: ls & rls

A.16.1 ls & rls options
-----------------------

These standard options are supported by 'ls' & 'rls':

'-d'
Show dead revisions (with tag when specified).

'-e'
Display in CVS/Entries format. This format is meant to remain
easily parsable by automation.

'-l'
Display all details.

'-P'
Don't list contents of empty directories when recursing.

'-R'
List recursively.

'-r TAG[:DATE]'
Show files specified by TAG or, when DATE is specified and TAG is a
branch tag, the version from the branch TAG as it existed on DATE.
See *note Common options::.

'-D DATE'
Show files from date.

File: cvs.info, Node: rls examples, Prev: ls & rls options, Up: ls & rls

A.16.2 rls examples
-------------------

$ cvs rls
cvs rls: Listing module: `.'
CVSROOT
first-dir

$ cvs rls CVSROOT
cvs rls: Listing module: `CVSROOT'
checkoutlist
commitinfo
config
cvswrappers
loginfo
modules
notify
rcsinfo
taginfo
verifymsg

File: cvs.info, Node: rdiff, Next: release, Prev: ls & rls, Up: CVS commands

A.17 rdiff--Create 'patch' format diffs between revisions
=========================================================

* rdiff [-flags] [-V vn] (-r tag1[:date1] | -D date1) [-r
tag2[:date2] | -D date2] modules...
* Requires: repository.
* Changes: nothing.
* Synonym: patch

Builds a Larry Wall format patch(1) file between two releases, that
can be fed directly into the 'patch' program to bring an old release
up-to-date with the new release. (This is one of the few CVS commands
that operates directly from the repository, and doesn't require a prior
checkout.) The diff output is sent to the standard output device.

You can specify (using the standard '-r' and '-D' options) any
combination of one or two revisions or dates. If only one revision or
date is specified, the patch file reflects differences between that
revision or date and the current head revisions in the RCS file.

Note that if the software release affected is contained in more than
one directory, then it may be necessary to specify the '-p' option to
the 'patch' command when patching the old sources, so that 'patch' is
able to find the files that are located in other directories.

* Menu:

* rdiff options:: rdiff options
* rdiff examples:: rdiff examples

File: cvs.info, Node: rdiff options, Next: rdiff examples, Up: rdiff

A.17.1 rdiff options
--------------------

These standard options are supported by 'rdiff' (*note Common options::,
for a complete description of them):

'-D DATE'
Use the most recent revision no later than DATE.

'-f'
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::.

'-l'
Local; don't descend subdirectories.

'-R'
Examine directories recursively. This option is on by default.

'-r TAG'
Use the revision specified by TAG, or when DATE is specified and
TAG is a branch tag, the version from the branch TAG as it existed
on DATE. See *note Common options::.

In addition to the above, these options are available:

'-c'
Use the context diff format. This is the default format.

'-p'
Show which C function each change is in.

'-s'
Create a summary change report instead of a patch. The summary
includes information about files that were changed or added between
the releases. It is sent to the standard output device. This is
useful for finding out, for example, which files have changed
between two dates or revisions.

'-t'
A diff of the top two revisions is sent to the standard output
device. This is most useful for seeing what the last change to a
file was.

'-u'
Use the unidiff format for the context diffs. Remember that old
versions of the 'patch' program can't handle the unidiff format, so
if you plan to post this patch to the net you should probably not
use '-u'.

'-V VN'
Expand keywords according to the rules current in RCS version VN
(the expansion format changed with RCS version 5). Note that this
option is no longer accepted. CVS will always expand keywords the
way that RCS version 5 does.

File: cvs.info, Node: rdiff examples, Prev: rdiff options, Up: rdiff

A.17.2 rdiff examples
---------------------

Suppose you receive mail from foo AT example.net asking for an update from
release 1.2 to 1.4 of the tc compiler. You have no such patches on
hand, but with CVS that can easily be fixed with a command such as this:

$ cvs rdiff -c -r FOO1_2 -r FOO1_4 tc | \
$$ Mail -s 'The patches you asked for' foo AT example.net

Suppose you have made release 1.3, and forked a branch called
'R_1_3fix' for bug fixes. 'R_1_3_1' corresponds to release 1.3.1, which
was made some time ago. Now, you want to see how much development has
been done on the branch. This command can be used:

$ cvs patch -s -r R_1_3_1 -r R_1_3fix module-name
cvs rdiff: Diffing module-name
File ChangeLog,v changed from revision 1.52.2.5 to 1.52.2.6
File foo.c,v changed from revision 1.52.2.3 to 1.52.2.4
File bar.h,v changed from revision 1.29.2.1 to 1.2

File: cvs.info, Node: release, Next: server & pserver, Prev: rdiff, Up: CVS commands

A.18 release--Indicate that a directory is no longer in use
===========================================================

* release [-d] directories...
* Requires: Working directory.
* Changes: Working directory, history log.

This command is meant to safely cancel the effect of 'cvs checkout'.
Since CVS doesn't lock files, it isn't strictly necessary to use this
command. You can always simply delete your working directory, if you
like; but you risk losing changes you may have forgotten, and you leave
no trace in the CVS history file (*note history file::) that you've
abandoned your checkout.

Use 'cvs release' to avoid these problems. This command checks that
no uncommitted changes are present; that you are executing it from
immediately above a CVS working directory; and that the repository
recorded for your files is the same as the repository defined in the
module database.

If all these conditions are true, 'cvs release' leaves a record of
its execution (attesting to your intentionally abandoning your checkout)
in the CVS history log.

* Menu:

* release options:: release options
* release output:: release output
* release examples:: release examples

File: cvs.info, Node: release options, Next: release output, Up: release

A.18.1 release options
----------------------

The 'release' command supports one command option:

'-d'
Delete your working copy of the file if the release succeeds. If
this flag is not given your files will remain in your working
directory.

_WARNING: The 'release' command deletes all directories and files
recursively. This has the very serious side-effect that any
directory that you have created inside your checked-out sources,
and not added to the repository (using the 'add' command; *note
Adding files::) will be silently deleted--even if it is non-empty!_

File: cvs.info, Node: release output, Next: release examples, Prev: release options, Up: release

A.18.2 release output
---------------------

Before 'release' releases your sources it will print a one-line message
for any file that is not up-to-date.

'U FILE'
'P FILE'
There exists a newer revision of this file in the repository, and
you have not modified your local copy of the file ('U' and 'P' mean
the same thing).

'A FILE'
The file has been added to your private copy of the sources, but
has not yet been committed to the repository. If you delete your
copy of the sources this file will be lost.

'R FILE'
The file has been removed from your private copy of the sources,
but has not yet been removed from the repository, since you have
not yet committed the removal. *Note commit::.

'M FILE'
The file is modified in your working directory. There might also
be a newer revision inside the repository.

'? FILE'
FILE is in your working directory, but does not correspond to
anything in the source repository, and is not in the list of files
for CVS to ignore (see the description of the '-I' option, and
*note cvsignore::). If you remove your working sources, this file
will be lost.

File: cvs.info, Node: release examples, Prev: release output, Up: release

A.18.3 release examples
-----------------------

Release the 'tc' directory, and delete your local working copy of the
files.

$ cd .. # You must stand immediately above the
# sources when you issue 'cvs release'.
$ cvs release -d tc
You have [0] altered files in this repository.
Are you sure you want to release (and delete) directory `tc': y
$

File: cvs.info, Node: server & pserver, Next: suck, Prev: release, Up: CVS commands

A.19 server & pserver--Act as a server for a client on stdin/stdout
===================================================================

* pserver [-c path]

server [-c path]
* Requires: repository, client conversation on stdin/stdout
* Changes: Repository or, indirectly, client working directory.

The CVS 'server' and 'pserver' commands are used to provide
repository access to remote clients and expect a client conversation on
stdin & stdout. Typically these commands are launched from 'inetd' or
via 'ssh' (*note Remote repositories::).

'server' expects that the client has already been authenticated
somehow, typically via SSH, and 'pserver' attempts to authenticate the
client itself.

Only one option is available with the 'server' and 'pserver'
commands:

'-c path'
Load configuration from the given PATH rather than from the default
location '$CVSROOT/CVSROOT/config' (*note config::). PATH must be
'/etc/cvs.conf' or prefixed by '/etc/cvs/'. This option is
supported beginning with CVS release 1.12.13.

File: cvs.info, Node: suck, Next: update, Prev: server & pserver, Up: CVS commands

A.20 suck--Download RCS ,v file raw
===================================

* suck module/pa/th
* Requires: repository

Locates the file module/pa/th,v or module/pa/Attic/th,v and downloads
it raw as RCS comma-v file.

Output consists of the real pathname of the comma-v file, relative to
the CVS repository, followed by a newline and the binary file content
immediately thereafter.

File: cvs.info, Node: update, Prev: suck, Up: CVS commands

A.21 update--Bring work tree in sync with repository
====================================================

* update [-ACdflPpR] [-I name] [-j rev [-j rev]] [-k kflag] [-r
tag[:date] | -D date] [-W spec] files...
* Requires: repository, working directory.
* Changes: working directory.

After you've run checkout to create your private copy of source from
the common repository, other developers will continue changing the
central source. From time to time, when it is convenient in your
development process, you can use the 'update' command from within your
working directory to reconcile your work with any revisions applied to
the source repository since your last checkout or update. Without the
'-C' option, 'update' will also merge any differences between the local
copy of files and their base revisions into any destination revisions
specified with '-r', '-D', or '-A'.

* Menu:

* update options:: update options
* update output:: update output

File: cvs.info, Node: update options, Next: update output, Up: update

A.21.1 update options
---------------------

These standard options are available with 'update' (*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' or '-r' flags. If no matching revision
is found, retrieve the most recent revision (instead of ignoring
the file).

'-l'
Local; run only in current working directory. *Note Recursive
behavior::.

'-P'
Prune empty directories. See *note Moving directories::.

'-p'
Pipe files to the standard output.

'-R'
Update directories recursively (default). *Note Recursive
behavior::.

'-r TAG[:DATE]'
Retrieve the revisions specified by TAG or, when DATE is specified
and TAG is a branch tag, the version from the branch TAG as it
existed on DATE. This option is sticky, and implies '-P'. See
*note Sticky tags::, for more information on sticky tags/dates.
Also see *note Common options::.

These special options are also available with 'update'.

'-A'
Reset any sticky tags, dates, or '-k' options. See *note Sticky
tags::, for more information on sticky tags/dates.

'-C'
Overwrite locally modified files with clean copies from the
repository (the modified file is saved in '.#FILE.REVISION',
however).

'-d'
Create any directories that exist in the repository if they're
missing from the working directory. Normally, 'update' acts only
on directories and files that were already enrolled in your working
directory.

This is useful for updating directories that were created in the
repository since the initial checkout; but it has an unfortunate
side effect. If you deliberately avoided certain directories in
the repository when you created your working directory (either
through use of a module name or by listing explicitly the files and
directories you wanted on the command line), then updating with
'-d' will create those directories, which may not be what you want.

'-I NAME'
Ignore files whose names match NAME (in your working directory)
during the update. You can specify '-I' more than once on the
command line to specify several files to ignore. Use '-I !' to
avoid ignoring any files at all. *Note cvsignore::, for other ways
to make CVS ignore some files.

'-WSPEC'
Specify file names that should be filtered during update. You can
use this option repeatedly.

SPEC can be a file name pattern of the same type that you can
specify in the '.cvswrappers' file. *Note Wrappers::.

'-jREVISION'
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.

Note that using a single '-j TAGNAME' option rather than '-j
BRANCHNAME' to merge changes from a branch will often not remove
files which were removed on the branch. *Note Merging adds and
removals::, for more.

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::.

File: cvs.info, Node: update output, Prev: update options, Up: update

A.21.2 update output
--------------------

'update' and 'checkout' keep you informed of their progress by printing
a line for each file, preceded by one character indicating the status of
the file:

'U FILE'
The file was brought up to date with respect to the repository.
This is done for any file that exists in the repository but not in
your working directory, and for files that you haven't changed but
are not the most recent versions available in the repository.

'P FILE'
Like 'U', but the CVS server sends a patch instead of an entire
file. This accomplishes the same thing as 'U' using less
bandwidth.

'A FILE'
The file has been added to your private copy of the sources, and
will be added to the source repository when you run 'commit' on the
file. This is a reminder to you that the file needs to be
committed.

'R FILE'
The file has been removed from your private copy of the sources,
and will be removed from the source repository when you run
'commit' on the file. This is a reminder to you that the file
needs to be committed.

'M FILE'
The file is modified in your working directory.

'M' can indicate one of two states for a file you're working on:
either there were no modifications to the same file in the
repository, so that your file remains as you last saw it; or there
were modifications in the repository as well as in your copy, but
they were merged successfully, without conflict, in your working
directory.

CVS will print some messages if it merges your work, and a backup
copy of your working file (as it looked before you ran 'update')
will be made. The exact name of that file is printed while
'update' runs.

'C FILE'
A conflict was detected while trying to merge your changes to FILE
with changes from the source repository. FILE (the copy in your
working directory) is now the result of attempting to merge the two
revisions; an unmodified copy of your file is also in your working
directory, with the name '.#FILE.REVISION' where REVISION is the
revision that your modified file started from. Resolve the
conflict as described in *note Conflicts example::. (Note that
some systems automatically purge files that begin with '.#' if they
have not been accessed for a few days. If you intend to keep a
copy of your original file, it is a very good idea to rename it.)
Under VMS, the file name starts with '__' rather than '.#'.

File: cvs.info, Node: Invoking CVS, Next: Administrative files, Prev: CVS commands, Up: Top

Appendix B Quick reference to CVS commands
******************************************

This appendix describes how to invoke CVS, with references to where each
command or feature is described in detail. For other references run the
'cvs --help' command, or see *note Index::. For an alphabetical list of
all CVS commands, *note CVS command list::).

A CVS command looks like:

cvs [ GLOBAL_OPTIONS ] COMMAND [ COMMAND_OPTIONS ] [ COMMAND_ARGS ]

Global options:

'--allow-root=ROOTDIR'
Specify acceptable CVSROOT directory (server only). Appeared in
CVS 1.10. See *note Password authentication server::.

'--allow-root-regexp=ROOTDIR'
Specify a POSIX extended regular expression which matches
acceptable CVSROOT directories (server only). Appeared in CVS
1.12.14. See *note Password authentication server::.

'-a'
Authenticate all communication (client only) (not in CVS 1.9 and
older). See *note Global options::.

'-b'
Specify RCS location (CVS 1.9 and older). See *note Global
options::.

'-d ROOT'
Specify the CVSROOT. See *note Repository::.

'-e EDITOR'
Edit messages with EDITOR. See *note Committing your changes::.

'-f'
Do not read the '~/.cvsrc' file. See *note Global options::.

'-g'
Set the umask to allow group writable permissions in the working
copy. See *note Global options::.

'-H'
'--help'
Print a help message. See *note Global options::.

'-n'
Do not change any files. See *note Global options::.

'-Q'
Be really quiet. See *note Global options::.

'-q'
Be somewhat quiet. See *note Global options::.

'-r'
Make new working files read-only. See *note Global options::.

'-s VARIABLE=VALUE'
Set a user variable. See *note Variables::.

'-T TEMPDIR'
Put temporary files in TEMPDIR. See *note Global options::.

'-t'
Trace CVS execution. See *note Global options::.

'-v'
'--version'
Display version and copyright information for CVS.

'-w'
Make new working files read-write. See *note Global options::.

'-x'
Encrypt all communication (client only). See *note Global
options::.

'-z GZIP-LEVEL'
Set the compression level (client only). See *note Global
options::.

Keyword expansion modes (*note Substitution modes::):

-kkv $Id: file1,v 1.1 1993/12/09 03:21:13 joe Exp $
-kkvl $Id: file1,v 1.1 1993/12/09 03:21:13 joe Exp harry $
-kk $Id$
-kv file1,v 1.1 1993/12/09 03:21:13 joe Exp
-ko no expansion
-kb no expansion, file is binary

Keywords (*note Keyword list::):

$Author: joe $
$Date: 1993/12/09 03:21:13 $
$Mdocdate: December 9 1993 $
$CVSHeader: files/file1,v 1.1 1993/12/09 03:21:13 joe Exp harry $
$Header: /home/files/file1,v 1.1 1993/12/09 03:21:13 joe Exp harry $
$Id: file1,v 1.1 1993/12/09 03:21:13 joe Exp harry $
$Locker: harry $
$Name: snapshot_1_14 $
$RCSfile: file1,v $
$Revision: 1.1 $
$Source: /home/files/file1,v $
$State: Exp $
$Log: file1,v $
Revision 1.1 1993/12/09 03:30:17 joe
Initial revision

Commands, command options, and command arguments:

'add [OPTIONS] [FILES...]'
Add a new file/directory. See *note Adding files::.

'-k KFLAG'
Set keyword expansion.

'-m MSG'
Set file description.

'admin [OPTIONS] [FILES...]'
Administration of history files in the repository. See *note
admin::.

'-b[REV]'
Set default branch. See *note Reverting local changes::.

'-cSTRING'
Set comment leader.

'-kSUBST'
Set keyword substitution. See *note Keyword substitution::.

'-l[REV]'
Lock revision REV, or latest revision.

'-mREV:MSG'
Replace the log message of revision REV with MSG.

'-oRANGE'
Delete revisions from the repository. See *note admin
options::.

'-q'
Run quietly; do not print diagnostics.

'-sSTATE[:REV]'
Set the state. See *note admin options:: for more information
on possible states.

'-t'
Set file description from standard input.

'-tFILE'
Set file description from FILE.

'-t-STRING'
Set file description to STRING.

'-u[REV]'
Unlock revision REV, or latest revision.

'annotate [OPTIONS] [FILES...]'
Show last revision where each line was modified. See *note
annotate::.

'-D DATE'
Annotate the most recent revision no later than DATE. See
*note Common options::.

'-F'
Force annotation of binary files. (Without this option,
binary files are skipped with a message.)

'-f'
Use head revision if tag/date not found. See *note Common
options::.

'-l'
Local; run only in current working directory. *Note Recursive
behavior::.

'-R'
Operate recursively (default). *Note Recursive behavior::.

'-r TAG[:DATE]'
Annotate revisions specified by TAG or, when DATE is specified
and TAG is a branch tag, the version from the branch TAG as it
existed on DATE. See *note Common options::.

'checkout [OPTIONS] MODULES...'
Get a copy of the sources. See *note checkout::.

'-A'
Reset any sticky tags/date/options. See *note Sticky tags::
and *note Keyword substitution::.

'-c'
Output the module database. See *note checkout options::.

'-D DATE'
Check out revisions as of DATE (is sticky). See *note Common
options::.

'-d DIR'
Check out into DIR. See *note checkout options::.

'-f'
Use head revision if tag/date not found. See *note Common
options::.

'-j TAG[:DATE]'
Merge in the change specified by TAG, or when DATE is
specified and TAG is a branch tag, the version from the branch
TAG as it existed on DATE. See *note checkout options::.
Also, see *note Common options::.

'-k KFLAG'
Use KFLAG keyword expansion. See *note Substitution modes::.

'-l'
Local; run only in current working directory. *Note Recursive
behavior::.

'-N'
Don't "shorten" module paths if -d specified. See *note
checkout options::.

'-n'
Do not run module program (if any). See *note checkout
options::.

'-P'
Prune empty directories. See *note Moving directories::.

'-p'
Check out files to standard output (avoids stickiness). See
*note checkout options::.

'-R'
Operate recursively (default). *Note Recursive behavior::.

'-r TAG[:DATE]'
Checkout the revision already tagged with TAG or, when DATE is
specified and TAG is a branch tag, the version from the branch
TAG as it existed on DATE. See *note Common options::.

'-s'
Like -c, but include module status. See *note checkout
options::.

'commit [OPTIONS] [FILES...]'
Check changes into the repository. See *note commit::.

'-c'
Check for valid edits before committing. Requires a CVS
client and server both version 1.12.10 or greater.

'-F FILE'
Read log message from FILE. See *note commit options::.

'-f'
Force the file to be committed; disables recursion. See *note
commit options::.

'-l'
Local; run only in current working directory. See *note
Recursive behavior::.

'-m MSG'
Use MSG as log message. See *note commit options::.

'-n'
Do not run module program (if any). See *note commit
options::.

'-R'
Operate recursively (default). *Note Recursive behavior::.

'-r REV'
Commit to REV. See *note commit options::.

'diff [OPTIONS] [FILES...]'
Show differences between revisions. See *note diff::. In addition
to the options shown below, accepts a wide variety of options to
control output style, for example '-c' for context diffs.

'-D DATE1'
Diff revision for date against working file. See *note diff
options::.

'-D DATE2'
Diff REV1/DATE1 against DATE2. See *note diff options::.

'-l'
Local; run only in current working directory. See *note
Recursive behavior::.

'-N'
Include diffs for added and removed files. See *note diff
options::.

'-R'
Operate recursively (default). *Note Recursive behavior::.

'-r TAG1[:DATE1]'
Diff the revisions specified by TAG1 or, when DATE1 is
specified and TAG1 is a branch tag, the version from the
branch TAG1 as it existed on DATE1, against the working file.
See *note diff options:: and *note Common options::.

'-r TAG2[:DATE2]'
Diff the revisions specified by TAG2 or, when DATE2 is
specified and TAG2 is a branch tag, the version from the
branch TAG2 as it existed on DATE2, against REV1/DATE1. See
*note diff options:: and *note Common options::.

'edit [OPTIONS] [FILES...]'
Get ready to edit a watched file. See *note Editing files::.

'-a ACTIONS'
Specify actions for temporary watch, where ACTIONS is 'edit',
'unedit', 'commit', 'all', or 'none'. See *note Editing
files::.

'-c'
Check edits: Edit fails if someone else is already editing the
file. Requires a CVS client and server both of version
1.12.10 or greater.

'-f'
Force edit; ignore other edits. Added in CVS 1.12.10.

'-l'
Local; run only in current working directory. See *note
Recursive behavior::.

'-R'
Operate recursively (default). *Note Recursive behavior::.

'editors [OPTIONS] [FILES...]'
See who is editing a watched file. See *note Watch information::.

'-l'
Local; run only in current working directory. See *note
Recursive behavior::.

'-R'
Operate recursively (default). *Note Recursive behavior::.

'export [OPTIONS] MODULES...'
Export files from CVS. See *note export::.

'-D DATE'
Check out revisions as of DATE. See *note Common options::.

'-d DIR'
Check out into DIR. See *note export options::.

'-f'
Use head revision if tag/date not found. See *note Common
options::.

'-k KFLAG'
Use KFLAG keyword expansion. See *note Substitution modes::.

'-l'
Local; run only in current working directory. *Note Recursive
behavior::.

'-N'
Don't "shorten" module paths if -d specified. See *note
export options::.

'-n'
Do not run module program (if any). See *note export
options::.

'-R'
Operate recursively (default). *Note Recursive behavior::.

'-r TAG[:DATE]'
Export the revisions specified by TAG or, when DATE is
specified and TAG is a branch tag, the version from the branch
TAG as it existed on DATE. See *note Common options::.

'history [OPTIONS] [FILES...]'
Show repository access history. See *note history::.

'-a'
All users (default is self). See *note history options::.

'-b STR'
Back to record with STR in module/file/repos field. See *note
history options::.

'-c'
Report on committed (modified) files. See *note history
options::.

'-D DATE'
Since DATE. See *note history options::.

'-e'
Report on all record types. See *note history options::.

'-l'
Last modified (committed or modified report). See *note
history options::.

'-m MODULE'
Report on MODULE (repeatable). See *note history options::.

'-n MODULE'
In MODULE. See *note history options::.

'-o'
Report on checked out modules. See *note history options::.

'-p REPOSITORY'
In REPOSITORY. See *note history options::.

'-r REV'
Since revision REV. See *note history options::.

'-T'
Produce report on all TAGs. See *note history options::.

'-t TAG'
Since tag record placed in history file (by anyone). See
*note history options::.

'-u USER'
For user USER (repeatable). See *note history options::.

'-w'
Working directory must match. See *note history options::.

'-x TYPES'
Report on TYPES, one or more of 'TOEFWUPCGMAR'. See *note
history options::.

'-z ZONE'
Output for time zone ZONE. See *note history options::.

'import [OPTIONS] REPOSITORY VENDOR-TAG RELEASE-TAGS...'
Import files into CVS, using vendor branches. See *note import::.

'-b BRA'
Import to vendor branch BRA. See *note Multiple vendor
branches::.

'-d'
Use the file's modification time as the time of import. See
*note import options::.

'-k KFLAG'
Set default keyword substitution mode. See *note import
options::.

'-m MSG'
Use MSG for log message. See *note import options::.

'-I IGN'
More files to ignore (! to reset). See *note import
options::.

'-W SPEC'
More wrappers. See *note import options::.

'init'
Create a CVS repository if it doesn't exist. See *note Creating a
repository::.

'kserver'
Kerberos authenticated server. *Note server & pserver::. *Note
Kerberos authenticated::.

'log [OPTIONS] [FILES...]'
Print out history information for files. See *note log::.

'-b'
Only list revisions on the default branch. See *note log
options::.

'-d DATES'
Specify dates (D1<D2 for range, D for latest before). See
*note log options::.

'-h'
Only print header. See *note log options::.

'-l'
Local; run only in current working directory. See *note
Recursive behavior::.

'-N'
Do not list tags. See *note log options::.

'-R'
Only print name of RCS file. See *note log options::.

'-rREVS'
Only list revisions REVS. See *note log options::.

'-s STATES'
Only list revisions with specified states. See *note log
options::.

'-t'
Only print header and descriptive text. See *note log
options::.

'-wLOGINS'
Only list revisions checked in by specified logins. See *note
log options::.

'login'
Prompt for password for authenticating server. See *note Password
authentication client::.

'logout'
Remove stored password for authenticating server. See *note
Password authentication client::.

'ls [OPTIONS] [PATH...]'
List files available from CVS. See *note ls & rls::.

'-d'
Show dead revisions (with tag when specified). See *note ls &
rls options::.

'-e'
Display in CVS/Entries format.

'-l'
Display all details.

'-P'
Prune empty directories. See *note Moving directories::.

'-R'
List recursively. *Note Recursive behavior::.

'-D DATE'
Show files from date. See *note Common options::.

'-r REV'
Show files with revision or tag.

'pserver'
Password authenticated server. *Note server & pserver::. *Note
Password authentication server::.

'rannotate [OPTIONS] [MODULES...]'
Show last revision where each line was modified. See *note
annotate::.

'-D DATE'
Annotate the most recent revision no later than DATE. See
*note Common options::.

'-F'
Force annotation of binary files. (Without this option,
binary files are skipped with a message.)

'-f'
Use head revision if tag/date not found. See *note Common
options::.

'-l'
Local; run only in current working directory. *Note Recursive
behavior::.

'-R'
Operate recursively (default). *Note Recursive behavior::.

'-r TAG[:DATE]'
Annotate the revision specified by TAG or, when DATE is
specified and TAG is a branch tag, the version from the branch
TAG as it existed on DATE. See *note Common options::.

'rdiff [OPTIONS] MODULES...'
Show differences between releases. See *note rdiff::.

'-c'
Context diff output format (default). See *note rdiff
options::.

'-D DATE'
Select revisions based on DATE. See *note Common options::.

'-f'
Use head revision if tag/date not found. See *note Common
options::.

'-l'
Local; run only in current working directory. See *note
Recursive behavior::.

'-R'
Operate recursively (default). *Note Recursive behavior::.

'-r TAG[:DATE]'
Select the revisions specified by TAG or, when DATE is
specified and TAG is a branch tag, the version from the branch
TAG as it existed on DATE. See *note diff options:: and *note
Common options::.

'-s'
Short patch - one liner per file. See *note rdiff options::.

'-t'
Top two diffs - last change made to the file. See *note diff
options::.

'-u'
Unidiff output format. See *note rdiff options::.

'-V VERS'
Use RCS Version VERS for keyword expansion (obsolete). See
*note rdiff options::.

'release [OPTIONS] DIRECTORIES...'
Indicate that a directory is no longer in use. See *note
release::.

'-d'
Delete the given directory. See *note release options::.

'remove [OPTIONS] [FILES...]'
Remove an entry from the repository. See *note Removing files::.

'-f'
Delete the file before removing it. See *note Removing
files::.

'-l'
Local; run only in current working directory. See *note
Recursive behavior::.

'-R'
Operate recursively (default). *Note Recursive behavior::.

'rlog [OPTIONS] [FILES...]'
Print out history information for modules. See *note log::.

'-b'
Only list revisions on the default branch. See *note log
options::.

'-d DATES'
Specify dates (D1<D2 for range, D for latest before). See
*note log options::.

'-h'
Only print header. See *note log options::.

'-l'
Local; run only in current working directory. See *note
Recursive behavior::.

'-N'
Do not list tags. See *note log options::.

'-R'
Only print name of RCS file. See *note log options::.

'-rREVS'
Only list revisions REVS. See *note log options::.

'-s STATES'
Only list revisions with specified states. See *note log
options::.

'-t'
Only print header and descriptive text. See *note log
options::.

'-wLOGINS'
Only list revisions checked in by specified logins. See *note
log options::.

'rls [OPTIONS] [PATH...]'
List files in a module. See *note ls & rls::.

'-d'
Show dead revisions (with tag when specified). See *note ls &
rls options::.

'-e'
Display in CVS/Entries format.

'-l'
Display all details.

'-P'
Prune empty directories. See *note Moving directories::.

'-R'
List recursively. *Note Recursive behavior::.

'-D DATE'
Show files from date. See *note Common options::.

'-r REV'
Show files with revision or tag.

'rtag [OPTIONS] TAG MODULES...'
Add a symbolic tag to a module. *Note Tagging by date/tag::.
*Note Creating a branch::.

'-a'
Clear tag from removed files that would not otherwise be
tagged. See *note Tagging add/remove::.

'-b'
Create a branch named TAG. See *note Branching and merging::.

'-B'
Used in conjunction with -F or -d, enables movement and
deletion of branch tags. Use with extreme caution.

'-D DATE'
Tag revisions as of DATE. See *note Tagging by date/tag::.

'-d'
Delete TAG. See *note Modifying tags::.

'-F'
Move TAG if it already exists. See *note Modifying tags::.

'-f'
Force a head revision match if tag/date not found. See *note
Tagging by date/tag::.

'-l'
Local; run only in current working directory. See *note
Recursive behavior::.

'-n'
No execution of tag program. See *note Common options::.

'-R'
Operate recursively (default). *Note Recursive behavior::.

'-r TAG[:DATE]'
Tag the revision already tagged with TAG or, when DATE is
specified and TAG is a branch tag, the version from the branch
TAG as it existed on DATE. See *note Tagging by date/tag::
and *note Common options::.

'server'
SSH/rsh server. *Note server & pserver::. *Note Connecting via
rsh::.

'suck MODULE/FILENAME'
Download RCS ,v file raw. See *note suck::.

'status [OPTIONS] FILES...'
Display status information in a working directory. See *note File
status::.

'-l'
Local; run only in current working directory. See *note
Recursive behavior::.

'-R'
Operate recursively (default). *Note Recursive behavior::.

'-v'
Include tag information for file. See *note Tags::.

'tag [OPTIONS] TAG [FILES...]'
Add a symbolic tag to checked out version of files. *Note Tagging
the working directory::. *Note Creating a branch::.

'-b'
Create a branch named TAG. See *note Branching and merging::.

'-c'
Check that working files are unmodified. See *note Tagging
the working directory::.

'-D DATE'
Tag revisions as of DATE. See *note Tagging by date/tag::.

'-d'
Delete TAG. See *note Modifying tags::.

'-F'
Move TAG if it already exists. See *note Modifying tags::.

'-f'
Force a head revision match if tag/date not found. See *note
Tagging by date/tag::.

'-l'
Local; run only in current working directory. See *note
Recursive behavior::.

'-R'
Operate recursively (default). *Note Recursive behavior::.

'-r TAG[:DATE]'
Tag the revision already tagged with TAG, or when DATE is
specified and TAG is a branch tag, the version from the branch
TAG as it existed on DATE. See *note Tagging by date/tag::
and *note Common options::.

'unedit [OPTIONS] [FILES...]'
Undo an edit command. See *note Editing files::.

'-l'
Local; run only in current working directory. See *note
Recursive behavior::.

'-R'
Operate recursively (default). *Note Recursive behavior::.

'update [OPTIONS] [FILES...]'
Bring work tree in sync with repository. See *note update::.

'-A'
Reset any sticky tags/date/options. See *note Sticky tags::
and *note Keyword substitution::.

'-C'
Overwrite locally modified files with clean copies from the
repository (the modified file is saved in '.#FILE.REVISION',
however).

'-D DATE'
Check out revisions as of DATE (is sticky). See *note Common
options::.

'-d'
Create directories. See *note update options::.

'-f'
Use head revision if tag/date not found. See *note Common
options::.

'-I IGN'
More files to ignore (! to reset). See *note import
options::.

'-j TAG[:DATE]'
Merge in changes from revisions specified by TAG or, when DATE
is specified and TAG is a branch tag, the version from the
branch TAG as it existed on DATE. See *note update options::.

'-k KFLAG'
Use KFLAG keyword expansion. See *note Substitution modes::.

'-l'
Local; run only in current working directory. *Note Recursive
behavior::.

'-P'
Prune empty directories. See *note Moving directories::.

'-p'
Check out files to standard output (avoids stickiness). See
*note update options::.

'-R'
Operate recursively (default). *Note Recursive behavior::.

'-r TAG[:DATE]'
Checkout the revisions specified by TAG or, when DATE is
specified and TAG is a branch tag, the version from the branch
TAG as it existed on DATE. See *note Common options::.

'-W SPEC'
More wrappers. See *note import options::.

'version'

Display the version of CVS being used. If the repository is
remote, display both the client and server versions.

'watch [on|off|add|remove] [OPTIONS] [FILES...]'

on/off: turn on/off read-only checkouts of files. See *note
Setting a watch::.

add/remove: add or remove notification on actions. See *note
Getting Notified::.

'-a ACTIONS'
Specify actions for temporary watch, where ACTIONS is 'edit',
'unedit', 'commit', 'all', or 'none'. See *note Editing
files::.

'-l'
Local; run only in current working directory. See *note
Recursive behavior::.

'-R'
Operate recursively (default). *Note Recursive behavior::.

'watchers [OPTIONS] [FILES...]'
See who is watching a file. See *note Watch information::.

'-l'
Local; run only in current working directory. See *note
Recursive behavior::.

'-R'
Operate recursively (default). *Note Recursive behavior::.

File: cvs.info, Node: Administrative files, Next: Environment variables, Prev: Invoking CVS, Up: Top

Appendix C Reference manual for Administrative files
****************************************************

Inside the repository, in the directory '$CVSROOT/CVSROOT', there are a
number of supportive files for CVS. You can use CVS in a limited
fashion without any of them, but if they are set up properly they can
help make life easier. For a discussion of how to edit them, see *note
Intro administrative files::.

The most important of these files is the 'modules' file, which
defines the modules inside the repository.

* Menu:

* modules:: Defining modules
* Wrappers:: Specify binary-ness based on file name
* Trigger Scripts:: Launch scripts in response to server events
* rcsinfo:: Templates for the log messages
* cvsignore:: Ignoring files via cvsignore
* checkoutlist:: Adding your own administrative files
* history file:: History information
* Variables:: Various variables are expanded
* config:: Miscellaneous CVS configuration

File: cvs.info, Node: modules, Next: Wrappers, Up: Administrative files

C.1 The modules file
====================

The 'modules' file records your definitions of names for collections of
source code. CVS will use these definitions if you use CVS to update
the modules file (use normal commands like 'add', 'commit', etc).

The 'modules' file may contain blank lines and comments (lines
beginning with '#') as well as module definitions. Long lines can be
continued on the next line by specifying a backslash ('\') as the last
character on the line.

There are three basic types of modules: alias modules, regular
modules, and ampersand modules. The difference between them is the way
that they map files in the repository to files in the working directory.
In all of the following examples, the top-level repository contains a
directory called 'first-dir', which contains two files, 'file1' and
'file2', and a directory 'sdir'. 'first-dir/sdir' contains a file
'sfile'.

* Menu:

* Alias modules:: The simplest kind of module
* Regular modules::
* Ampersand modules::
* Excluding directories:: Excluding directories from a module
* Module options:: Regular and ampersand modules can take options
* Module program options:: How the modules "program options" programs
are run.

File: cvs.info, Node: Alias modules, Next: Regular modules, Up: modules

C.1.1 Alias modules
-------------------

Alias modules are the simplest kind of module:

'MNAME -a ALIASES...'
This represents the simplest way of defining a module MNAME. The
'-a' flags the definition as a simple alias: CVS will treat any use
of MNAME (as a command argument) as if the list of names ALIASES
had been specified instead. ALIASES may contain either other
module names or paths. When you use paths in aliases, 'checkout'
creates all intermediate directories in the working directory, just
as if the path had been specified explicitly in the CVS arguments.

For example, if the modules file contains:

amodule -a first-dir

then the following two commands are equivalent:

$ cvs co amodule
$ cvs co first-dir

and they each would provide output such as:

cvs checkout: Updating first-dir
U first-dir/file1
U first-dir/file2
cvs checkout: Updating first-dir/sdir
U first-dir/sdir/sfile

File: cvs.info, Node: Regular modules, Next: Ampersand modules, Prev: Alias modules, Up: modules

C.1.2 Regular modules
---------------------

'MNAME [ options ] DIR [ FILES... ]'
In the simplest case, this form of module definition reduces to
'MNAME DIR'. This defines all the files in directory DIR as module
MNAME. DIR is a relative path (from '$CVSROOT') to a directory of
source in the source repository. In this case, on checkout, a
single directory called MNAME is created as a working directory; no
intermediate directory levels are used by default, even if DIR was
a path involving several directory levels.

For example, if a module is defined by:

regmodule first-dir

then regmodule will contain the files from first-dir:

$ cvs co regmodule
cvs checkout: Updating regmodule
U regmodule/file1
U regmodule/file2
cvs checkout: Updating regmodule/sdir
U regmodule/sdir/sfile
$

By explicitly specifying files in the module definition after DIR,
you can select particular files from directory DIR. Here is an example:

regfiles first-dir/sdir sfile

With this definition, getting the regfiles module will create a single
working directory 'regfiles' containing the file listed, which comes
from a directory deeper in the CVS source repository:

$ cvs co regfiles
U regfiles/sfile
$

File: cvs.info, Node: Ampersand modules, Next: Excluding directories, Prev: Regular modules, Up: modules

C.1.3 Ampersand modules
-----------------------

A module definition can refer to other modules by including '&MODULE' in
its definition.
MNAME [ options ] &MODULE...

Then getting the module creates a subdirectory for each such module,
in the directory containing the module. For example, if modules
contains

ampermod &first-dir

then a checkout will create an 'ampermod' directory which contains a
directory called 'first-dir', which in turns contains all the
directories and files which live there. For example, the command

$ cvs co ampermod

will create the following files:

ampermod/first-dir/file1
ampermod/first-dir/file2
ampermod/first-dir/sdir/sfile

There is one quirk/bug: the messages that CVS prints omit the
'ampermod', and thus do not correctly display the location to which it
is checking out the files:

$ cvs co ampermod
cvs checkout: Updating first-dir
U first-dir/file1
U first-dir/file2
cvs checkout: Updating first-dir/sdir
U first-dir/sdir/sfile
$

Do not rely on this buggy behavior; it may get fixed in a future
release of CVS.

File: cvs.info, Node: Excluding directories, Next: Module options, Prev: Ampersand modules, Up: modules

C.1.4 Excluding directories
---------------------------

An alias module may exclude particular directories from other modules by
using an exclamation mark ('!') before the name of each directory to be
excluded.

For example, if the modules file contains:

exmodule -a !first-dir/sdir first-dir

then checking out the module 'exmodule' will check out everything in
'first-dir' except any files in the subdirectory 'first-dir/sdir'.

File: cvs.info, Node: Module options, Next: Module program options, Prev: Excluding directories, Up: modules

C.1.5 Module options
--------------------

Either regular modules or ampersand modules can contain options, which
supply additional information concerning the module.

'-d NAME'
Name the working directory something other than the module name.

'-e PROG'
Specify a program PROG to run whenever files in a module are
exported. PROG runs with a single argument, the module name.

'-o PROG'
Specify a program PROG to run whenever files in a module are
checked out. PROG runs with a single argument, the module name.
See *note Module program options:: for information on how PROG is
called.

'-s STATUS'
Assign a status to the module. When the module file is printed
with 'cvs checkout -s' the modules are sorted according to
primarily module status, and secondarily according to the module
name. This option has no other meaning. You can use this option
for several things besides status: for instance, list the person
that is responsible for this module.

'-t PROG'
Specify a program PROG to run whenever files in a module are tagged
with 'rtag'. PROG runs with two arguments: the module name and the
symbolic tag specified to 'rtag'. It is not run when 'tag' is
executed. Generally you will find that the 'taginfo' file is a
better solution (*note taginfo::).

You should also see *note Module program options:: about how the
"program options" programs are run.

File: cvs.info, Node: Module program options, Prev: Module options, Up: modules

C.1.6 How the modules file "program options" programs are run
-------------------------------------------------------------

For checkout, rtag, and export, the program is server-based, and as such
the following applies:-

If using remote access methods (pserver, ext, etc.), CVS will execute
this program on the server from a temporary directory. The path is
searched for this program.

If using "local access" (on a local or remote NFS filesystem, i.e.
repository set just to a path), the program will be executed from the
newly checked-out tree, if found there, or alternatively searched for in
the path if not.

The programs are all run after the operation has effectively
completed.

File: cvs.info, Node: Wrappers, Next: Trigger Scripts, Prev: modules, Up: Administrative files

C.2 The cvswrappers file
========================

Wrappers refers to a CVS feature which lets you control certain settings
based on the name of the file which is being operated on. The settings
are '-k' for binary files, and '-m' for nonmergeable text files.

The '-m' option specifies the merge methodology that should be used
when a non-binary file is updated. 'MERGE' means the usual CVS
behavior: try to merge the files. 'COPY' means that 'cvs update' will
refuse to merge files, as it also does for files specified as binary
with '-kb' (but if the file is specified as binary, there is no need to
specify '-m 'COPY''). CVS will provide the user with the two versions
of the files, and require the user using mechanisms outside CVS, to
insert any necessary changes.

_WARNING: do not use 'COPY' with CVS 1.9 or earlier - such versions
of CVS will copy one version of your file over the other, wiping out the
previous contents._ The '-m' wrapper option only affects behavior when
merging is done on update; it does not affect how files are stored. See
*note Binary files::, for more on binary files.

The basic format of the file 'cvswrappers' is:

wildcard [option value][option value]...

where option is one of
-m update methodology value: MERGE or COPY
-k keyword expansion value: expansion mode

and value is a single-quote delimited value.

For example, the following command imports a directory, treating
files whose name ends in '.exe' as binary:

cvs import -I ! -W "*.exe -k 'b'" first-dir vendortag reltag

File: cvs.info, Node: Trigger Scripts, Next: rcsinfo, Prev: Wrappers, Up: Administrative files

C.3 The Trigger Scripts
=======================

Several of the administrative files support triggers, or the launching
external scripts or programs at specific times before or after
particular events, during the execution of CVS commands. These hooks
can be used to prevent certain actions, log them, and/or maintain
anything else you deem practical.

All the trigger scripts are launched in a copy of the user sandbox
being committed, on the server, in client-server mode. In local mode,
the scripts are actually launched directly from the user sandbox
directory being committed. For most intents and purposes, the same
scripts can be run in both locations without alteration.

* Menu:

* syntax:: The common syntax
* Trigger Script Security:: Trigger script security

* commit files:: The commit support files (commitinfo,
verifymsg, loginfo)
* commitinfo:: Pre-commit checking
* verifymsg:: How are log messages evaluated?
* loginfo:: Where should log messages be sent?

* postadmin:: Logging admin commands
* taginfo:: Verifying/Logging tags
* posttag:: Logging tags
* postwatch:: Logging watch commands

* preproxy:: Launch a script on a secondary server prior
to becoming a write proxy
* postproxy:: Launch a script on a secondary server after
completing proxy operations

File: cvs.info, Node: syntax, Next: Trigger Script Security, Up: Trigger Scripts

C.3.1 The common syntax
-----------------------

The administrative files such as 'commitinfo', 'loginfo', 'rcsinfo',
'verifymsg', etc., all have a common format. The purpose of the files
are described later on. The common syntax is described here.

Each line contains the following:

* A regular expression or the literal string 'DEFAULT'. Some script
hooks also support the literal string 'ALL'. Other than the 'ALL'
and 'DEFAULT' keywords, this is a basic regular expression in the
syntax used by GNU emacs. See the descriptions of the individual
script hooks for information on whether the 'ALL' keyword is
supported (*note Trigger Scripts::).

* A whitespace separator--one or more spaces and/or tabs.

* A file name or command-line template.

Blank lines are ignored. Lines that start with the character '#' are
treated as comments. Long lines unfortunately can _not_ be broken in
two parts in any way.

The first regular expression that matches the current directory name
in the repository or the first line containing 'DEFAULT' in lieu of a
regular expression is used and all lines containing 'ALL' is used for
the hooks which support the 'ALL' keyword. The rest of the line is used
as a file name or command-line template as appropriate. See the
descriptions of the individual script hooks for information on whether
the 'ALL' keyword is supported (*note Trigger Scripts::).

_Note: The following information on format strings is valid as long as
the line 'UseNewInfoFmtStrings=yes' appears in your repository's config
file (*note config::). Otherwise, default format strings may be
appended to the command line and the 'loginfo' file, especially, can
exhibit slightly different behavior. For more information, *Note
Updating Commit Files::._

In the cases where the second segment of the matched line is a
command line template (e.g. 'commitinfo', 'loginfo', & 'verifymsg'),
the command line template may contain format strings which will be
replaced with specific values before the script is run.

Format strings can represent a single variable or one or more
attributes of a list variable. An example of a list variable would be
the list available to scripts hung on the loginfo hooks - the list of
files which were just committed. In the case of loginfo, three
attributes are available for each list item: file name, precommit
version, and postcommit version.

Format strings consist of a '%' character followed by an optional '{'
(required in the multiple list attribute case), a single format
character representing a variable or a single attribute of list elements
or multiple format characters representing attributes of list elements,
and a closing '}' when the open bracket was present.

_Flat format strings_, or single format characters which get replaced
with a single value, will generate a single argument to the called
script, regardless of whether the replacement variable contains white
space or other special characters.

_List attributes_ will generate an argument for each attribute
requested for each list item. For example, '%{sVv}' in a 'loginfo'
command template will generate three arguments (file name, precommit
version, postcommit version, ...) for each file committed. As in the
flat format string case, each attribute will be passed in as a single
argument regardless of whether it contains white space or other special
characters.

'%%' will be replaced with a literal '%'.

The format strings available to all script hooks are:

c
The canonical name of the command being executed. For instance, in
the case of a hook run from 'cvs up', CVS would replace '%c' with
the string 'update' and, in the case of a hook run from 'cvs ci',
CVS would replace '%c' with the string 'commit'.
n
The null, or empty, string.
p
The name of the directory being operated on within the repository.
r
The name of the repository (the path portion of '$CVSROOT').
R
On a server, the name of the referrer, if any. The referrer is the
CVSROOT the client reports it used to contact a server which then
referred it to this server. Should usually be set on a primary
server with a write proxy setup.

Other format strings are file specific. See the docs on the
particular script hooks for more information (*note Trigger Scripts::).

As an example, the following line in a 'loginfo' file would match
only the directory 'module' and any subdirectories of 'module':

^module$/\|$$ (echo; echo %p: %{sVv}; cat) >>$CVSROOT/CVSROOT/commitlog

Using this same line and assuming a commit of new revisions 1.5.4.4
and 1.27.4.1 based on old revisions 1.5.4.3 and 1.27, respectively, of
file1 and file2 in module, something like the following log message
should be appended to commitlog:

module
file1 1.5.4.3 1.5.4.4 file2 1.27 1.27.4.1
Update of /cvsroot/module
In directory localhost.localdomain:/home/jrandom/work/module

Modified Files:
file1 file2
Log Message:
A log message.

File: cvs.info, Node: Trigger Script Security, Next: commit files, Prev: syntax, Up: Trigger Scripts

C.3.2 Security and the Trigger Scripts
--------------------------------------

Security is a huge subject, and implementing a secure system is a
non-trivial task. This section will barely touch on all the issues
involved, but it is well to note that, as with any script you will be
allowing an untrusted user to run on your server, there are measures you
can take to help prevent your trigger scripts from being abused.

For instance, since the CVS trigger scripts all run in a copy of the
user's sandbox on the server, a naively coded Perl trigger script which
attempts to use a Perl module that is not installed on the system can be
hijacked by any user with commit access who is checking in a file with
the correct name. Other scripting languages may be vulnerable to
similar hacks.

One way to make a script more secure, at least with Perl, is to use
scripts which invoke the '-T', or "taint-check" switch on their '#!'
line. In the most basic terms, this causes Perl to avoid running code
that may have come from an external source. Please run the 'perldoc
perlsec' command for more on Perl security. Again, other languages may
implement other security verification hooks which look more or less like
Perl's "taint-check" mechanism.

File: cvs.info, Node: commit files, Next: commitinfo, Prev: Trigger Script Security, Up: Trigger Scripts

C.3.3 The commit support files
------------------------------

The '-i' flag in the 'modules' file can be used to run a certain program
whenever files are committed (*note modules::). The files described in
this section provide other, more flexible, ways to run programs whenever
something is committed.

There are three kinds of programs that can be run on commit. They
are specified in files in the repository, as described below. The
following table summarises the file names and the purpose of the
corresponding programs.

'commitinfo'
The program is responsible for checking that the commit is allowed.
If it exits with a non-zero exit status the commit will be aborted.
*Note commitinfo::.

'verifymsg'
The specified program is used to evaluate the log message, and
possibly verify that it contains all required fields. This is most
useful in combination with the 'rcsinfo' file, which can hold a log
message template (*note rcsinfo::). *Note verifymsg::.

'loginfo'
The specified program is called when the commit is complete. It
receives the log message and some additional information and can
store the log message in a file, or mail it to appropriate persons,
or maybe post it to a local newsgroup, or... Your imagination is
the limit! *Note loginfo::.

* Menu:

* Updating Commit Files:: Updating legacy repositories to stop using
deprecated command line template formats

File: cvs.info, Node: Updating Commit Files, Up: commit files

C.3.3.1 Updating legacy repositories to stop using deprecated command line template formats
...........................................................................................

New repositories are created set to use the new format strings by
default, so if you are creating a new repository, you shouldn't have to
worry about this section.

If you are attempting to maintain a legacy repository which was
making use of the 'commitinfo', 'editinfo', 'verifymsg', 'loginfo',
and/or 'taginfo' script hooks, you should have no immediate problems
with using the current CVS executable, but your users will probably
start to see deprecation warnings.

The reason for this is that all of the script hooks have been updated
to use a new command line parser that extensibly supports multiple
'loginfo' & 'notify' style format strings (*note syntax::) and this
support is not completely compatible with the old style format strings.

The quick upgrade method is to stick a '1' after each format string
in your old 'loginfo' file. For example:

DEFAULT (echo ""; id; echo %{sVv}; date; cat) >> $CVSROOT/CVSROOT/commitlog

would become:

DEFAULT (echo ""; id; echo %1{sVv}; date; cat) >> $CVSROOT/CVSROOT/commitlog

If you were counting on the fact that only the first '%' in the line
was replaced as a format string, you may also have to double up any
further percent signs on the line.

If you did this all at once and checked it in, everything should
still be running properly.

Now add the following line to your config file (*note config::):
UseNewInfoFmtStrings=yes

Everything should still be running properly, but your users will
probably start seeing new deprecation warnings.

Dealing with the deprecation warnings now generated by 'commitinfo',
'editinfo', 'verifymsg', and 'taginfo' should be easy. Simply specify
what are currently implicit arguments explicitly. This means appending
the following strings to each active command line template in each file:
'commitinfo'
' %r/%p %s'
'editinfo'
' %l'
'taginfo'
' %t %o %p %{sv}'
'verifymsg'
' %l'

If you don't desire that any of the newly available information be
passed to the scripts hanging off of these hooks, no further
modifications to these files should be necessary to insure current and
future compatibility with CVS's format strings.

Fixing 'loginfo' could be a little tougher. The old style 'loginfo'
format strings caused a single space and comma separated argument to be
passed in in place of the format string. This is what will continue to
be generated due to the deprecated '1' you inserted into the format
strings.

Since the new format separates each individual item and passes it
into the script as a separate argument (for a good reason - arguments
containing commas and/or white space are now parsable), to remove the
deprecated '1' from your 'loginfo' command line templates, you will most
likely have to rewrite any scripts called by the hook to handle the new
argument format.

Also note that the way '%' followed by unrecognised characters and by
'{}' was treated in past versions of CVS is not strictly adhered to as
there were bugs in the old versions. Specifically, '%{}' would eat the
next character and unrecognised strings resolved only to the empty
string, which was counter to what was stated in the documentation. This
version will do what the documentation said it should have (if you were
using only some combination of '%{sVv}', e.g. '%{sVv}', '%{sV}', or
'%v', you should have no troubles).

On the bright side, you should have plenty of time to do this before
all support for the old format strings is removed from CVS, so you can
just put up with the deprecation warnings for awhile if you like.

File: cvs.info, Node: commitinfo, Next: verifymsg, Prev: commit files, Up: Trigger Scripts

C.3.4 Commitinfo
----------------

The 'commitinfo' file defines programs to execute whenever 'cvs commit'
is about to execute. These programs are used for pre-commit checking to
verify that the modified, added and removed files are really ready to be
committed. This could be used, for instance, to verify that the changed
files conform to to your site's standards for coding practice.

The 'commitinfo' file has the standard form for script hooks (*note
Trigger Scripts::), where each line is a regular expression followed by
a command to execute. It supports only the DEFAULT keywords.

In addition to the common format strings (*note syntax::),
'commitinfo' supports:

{s}
a list of the names of files to be committed

Currently, if no format strings are specified, a default string of '
%r/%p %{s}' will be appended to the command line template before
replacement is performed, but this feature is deprecated. It is simply
in place so that legacy repositories will remain compatible with the new
CVS application. For information on updating, *note Updating Commit
Files::.

The first line with a regular expression matching the directory
within the repository will be used. If the command returns a non-zero
exit status the commit will be aborted.

The command will be run in the root of the workspace containing the
new versions of any files the user would like to modify (commit), _or in
a copy of the workspace on the server (*note Remote repositories::)_.
If a file is being removed, there will be no copy of the file under the
current directory. If a file is being added, there will be no
corresponding archive file in the repository unless the file is being
resurrected.

Note that both the repository directory and the corresponding Attic
(*note Attic::) directory may need to be checked to locate the archive
file corresponding to any given file being committed. Much of the
information about the specific commit request being made, including the
destination branch, commit message, and command line options specified,
is not available to the command.

File: cvs.info, Node: verifymsg, Next: loginfo, Prev: commitinfo, Up: Trigger Scripts

C.3.5 Verifying log messages
----------------------------

Once you have entered a log message, you can evaluate that message to
check for specific content, such as a bug ID. Use the 'verifymsg' file
to specify a program that is used to verify the log message. This
program could be a simple script that checks that the entered message
contains the required fields.

The 'verifymsg' file is often most useful together with the 'rcsinfo'
file, which can be used to specify a log message template (*note
rcsinfo::).

The 'verifymsg' file has the standard form for script hooks (*note
Trigger Scripts::), where each line is a regular expression followed by
a command to execute. It supports only the DEFAULT keywords.

In addition to the common format strings (*note syntax::),
'verifymsg' supports:

l
the full path to the file containing the log message to be verified
{sV}
File attributes, where:
s
file name
V
old version number (pre-checkin)

Currently, if no format strings are specified, a default string of '
%l' will be appended to the command line template before replacement is
performed, but this feature is deprecated. It is simply in place so
that legacy repositories will remain compatible with the new CVS
application. For information on updating, *note Updating Commit
Files::.

One thing that should be noted is that the 'ALL' keyword is not
supported. If more than one matching line is found, the first one is
used. This can be useful for specifying a default verification script
in a directory, and then overriding it in a subdirectory.

If the verification script exits with a non-zero exit status, the
commit is aborted.

In the default configuration, CVS allows the verification script to
change the log message. This is controlled via the RereadLogAfterVerify
CVSROOT/config option.

When 'RereadLogAfterVerify=always' or 'RereadLogAfterVerify=stat',
the log message will either always be reread after the verification
script is run or reread only if the log message file status has changed.

*Note config::, for more on CVSROOT/config options.

It is NOT a good idea for a 'verifymsg' script to interact directly
with the user in the various client/server methods. For the 'pserver'
method, there is no protocol support for communicating between
'verifymsg' and the client on the remote end. For the 'ext' and
'server' methods, it is possible for CVS to become confused by the
characters going along the same channel as the CVS protocol messages.
See *note Remote repositories::, for more information on client/server
setups. In addition, at the time the 'verifymsg' script runs, the CVS
server has locks in place in the repository. If control is returned to
the user here then other users may be stuck waiting for access to the
repository.

This option can be useful if you find yourself using an rcstemplate
that needs to be modified to remove empty elements or to fill in default
values. It can also be useful if the rcstemplate has changed in the
repository and the CVS/Template was not updated, but is able to be
adapted to the new format by the verification script that is run by
'verifymsg'.

An example of an update might be to change all occurrences of
'BugId:' to be 'DefectId:' (which can be useful if the rcstemplate has
recently been changed and there are still checked-out user trees with
cached copies in the CVS/Template file of the older version).

Another example of an update might be to delete a line that contains
'BugID: none' from the log message after validation of that value as
being allowed is made.

* Menu:

* verifymsg example:: Verifymsg example

File: cvs.info, Node: verifymsg example, Up: verifymsg

C.3.5.1 Verifying log messages
..............................

The following is a little silly example of a 'verifymsg' file, together
with the corresponding 'rcsinfo' file, the log message template and a
verification script. We begin with the log message template. We want
to always record a bug-id number on the first line of the log message.
The rest of log message is free text. The following template is found
in the file '/usr/cvssupport/tc.template'.

BugId:

The script '/usr/cvssupport/bugid.verify' is used to evaluate the log
message.

#!/bin/sh
#
# bugid.verify filename
#
# Verify that the log message contains a valid bugid
# on the first line.
#
if sed 1q < $1 | grep '^BugId:[ ]*[0-9][0-9]*$' > /dev/null; then
exit 0
elif sed 1q < $1 | grep '^BugId:[ ]*none$' > /dev/null; then
# It is okay to allow commits with 'BugId: none',
# but do not put that text into the real log message.
grep -v '^BugId:[ ]*none$' > $1.rewrite
mv $1.rewrite $1
exit 0
else
echo "No BugId found."
exit 1
fi

The 'verifymsg' file contains this line:

^tc /usr/cvssupport/bugid.verify %l

The 'rcsinfo' file contains this line:

^tc /usr/cvssupport/tc.template

The 'config' file contains this line:

RereadLogAfterVerify=always

File: cvs.info, Node: loginfo, Next: postadmin, Prev: verifymsg, Up: Trigger Scripts

C.3.6 Loginfo
-------------

The 'loginfo' file is used to control where log information is sent
after versioned changes are made to repository archive files and after
directories are added to the repository. *note posttag:: for how to log
tagging information and *note postadmin:: for how to log changes due to
the 'admin' command.

The 'loginfo' file has the standard form for script hooks (*note
Trigger Scripts::), where each line is a regular expression followed by
a command to execute. It supports the ALL and DEFAULT keywords.

Any specified scripts are called:

'commit'
Once per directory, immediately after a successfully completing the
commit of all files within that directory.
'import'
Once per import, immediately after completion of all write
operations.
'add'
Immediately after the successful 'add' of a directory.

Any script called via 'loginfo' will be fed the log information on
its standard input. Note that the filter program *must* read *all* of
the log information from its standard input or CVS may fail with a
broken pipe signal.

In addition to the common format strings (*note syntax::), 'loginfo'
supports:

{sVv}
File attributes, where:
s
file name
V
old version number (pre-checkin)
v
new version number (post-checkin)

For example, some valid format strings are '%%', '%s', '%{s}', and
'%{sVv}'.

Currently, if 'UseNewInfoFmtStrings' is not set in the 'config'
administration file (*note config::), the format strings will be
substituted as they were in past versions of CVS, but this feature is
deprecated. It is simply in place so that legacy repositories will
remain compatible with the new CVS application. For information on
updating, please see *note Updating Commit Files::.

As an example, if '/u/src/master/yoyodyne/tc' is the repository, '%p'
and '%{sVv}' are the format strings, and three files (ChangeLog,
Makefile, foo.c) were modified, the output might be:

yoyodyne/tc ChangeLog 1.1 1.2 Makefile 1.3 1.4 foo.c 1.12 1.13

Note: when CVS is accessing a remote repository, 'loginfo' will be
run on the _remote_ (i.e., server) side, not the client side (*note
Remote repositories::).

* Menu:

* loginfo example:: Loginfo example
* Keeping a checked out copy:: Updating a tree on every checkin

File: cvs.info, Node: loginfo example, Next: Keeping a checked out copy, Up: loginfo

C.3.6.1 Loginfo example
.......................

The following 'loginfo' file, together with the tiny shell-script below,
appends all log messages to the file '$CVSROOT/CVSROOT/commitlog', and
any commits to the administrative files (inside the 'CVSROOT' directory)
are also logged in '/usr/adm/cvsroot-log'. Commits to the 'prog1'
directory are mailed to ceder.

ALL /usr/local/bin/cvs-log $CVSROOT/CVSROOT/commitlog $USER
^CVSROOT$/\|$$ /usr/local/bin/cvs-log /usr/adm/cvsroot-log $USER
^prog1$/\|$$ Mail -s "%p %s" ceder

The shell-script '/usr/local/bin/cvs-log' looks like this:

#!/bin/sh
(echo "------------------------------------------------------";
echo -n "$2 ";
date;
echo;
cat) >> $1

File: cvs.info, Node: Keeping a checked out copy, Prev: loginfo example, Up: loginfo

C.3.6.2 Keeping a checked out copy
..................................

It is often useful to maintain a directory tree which contains files
which correspond to the latest version in the repository. For example,
other developers might want to refer to the latest sources without
having to check them out, or you might be maintaining a web site with
CVS and want every checkin to cause the files used by the web server to
be updated.

The way to do this is by having loginfo invoke 'cvs update'. Doing
so in the naive way will cause a problem with locks, so the 'cvs update'
must be run in the background. Here is an example for unix (this should
all be on one line):

^cyclic-pages$/\|$$ (date; cat; (sleep 2; cd /u/www/local-docs;
cvs -q update -d) &) >> $CVSROOT/CVSROOT/updatelog 2>&1

This will cause checkins to repository directory 'cyclic-pages' and
its subdirectories to update the checked out tree in
'/u/www/local-docs'.

File: cvs.info, Node: postadmin, Next: taginfo, Prev: loginfo, Up: Trigger Scripts

C.3.7 Logging admin commands
----------------------------

The 'postadmin' file defines programs to execute after an 'admin'
command modifies files. The 'postadmin' file has the standard form for
script hooks (*note Trigger Scripts::), where each line is a regular
expression followed by a command to execute. It supports the ALL and
DEFAULT keywords.

The 'postadmin' file supports no format strings other than the common
ones (*note syntax::),

File: cvs.info, Node: taginfo, Next: posttag, Prev: postadmin, Up: Trigger Scripts

C.3.8 Taginfo
-------------

The 'taginfo' file defines programs to execute when someone executes a
'tag' or 'rtag' command. The 'taginfo' file has the standard form for
script hooks (*note Trigger Scripts::), where each line is a regular
expression followed by a command to execute. It supports the ALL and
DEFAULT keywords.

In addition to the common format strings (*note syntax::), 'taginfo'
supports:

b
tag type ('T' for branch, 'N' for not-branch, or '?' for unknown,
as during delete operations)
o
operation ('add' for 'tag', 'mov' for 'tag -F', or 'del' for 'tag
-d')
t
new tag name
{sTVv}
file attributes, where:
s
file name
T
tag name of destination, or the empty string when there is no
associated tag name (this usually means the trunk)
V
old version number (for a move or delete operation)
v
new version number (for an add or move operation)

For example, some valid format strings are '%%', '%p', '%t', '%s',
'%{s}', and '%{sVv}'.

Currently, if no format strings are specified, a default string of '
%t %o %p %{sv}' will be appended to the command line template before
replacement is performed, but this feature is deprecated. It is simply
in place so that legacy repositories will remain compatible with the new
CVS application. For information on updating, *note Updating Commit
Files::.

A non-zero exit of the filter program will cause the tag to be
aborted.

Here is an example of using 'taginfo' to log 'tag' and 'rtag'
commands. In the 'taginfo' file put:

ALL /usr/local/cvsroot/CVSROOT/loggit %t %b %o %p %{sVv}

Where '/usr/local/cvsroot/CVSROOT/loggit' contains the following script:

#!/bin/sh
echo "$@" >>/home/kingdon/cvsroot/CVSROOT/taglog

File: cvs.info, Node: posttag, Next: postwatch, Prev: taginfo, Up: Trigger Scripts

C.3.9 Logging tags
------------------

The 'posttag' file defines programs to execute after a 'tag' or 'rtag'
command modifies files. The 'posttag' file has the standard form for
script hooks (*note Trigger Scripts::), where each line is a regular
expression followed by a command to execute. It supports the ALL and
DEFAULT keywords.

The 'posttag' admin file supports the same format strings as the
'taginfo' file (*note taginfo::),

File: cvs.info, Node: postwatch, Next: preproxy, Prev: posttag, Up: Trigger Scripts

C.3.10 Logging watch commands
-----------------------------

The 'postwatch' file defines programs to execute after any command (for
instance, 'watch', 'edit', 'unedit', or 'commit') modifies any
'CVS/fileattr' file in the repository (*note Watches::). The
'postwatch' file has the standard form for script hooks (*note Trigger
Scripts::), where each line is a regular expression followed by a
command to execute. It supports the ALL and DEFAULT keywords.

The 'postwatch' file supports no format strings other than the common
ones (*note syntax::), but it is worth noting that the '%c' format
string may not be replaced as you might expect. Client runs of 'edit'
and 'unedit' can sometimes skip contacting the CVS server and cache the
notification of the file attribute change to be sent the next time the
client contacts the server for whatever other reason,

File: cvs.info, Node: preproxy, Next: postproxy, Prev: postwatch, Up: Trigger Scripts

C.3.11 Launch a Script before Proxying
--------------------------------------

The 'preproxy' file defines programs to execute after a secondary server
receives a write request from a client, just before it starts up the
primary server and becomes a write proxy. This hook could be used to
dial a modem, launch an SSH tunnel, establish a VPN, or anything else
that might be necessary to do before contacting the primary server.

'preproxy' scripts are called once, at the time of the write request,
with the repository argument (if requested) set from the topmost
directory sent by the client.

The 'preproxy' file has the standard form for script hooks (*note
Trigger Scripts::), where each line is a regular expression followed by
a command to execute. It supports the ALL and DEFAULT keywords.

In addition to the common format strings, the 'preproxy' file
supports the following format string:

P
the CVSROOT string which specifies the primary server

File: cvs.info, Node: postproxy, Prev: preproxy, Up: Trigger Scripts

C.3.12 Launch a Script after Proxying
-------------------------------------

The 'postproxy' file defines programs to execute after a secondary
server notes that the connection to the primary server has shut down and
before it releases the client by shutting down the connection to the
client. This could hook could be used to disconnect a modem, an SSH
tunnel, a VPN, or anything else that might be necessary to do after
contacting the primary server. This hook should also be used to pull
updates from the primary server before allowing the client which did the
write to disconnect since otherwise the client's next read request may
generate error messages and fail upon encountering an out of date
repository on the secondary server.

'postproxy' scripts are called once per directory.

The 'postproxy' file has the standard form for script hooks (*note
Trigger Scripts::), where each line is a regular expression followed by
a command to execute. It supports the ALL and DEFAULT keywords.

In addition to the common format strings, the 'postproxy' file
supports the following format string:

P
the CVSROOT string which specifies the primary server

File: cvs.info, Node: rcsinfo, Next: cvsignore, Prev: Trigger Scripts, Up: Administrative files

C.4 Rcsinfo
===========

The 'rcsinfo' file can be used to specify a form to edit when filling
out the commit log. The 'rcsinfo' file has a syntax similar to the
'verifymsg', 'commitinfo' and 'loginfo' files. *Note syntax::. Unlike
the other files the second part is _not_ a command-line template.
Instead, the part after the regular expression should be a full pathname
to a file containing the log message template.

If the repository name does not match any of the regular expressions
in this file, the 'DEFAULT' line is used, if it is specified.

All occurrences of the name 'ALL' appearing as a regular expression
are used in addition to the first matching regular expression or
'DEFAULT'.

The log message template will be used as a default log message. If
you specify a log message with 'cvs commit -m MESSAGE' or 'cvs commit -f
FILE' that log message will override the template.

*Note verifymsg::, for an example 'rcsinfo' file.

When CVS is accessing a remote repository, the contents of 'rcsinfo'
at the time a directory is first checked out will specify a template.
This template will be updated on all 'cvs update' commands. It will
also be added to new directories added with a 'cvs add new-directory'
command. In versions of CVS prior to version 1.12, the 'CVS/Template'
file was not updated. If the CVS server is at version 1.12 or higher an
older client may be used and the 'CVS/Template' will be updated from the
server.

File: cvs.info, Node: cvsignore, Next: checkoutlist, Prev: rcsinfo, Up: Administrative files

C.5 Ignoring files via cvsignore
================================

There are certain file names that frequently occur inside your working
copy, but that you don't want to put under CVS control. Examples are
all the object files that you get while you compile your sources.
Normally, when you run 'cvs update', it prints a line for each file it
encounters that it doesn't know about (*note update output::).

CVS has a list of files (or sh(1) file name patterns) that it should
ignore while running 'update', 'import' and 'release'. This list is
constructed in the following way.

* The list is initialised to include certain file name patterns:
names associated with CVS administration, or with other common
source control systems; common names for patch files, object files,
archive files, and editor backup files; and other names that are
usually artifacts of assorted utilities. Currently, the default
list of ignored file name patterns is:

RCS SCCS CVS CVS.adm
RCSLOG cvslog.*
tags TAGS
.make.state .nse_depinfo
*~ #* .#* ,* _$* *$
*.old *.bak *.BAK *.orig *.rej .del-*
*.a *.olb *.o *.obj *.so *.exe
*.Z *.elc *.ln
core

* The per-repository list in '$CVSROOT/CVSROOT/cvsignore' is appended
to the list, if that file exists.

* The per-user list in '.cvsignore' in your home directory is
appended to the list, if it exists.

* Any entries in the environment variable '$CVSIGNORE' is appended to
the list.

* Any '-I' options given to CVS is appended.

* As CVS traverses through your directories, the contents of any
'.cvsignore' will be appended to the list. The patterns found in
'.cvsignore' are only valid for the directory that contains them,
not for any sub-directories.

In any of the 5 places listed above, a single exclamation mark ('!')
clears the ignore list. This can be used if you want to store any file
which normally is ignored by CVS.

Specifying '-I !' to 'cvs import' will import everything, which is
generally what you want to do if you are importing files from a pristine
distribution or any other source which is known to not contain any
extraneous files. However, looking at the rules above you will see
there is a fly in the ointment; if the distribution contains any
'.cvsignore' files, then the patterns from those files will be processed
even if '-I !' is specified. The only workaround is to remove the
'.cvsignore' files in order to do the import. Because this is awkward,
in the future '-I !' might be modified to override '.cvsignore' files in
each directory.

Note that the syntax of the ignore files consists of a series of
lines, each of which contains a space separated list of filenames. This
offers no clean way to specify filenames which contain spaces, but you
can use a workaround like 'foo?bar' to match a file named 'foo bar' (it
also matches 'fooxbar' and the like). Also note that there is currently
no way to specify comments.

File: cvs.info, Node: checkoutlist, Next: history file, Prev: cvsignore, Up: Administrative files

C.6 The checkoutlist file
=========================

It may be helpful to use CVS to maintain your own files in the 'CVSROOT'
directory. For example, suppose that you have a script 'logcommit.pl'
which you run by including the following line in the 'commitinfo'
administrative file:

ALL $CVSROOT/CVSROOT/logcommit.pl %r/%p %s

To maintain 'logcommit.pl' with CVS you would add the following line
to the 'checkoutlist' administrative file:

logcommit.pl

The format of 'checkoutlist' is one line for each file that you want
to maintain using CVS, giving the name of the file, followed optionally
by more whitespace and any error message that should print if the file
cannot be checked out into CVSROOT after a commit:

logcommit.pl Could not update CVSROOT/logcommit.pl.

After setting up 'checkoutlist' in this fashion, the files listed
there will function just like CVS's built-in administrative files. For
example, when checking in one of the files you should get a message such
as:

cvs commit: Rebuilding administrative file database

and the checked out copy in the 'CVSROOT' directory should be updated.

Note that listing 'passwd' (*note Password authentication server::)
in 'checkoutlist' is not recommended for security reasons.

For information about keeping a checkout out copy in a more general
context than the one provided by 'checkoutlist', see *note Keeping a
checked out copy::.

File: cvs.info, Node: history file, Next: Variables, Prev: checkoutlist, Up: Administrative files

C.7 The history file
====================

By default, the file '$CVSROOT/CVSROOT/history' is used to log
information for the 'history' command (*note history::). This file name
may be changed with the 'HistoryLogPath' and 'HistorySearchPath' config
options (*note config::).

The file format of the 'history' file is documented only in comments
in the CVS source code, but generally programs should use the 'cvs
history' command to access it anyway, in case the format changes with
future releases of CVS.

File: cvs.info, Node: Variables, Next: config, Prev: history file, Up: Administrative files

C.8 Expansions in administrative files
======================================

Sometimes in writing an administrative file, you might want the file to
be able to know various things based on environment CVS is running in.
There are several mechanisms to do that.

To find the home directory of the user running CVS (from the 'HOME'
environment variable), use '~' followed by '/' or the end of the line.
Likewise for the home directory of USER, use '~USER'. These variables
are expanded on the server machine, and don't get any reasonable
expansion if pserver (*note Password authenticated::) is in use;
therefore user variables (see below) may be a better choice to customise
behavior based on the user running CVS.

One may want to know about various pieces of information internal to
CVS. A CVS internal variable has the syntax '${VARIABLE}', where
VARIABLE starts with a letter and consists of alphanumeric characters
and '_'. If the character following VARIABLE is a non-alphanumeric
character other than '_', the '{' and '}' can be omitted. The CVS
internal variables are:

'CVSROOT'
This is the absolute path to the current CVS root directory. *Note
Repository::, for a description of the various ways to specify
this, but note that the internal variable contains just the
directory and not any of the access method information.

'RCSBIN'
In CVS 1.9.18 and older, this specified the directory where CVS was
looking for RCS programs. Because CVS no longer runs RCS programs,
specifying this internal variable is now an error.

'CVSEDITOR'
'EDITOR'
'VISUAL'
These all expand to the same value, which is the editor that CVS is
using. *Note Global options::, for how to specify this.

'USER'
Username of the user running CVS (on the CVS server machine). When
using pserver, this is the user specified in the repository
specification which need not be the same as the username the server
is running as (*note Password authentication server::). Do not
confuse this with the environment variable of the same name.

'SESSIONID'
Unique Session ID of the CVS process. This is a random string of
printable characters of at least 16 characters length. Users
should assume that it may someday grow to at most 256 characters in
length.

'COMMITID'
Unique Session ID of the CVS process. This is a random string of
printable characters of at least 16 characters length. Users
should assume that it may someday grow to at most 256 characters in
length. Currently, Debian and MirBSD CVS uses 19 characters.

If you want to pass a value to the administrative files which the
user who is running CVS can specify, use a user variable. To expand a
user variable, the administrative file contains '${=VARIABLE}'. To set
a user variable, specify the global option '-s' to CVS, with argument
'VARIABLE=VALUE'. It may be particularly useful to specify this option
via '.cvsrc' (*note ~/.cvsrc::).

For example, if you want the administrative file to refer to a test
directory you might create a user variable 'TESTDIR'. Then if CVS is
invoked as

cvs -s TESTDIR=/work/local/tests

and the administrative file contains 'sh ${=TESTDIR}/runtests', then
that string is expanded to 'sh /work/local/tests/runtests'.

All other strings containing '$' are reserved; there is no way to
quote a '$' character so that '$' represents itself.

Environment variables passed to administrative files are:

'CVS_USER'
The CVS-specific username provided by the user, if it can be
provided (currently just for the pserver access method), and to the
empty string otherwise. ('CVS_USER' and 'USER' may differ when
'$CVSROOT/CVSROOT/passwd' is used to map CVS usernames to system
usernames.)

'LOGNAME'
The username of the system user.

'USER'
Same as 'LOGNAME'. Do not confuse this with the internal variable
of the same name.

File: cvs.info, Node: config, Prev: Variables, Up: Administrative files

C.9 The CVSROOT/config configuration file
=========================================

Usually, the 'config' file is found at '$CVSROOT/CVSROOT/config', but
this may be overridden on the 'pserver' and 'server' command lines
(*note server & pserver::).

The administrative file 'config' contains various miscellaneous
settings which affect the behavior of CVS. The syntax is slightly
different from the other administrative files.

Leading white space on any line is ignored, though the syntax is very
strict and will reject spaces and tabs almost anywhere else.

Empty lines, lines containing nothing but white space, and lines
which start with '#' (discounting any leading white space) are ignored.

Other lines consist of the optional leading white space, a keyword,
'=', and a value. Please note again that this syntax is very strict.
Extraneous spaces or tabs, other than the leading white space, are not
permitted on these lines.

As of CVS 1.12.13, lines of the form '[CVSROOT]' mark the subsequent
section of the config file as applying only to certain repositories.
Multiple '[CVSROOT]' lines without intervening 'KEYWORD=VALUE' pairs
cause processing to fall through, processing subsequent keywords for any
root in the list. Finally, keywords and values which appear before any
'[CVSROOT]' lines are defaults, and may to apply to any repository. For
example, consider the following file:

# Defaults
LogHistory=TMAR

[/cvsroots/team1]
LockDir=/locks/team1

[/cvsroots/team2]
LockDir=/locks/team2

[/cvsroots/team3]
LockDir=/locks/team3

[/cvsroots/team4]
LockDir=/locks/team4

[/cvsroots/team3]
[/cvsroots/team4]
# Override logged commands for teams 3 & 4.
LogHistory=all

This example file sets up separate lock directories for each project,
as well as a default set of logged commands overridden for the example's
team 3 & team 4. This syntax could be useful, for instance, if you
wished to share a single config file, for instance '/etc/cvs.conf',
among several repositories.

Currently defined keywords are:

'HistorySearchPath=PATTERN'
Request that CVS look for its history information in files matching
PATTERN, which is a standard UNIX file glob. If PATTERN matches
multiple files, all will be searched in lexicographically sorted
order. *Note history::, and *note history file::, for more.

If no value is supplied for this option, it defaults to
'$CVSROOT/CVSROOT/history'.

'HistoryLogPath=PATH'
Control where CVS logs its history. If the file does not exist,
CVS will attempt to create it. Format strings, as available to the
GNU C 'strftime' function and often the UNIX date command, and the
string $CVSROOT will be substituted in this path. For example,
consider the line:

HistoryLogPath=$CVSROOT/CVSROOT/history/%Y-%m-%d

This line would cause CVS to attempt to create its history file in
a subdirectory ('history') of the configuration directory
('CVSROOT') with a name equal to the current date representation in
the ISO8601 format (for example, on May 11, 2005, CVS would attempt
to log its history under the repository root directory in a file
named 'CVSROOT/history/2005-05-11'). *Note history::, and *note
history file::, for more.

If no value is supplied for this option, it defaults to
'$CVSROOT/CVSROOT/history'.

'ImportNewFilesToVendorBranchOnly=VALUE'
Specify whether 'cvs import' should always behave as if the '-X'
flag was specified on the command line. VALUE may be either 'yes'
or 'no'. If set to 'yes', all uses of 'cvs import' on the
repository will behave as if the '-X' flag was set. The default
value is 'no'.

'KeywordExpand=VALUE'
Specify 'i' followed by a list of keywords to be expanded (for
example, 'KeywordExpand=iMYCVS,Name,Date,Mdocdate'), or 'e'
followed by a list of keywords not to be expanded (for example,
'KeywordExpand=eCVSHeader'). For more on keyword expansion, see
*note Configuring keyword expansion::.

'LocalKeyword=VALUE'
Specify a local alias for a standard keyword. See *note Keyword
substitution:: for more information in local keywords. Example:
'LocalKeyword=MYCVS=CVSHeader'

'LockDir=DIRECTORY'
Put CVS lock files in DIRECTORY rather than directly in the
repository. This is useful if you want to let users read from the
repository while giving them write access only to DIRECTORY, not to
the repository. It can also be used to put the locks on a very
fast in-memory filesystem to speed up locking and unlocking the
repository. You need to create DIRECTORY, but CVS will create
subdirectories of DIRECTORY as it needs them. For information on
CVS locks, see *note Concurrency::.

Before enabling the LockDir option, make sure that you have tracked
down and removed any copies of CVS 1.9 or older. Such versions
neither support LockDir, nor will give an error indicating that
they don't support it. The result, if this is allowed to happen,
is that some CVS users will put the locks one place, and others
will put them another place, and therefore the repository could
become corrupted. CVS 1.10 does not support LockDir but it will
print a warning if run on a repository with LockDir enabled.

'LogHistory=VALUE'
Control what is logged to the 'CVSROOT/history' file (*note
history::). Default of 'TOEFWUPCGMAR' (or simply 'all') will log
all transactions. Any subset of the default is legal. (For
example, to only log transactions that modify the '*,v' files, use
'LogHistory=TMAR' which is nowadays set by 'cvs init' by default.)
To disable history logging completely, use 'LogHistory='.

'MaxCommentLeaderLength=LENGTH'
Set to some length, in bytes, where a trailing 'k', 'M', 'G', or
'T' causes the preceding nubmer to be interpreted as kilobytes,
megabytes, gigabytes, or terrabytes, respectively, will cause
'$Log$' keywords (*note Keyword substitution::), with more than
LENGTH bytes preceding it on a line to be ignored (or to fall back
on the comment leader set in the RCS archive file - see
'UseArchiveCommentLeader' below). Defaults to 20 bytes to allow
checkouts to proceed normally when they include binary files
containing '$Log$' keywords and which users have neglected to mark
as binary.

'MinCompressionLevel=VALUE'
'MaxCompressionLevel=VALUE'
Restricts the level of compression used by the CVS server to a
VALUE between 0 and 9. VALUEs 1 through 9 are the same ZLIB
compression levels accepted by the '-z' option (*note Global
options::), and 0 means no compression. When one or both of these
keys are set and a client requests a level outside the specified
range, the server will simply use the closest permissable level.
Clients will continue compressing at the level requested by the
user.

The exception is when level 0 (no compression) is not available and
the client fails to request any compression. The CVS server will
then exit with an error message when it becomes apparent that the
client is not going to request compression. This will not happen
with clients version 1.12.13 and later since these client versions
allow the server to notify them that they must request some level
of compression.

'PrimaryServer=CVSROOT'
When specified, and the repository specified by CVSROOT is not the
one currently being accessed, then the server will turn itself into
a transparent proxy to CVSROOT for write requests. The HOSTNAME
configured as part of CVSROOT must resolve to the same string
returned by the 'uname' command on the primary server for this to
work. Host name resolution is performed via some combination of
'named', a broken out line from '/etc/hosts', and the Network
Information Service (NIS or YP), depending on the configuration of
the particular system.

Only the ':ext:' method is currently supported for primaries
(actually, ':fork:' is supported as well, but only for testing - if
you find another use for accessing a primary via the ':fork:'
method, please send a note to <bug-cvs AT nongnu.org> about it). See
*note Write proxies:: for more on configuring and using write
proxies.

'RCSBIN=BINDIR'
For CVS 1.9.12 through 1.9.18, this setting told CVS to look for
RCS programs in the BINDIR directory. Current versions of CVS do
not run RCS programs; for compatibility this setting is accepted,
but it does nothing.

'RereadLogAfterVerify=VALUE'
Modify the 'commit' command such that CVS will reread the log
message after running the program specified by 'verifymsg'. VALUE
may be one of 'yes' or 'always', indicating that the log message
should always be reread; 'no' or 'never', indicating that it should
never be reread; or VALUE may be 'stat', indicating that the file
should be checked with the filesystem 'stat()' function to see if
it has changed (see warning below) before rereading. The default
value is 'always'.

_Note: the 'stat' mode can cause CVS to pause for up to one extra
second per directory committed. This can be less IO and CPU
intensive but is not recommended for use with large repositories_

*Note verifymsg::, for more information on how verifymsg may be
used.

'SystemAuth=VALUE'
If VALUE is 'yes', then pserver should check for users in the
system's user database if not found in 'CVSROOT/passwd'. If it is
'no', then all pserver users must exist in 'CVSROOT/passwd'. The
default is 'yes'. For more on pserver, see *note Password
authenticated::.

'TmpDir=PATH'
Specify PATH as the directory to create temporary files in. *Note
Global options::, for more on setting the path to the temporary
directory. This option first appeared with CVS release 1.12.13.

'TopLevelAdmin=VALUE'
Modify the 'checkout' command to create a 'CVS' directory at the
top level of the new working directory, in addition to 'CVS'
directories created within checked-out directories. The default
value is 'no'.

This option is useful if you find yourself performing many commands
at the top level of your working directory, rather than in one of
the checked out subdirectories. The 'CVS' directory created there
will mean you don't have to specify 'CVSROOT' for each command. It
also provides a place for the 'CVS/Template' file (*note Working
directory storage::).

'UseArchiveCommentLeader=VALUE'
Set to 'true', if the text preceding a '$Log$' keyword is found to
exceed 'MaxCommentLeaderLength' (above) bytes, then the comment
leader set in the RCS archive file (*note admin::), if any, will be
used instead. If there is no comment leader set in the archive
file or VALUE is set to 'false', then the keyword will not be
expanded (*note Keyword list::). To force the comment leader in
the RCS archive file to be used exclusively (and '$Log$' expansion
skipped in files where the comment leader has not been set in the
archive file), set VALUE and set 'MaxCommentLeaderLength' to '0'.

'UseNewInfoFmtStrings=VALUE'
Specify whether CVS should support the new or old command line
template model for the commit support files (*note commit files::).
This configuration variable began life in deprecation and is only
here in order to give people time to update legacy repositories to
use the new format string syntax before support for the old syntax
is removed. For information on updating your repository to support
the new model, please see *note Updating Commit Files::.

_Note that new repositories (created with the 'cvs init' command)
will have this value set to 'yes', but the default value is 'no'._

'UserAdminOptions=VALUE'
Control what options will be allowed with the 'cvs admin' command
(*note admin::) for users not in the 'cvsadmin' group. The VALUE
string is a list of single character options which should be
allowed. If a user who is not a member of the 'cvsadmin' group
tries to execute any 'cvs admin' option which is not listed they
will will receive an error message reporting that the option is
restricted.

If no 'cvsadmin' group exists on the server, CVS will ignore the
'UserAdminOptions' keyword (*note admin::).

When not specified, 'UserAdminOptions' defaults to 'k'. In other
words, it defaults to allowing users outside of the 'cvsadmin'
group to use the 'cvs admin' command only to change the default
keyword expansion mode for files.

As an example, to restrict users not in the 'cvsadmin' group to
using 'cvs admin' to change the default keyword substitution mode,
lock revisions, unlock revisions, and replace the log message, use
'UserAdminOptions=klum'.

File: cvs.info, Node: Environment variables, Next: Compatibility, Prev: Administrative files, Up: Top

Appendix D All environment variables which affect CVS
*****************************************************

This is a complete list of all environment variables that affect CVS
(Windows users, please bear with this list; $VAR is equivalent to %VAR%
at the Windows command prompt).

'$CVSIGNORE'
A whitespace-separated list of file name patterns that CVS should
ignore. *Note cvsignore::.

'$CVSWRAPPERS'
A whitespace-separated list of file name patterns that CVS should
treat as wrappers. *Note Wrappers::.

'$CVSREAD'
If this is set, 'checkout' and 'update' will try hard to make the
files in your working directory read-only. When this is not set,
the default behavior is to permit modification of your working
files.

'$CVSREADONLYFS'
Turns on read-only repository mode. This allows one to check out
from a read-only repository, such as within an anoncvs server, or
from a CD-ROM repository.

Setting this has the same effect as if the '-R' command-line option
is used. This can also allow the use of read-only NFS
repositories.

'$CVSUMASK'
Controls permissions of files in the repository. See *note File
permissions::.

'$CVSROOT'
Should contain the full pathname to the root of the CVS source
repository (where the RCS files are kept). This information must
be available to CVS for most commands to execute; if '$CVSROOT' is
not set, or if you wish to override it for one invocation, you can
supply it on the command line: 'cvs -d cvsroot cvs_command...' Once
you have checked out a working directory, CVS stores the
appropriate root (in the file 'CVS/Root'), so normally you only
need to worry about this when initially checking out a working
directory.

'$CVSEDITOR'
'$EDITOR'
'$VISUAL'
Specifies the program to use for recording log messages during
commit. '$CVSEDITOR' overrides '$EDITOR', which overrides
'$VISUAL'. See *note Committing your changes:: for more or *note
Global options:: for alternative ways of specifying a log editor.

'$PATH'
If '$RCSBIN' is not set, and no path is compiled into CVS, it will
use '$PATH' to try to find all programs it uses.

'$HOME'
'$HOMEPATH'
'$HOMEDRIVE'
Used to locate the directory where the '.cvsrc' file, and other
such files, are searched. On Unix, CVS just checks for 'HOME'. On
Windows NT, the system will set 'HOMEDRIVE', for example to 'd:'
and 'HOMEPATH', for example to '\joe'. On Windows 95, you'll
probably need to set 'HOMEDRIVE' and 'HOMEPATH' yourself.

'$CVS_RSH'
Specifies the external program which CVS connects with, when
':ext:' access method is specified. *note Connecting via rsh::.

'$CVS_SERVER'
Used in client-server mode when accessing a remote repository using
RSH. It specifies the name of the program to start on the server
side (and any necessary arguments) when accessing a remote
repository using the ':ext:', ':fork:', or ':server:' access
methods. The default value for ':ext:' and ':server:' is 'cvs';
the default value for ':fork:' is the name used to run the client.
*note Connecting via rsh::

'$CVS_PASSFILE'
Used in client-server mode when accessing the 'cvs login server'.
Default value is '$HOME/.cvspass'. *note Password authentication
client::

'$CVS_CLIENT_PORT'
Used in client-server mode to set the port to use when accessing
the server via Kerberos, GSSAPI, or CVS's password authentication
protocol if the port is not specified in the CVSROOT. *note Remote
repositories::

'$CVS_PROXY_PORT'
Used in client-server mode to set the port to use when accessing a
server via a web proxy, if the port is not specified in the
CVSROOT. Works with GSSAPI, and the password authentication
protocol. *note Remote repositories::

'$CVS_RCMD_PORT'
Used in client-server mode. If set, specifies the port number to
be used when accessing the RCMD demon on the server side.
(Currently not used for Unix clients).

'$CVS_CLIENT_LOG'
Used for debugging only in client-server mode. If set and not
empty, everything sent to the server is logged into
'$CVS_CLIENT_LOG.in', and everything received from the server is
logged into '$CVS_CLIENT_LOG.out'.

'$CVS_SECONDARY_LOG'
Used for debugging only in secondary write proxy mode. If set and
not empty, everything sent to the primary server is logged into
'$CVS_SECONDARY_LOG.in', and everything received from the primary
server is logged into '$CVS_SECONDARY_LOG.out'.

'$CVS_SERVER_LOG'
Used for debugging only in client-server mode. If set and not
empty, everything sent to the client is logged into
'$CVS_SERVER_LOG.in', and everything received from the client is
logged into '$CVS_SERVER_LOG.out'.

'$CVS_SERVER_SLEEP'
Used only for debugging the server side in client-server mode. If
set, delays the start of the server child process the specified
amount of seconds so that you can attach to it with a debugger.

'$CVS_IGNORE_REMOTE_ROOT'
For CVS 1.10 and older, setting this variable prevents CVS from
overwriting the 'CVS/Root' file when the '-d' global option is
specified. Later versions of CVS do not rewrite 'CVS/Root', so
'CVS_IGNORE_REMOTE_ROOT' has no effect.

'$CVS_LOCAL_BRANCH_NUM'
Setting this variable allows some control over the branch number
that is assigned. This is specifically to support the local commit
feature of CVSup. If one sets 'CVS_LOCAL_BRANCH_NUM' to (say) 1000
then branches the local repository, the revision numbers will look
like 1.66.1000.xx. There is almost a dead-set certainty that there
will be no conflicts with version numbers.

'$COMSPEC'
Used under OS/2 only. It specifies the name of the command
interpreter and defaults to CMD.EXE.

'$TMPDIR'
Directory in which temporary files are located. *Note Global
options::, for more on setting the temporary directory.

'$CVS_PID'
This is the process identification (aka pid) number of the CVS
process. It is often useful in the programs and/or scripts
specified by the 'commitinfo', 'verifymsg', 'loginfo' files.

File: cvs.info, Node: Compatibility, Next: Troubleshooting, Prev: Environment variables, Up: Top

Appendix E Compatibility between CVS Versions
*********************************************

The repository format is compatible going back to CVS 1.3. But see
*note Watches Compatibility::, if you have copies of CVS 1.6 or older
and you want to use the optional developer communication features.

The working directory format is compatible going back to CVS 1.5. It
did change between CVS 1.3 and CVS 1.5. If you run CVS 1.5 or newer on
a working directory checked out with CVS 1.3, CVS will convert it, but
to go back to CVS 1.3 you need to check out a new working directory with
CVS 1.3.

The remote protocol is interoperable going back to CVS 1.5, but no
further (1.5 was the first official release with the remote protocol,
but some older versions might still be floating around). In many cases
you need to upgrade both the client and the server to take advantage of
new features and bug fixes, however.

File: cvs.info, Node: Troubleshooting, Next: Credits, Prev: Compatibility, Up: Top

Appendix F Troubleshooting
**************************

If you are having trouble with CVS, this appendix may help. If there is
a particular error message which you are seeing, then you can look up
the message alphabetically. If not, you can look through the section on
other problems to see if your problem is mentioned there.

* Menu:

* Error messages:: Partial list of CVS errors
* Connection:: Trouble making a connection to a CVS server
* Other problems:: Problems not readily listed by error message

File: cvs.info, Node: Error messages, Next: Connection, Up: Troubleshooting

F.1 Partial list of error messages
==================================

Here is a partial list of error messages that you may see from CVS. It
is not a complete list--CVS is capable of printing many, many error
messages, often with parts of them supplied by the operating system, but
the intention is to list the common and/or potentially confusing error
messages.

The messages are alphabetical, but introductory text such as 'cvs
update: ' is not considered in ordering them.

In some cases the list includes messages printed by old versions of
CVS (partly because users may not be sure which version of CVS they are
using at any particular moment).

'FILE:LINE: Assertion 'TEXT' failed'
The exact format of this message may vary depending on your system.
It indicates a bug in CVS, which can be handled as described in
*note BUGS::.

'cvs COMMAND: authorization failed: server HOST rejected access'
This is a generic response when trying to connect to a pserver
server which chooses not to provide a specific reason for denying
authorization. Check that the username and password specified are
correct and that the 'CVSROOT' specified is allowed by
'--allow-root' or '--allow-root-regexp' in 'inetd.conf'. See *note
Password authenticated::.

'cvs COMMAND: conflict: removed FILE was modified by second party'
This message indicates that you removed a file, and someone else
modified it. To resolve the conflict, first run 'cvs add FILE'.
If desired, look at the other party's modification to decide
whether you still want to remove it. If you don't want to remove
it, stop here. If you do want to remove it, proceed with 'cvs
remove FILE' and commit your removal.

'cannot change permissions on temporary directory'
Operation not permitted
This message has been happening in a non-reproducible, occasional
way when we run the client/server testsuite, both on Red Hat Linux
3.0.3 and 4.1. We haven't been able to figure out what causes it,
nor is it known whether it is specific to Linux (or even to this
particular machine!). If the problem does occur on other unices,
'Operation not permitted' would be likely to read 'Not owner' or
whatever the system in question uses for the unix 'EPERM' error.
If you have any information to add, please let us know as described
in *note BUGS::. If you experience this error while using CVS,
retrying the operation which produced it should work fine.

'cvs [server aborted]: Cannot check out files into the repository itself'
The obvious cause for this message (especially for
non-client/server CVS) is that the CVS root is, for example,
'/usr/local/cvsroot' and you try to check out files when you are in
a subdirectory, such as '/usr/local/cvsroot/test'. However, there
is a more subtle cause, which is that the temporary directory on
the server is set to a subdirectory of the root (which is also not
allowed). If this is the problem, set the temporary directory to
somewhere else, for example '/var/tmp'; see 'TMPDIR' in *note
Environment variables::, for how to set the temporary directory.

'cannot commit files as 'root''
See ''root' is not allowed to commit files'.

'cannot open CVS/Entries for reading: No such file or directory'
This generally indicates a CVS internal error, and can be handled
as with other CVS bugs (*note BUGS::). Usually there is a
workaround--the exact nature of which would depend on the situation
but which hopefully could be figured out.

'cvs [init aborted]: cannot open CVS/Root: No such file or directory'
This message is harmless. Provided it is not accompanied by other
errors, the operation has completed successfully. This message
should not occur with current versions of CVS, but it is documented
here for the benefit of CVS 1.9 and older.

'cvs server: cannot open /root/.cvsignore: Permission denied'
'cvs [server aborted]: can't chdir(/root): Permission denied'
See *note Connection::.

'cvs [checkout aborted]: cannot rename file FILE to CVS/,,FILE: Invalid argument'
This message has been reported as intermittently happening with CVS
1.9 on Solaris 2.5. The cause is unknown; if you know more about
what causes it, let us know as described in *note BUGS::.

'cvs [COMMAND aborted]: cannot start server via rcmd'
This, unfortunately, is a rather nonspecific error message which
CVS 1.9 will print if you are running the CVS client and it is
having trouble connecting to the server. Current versions of CVS
should print a much more specific error message. If you get this
message when you didn't mean to run the client at all, you probably
forgot to specify ':local:', as described in *note Repository::.

'ci: FILE,v: bad diff output line: Binary files - and /tmp/T2a22651 differ'
CVS 1.9 and older will print this message when trying to check in a
binary file if RCS is not correctly installed. Re-read the
instructions that came with your RCS distribution and the INSTALL
file in the CVS distribution. Alternately, upgrade to a current
version of CVS, which checks in files itself rather than via RCS.

'cvs checkout: could not check out FILE'
With CVS 1.9, this can mean that the 'co' program (part of RCS)
returned a failure. It should be preceded by another error
message, however it has been observed without another error message
and the cause is not well-understood. With the current version of
CVS, which does not run 'co', if this message occurs without
another error message, it is definitely a CVS bug (*note BUGS::).

'cvs [login aborted]: could not find out home directory'
This means that you need to set the environment variables that CVS
uses to locate your home directory. See the discussion of 'HOME',
'HOMEDRIVE', and 'HOMEPATH' in *note Environment variables::.

'cvs update: could not merge revision REV of FILE: No such file or directory'
CVS 1.9 and older will print this message if there was a problem
finding the 'rcsmerge' program. Make sure that it is in your
'PATH', or upgrade to a current version of CVS, which does not
require an external 'rcsmerge' program.

'cvs [update aborted]: could not patch FILE: No such file or directory'
This means that there was a problem finding the 'patch' program.
Make sure that it is in your 'PATH'. Note that despite appearances
the message is _not_ referring to whether it can find FILE. If
both the client and the server are running a current version of
CVS, then there is no need for an external patch program and you
should not see this message. But if either client or server is
running CVS 1.9, then you need 'patch'.

'cvs update: could not patch FILE; will refetch'
This means that for whatever reason the client was unable to apply
a patch that the server sent. The message is nothing to be
concerned about, because inability to apply the patch only slows
things down and has no effect on what CVS does.

'dying gasps from SERVER unexpected'
There is a known bug in the server for CVS 1.9.18 and older which
can cause this. For me, this was reproducible if I used the '-t'
global option. It was fixed by Andy Piper's 14 Nov 1997 change to
src/filesubr.c, if anyone is curious. If you see the message, you
probably can just retry the operation which failed, or if you have
discovered information concerning its cause, please let us know as
described in *note BUGS::.

'end of file from server (consult above messages if any)'
The most common cause for this message is if you are using an
external 'rsh' program and it exited with an error. In this case
the 'rsh' program should have printed a message, which will appear
before the above message. For more information on setting up a CVS
client and server, see *note Remote repositories::.

'cvs [update aborted]: EOF in key in RCS file FILE,v'
'cvs [checkout aborted]: EOF while looking for end of string in RCS file FILE,v'
This means that there is a syntax error in the given RCS file.
Note that this might be true even if RCS can read the file OK; CVS
does more error checking of errors in the RCS file. That is why
you may see this message when upgrading from CVS 1.9 to CVS 1.10.
The likely cause for the original corruption is hardware, the
operating system, or the like. Of course, if you find a case in
which CVS seems to corrupting the file, by all means report it,
(*note BUGS::). There are quite a few variations of this error
message, depending on exactly where in the RCS file CVS finds the
syntax error.

'cvs commit: Executing 'mkmodules''
This means that your repository is set up for a version of CVS
prior to CVS 1.8. When using CVS 1.8 or later, the above message
will be preceded by

cvs commit: Rebuilding administrative file database

If you see both messages, the database is being rebuilt twice,
which is unnecessary but harmless. If you wish to avoid the
duplication, and you have no versions of CVS 1.7 or earlier in use,
remove '-i mkmodules' every place it appears in your 'modules'
file. For more information on the 'modules' file, see *note
modules::.

'missing author'
Typically this can happen if you created an RCS file with your
username set to empty. CVS will, bogusly, create an illegal RCS
file with no value for the author field. The solution is to make
sure your username is set to a non-empty value and re-create the
RCS file.

'cvs [checkout aborted]: no such tag TAG'
This message means that CVS isn't familiar with the tag TAG.
Usually the root cause is that you have mistyped a tag name.
Ocassionally this can also occur because the users creating tags do
not have permissions to write to the 'CVSROOT/val-tags' file (*note
File permissions::, for more).

Prior to CVS version 1.12.10, there were a few relatively obscure
cases where a given tag could be created in an archive file in the
repository but CVS would require the user to try a few other CVS
commands involving that tag until one was found whch caused CVS to
update the 'val-tags' file, at which point the originally failing
command would begin to work. This same method can be used to
repair a 'val-tags' file that becomes out of date due to the
permissions problem mentioned above. This updating is only
required once per tag - once a tag is listed in 'val-tags', it
stays there.

Note that using 'tag -f' to not require tag matches did not and
does not override this check (*note Common options::).

'*PANIC* administration files missing'
This typically means that there is a directory named CVS but it
does not contain the administrative files which CVS puts in a CVS
directory. If the problem is that you created a CVS directory via
some mechanism other than CVS, then the answer is simple, use a
name other than CVS. If not, it indicates a CVS bug (*note
BUGS::).

'rcs error: Unknown option: -x,v/'
This message will be followed by a usage message for RCS. It means
that you have an old version of RCS (probably supplied with your
operating system), as well as an old version of CVS. CVS 1.9.18
and earlier only work with RCS version 5 and later; current
versions of CVS do not run RCS programs.

'cvs [server aborted]: received broken pipe signal'
This message can be caused by a loginfo program that fails to read
all of the log information from its standard input. If you find it
happening in any other circumstances, please let us know as
described in *note BUGS::.

''root' is not allowed to commit files'
When committing a permanent change, CVS makes a log entry of who
committed the change. If you are committing the change logged in
as "root" (not under "su" or other root-priv giving program), CVS
cannot determine who is actually making the change. As such, by
default, CVS disallows changes to be committed by users logged in
as "root". (You can disable this option by passing the
'--enable-rootcommit' option to 'configure' and recompiling CVS.
On some systems this means editing the appropriate 'config.h' file
before building CVS.)

'cvs [server aborted]: Secondary out of sync with primary!'

This usually means that the version of CVS running on a secondary
server is incompatible with the version running on the primary
server (*note Write proxies::). This will not occur if the client
supports redirection.

It is not the version number that is significant here, but the list
of supported requests that the servers provide to the client. For
example, even if both servers were the same version, if the
secondary was compiled with GSSAPI support and the primary was not,
the list of supported requests provided by the two servers would be
different and the secondary would not work as a transparent proxy
to the primary. Conversely, even if the two servers were radically
different versions but both provided the same list of valid
requests to the client, the transparent proxy would succeed.

'Terminated with fatal signal 11'
This message usually indicates that CVS (the server, if you're
using client/server mode) has run out of (virtual) memory.
Although CVS tries to catch the error and issue a more meaningful
message, there are many circumstances where that is not possible.
If you appear to have lots of memory available to the system, the
problem is most likely that you're running into a system-wide limit
on the amount of memory a single process can use or a similar
process-specific limit. The mechanisms for displaying and setting
such limits vary from system to system, so you'll have to consult
an expert for your particular system if you don't know how to do
that.

'Too many arguments!'
This message is typically printed by the 'log.pl' script which is
in the 'contrib' directory in the CVS source distribution. In some
versions of CVS, 'log.pl' has been part of the default CVS
installation. The 'log.pl' script gets called from the 'loginfo'
administrative file. Check that the arguments passed in 'loginfo'
match what your version of 'log.pl' expects. In particular, the
'log.pl' from CVS 1.3 and older expects the log file as an argument
whereas the 'log.pl' from CVS 1.5 and newer expects the log file to
be specified with a '-f' option. Of course, if you don't need
'log.pl' you can just comment it out of 'loginfo'.

'cvs [update aborted]: unexpected EOF reading FILE,v'
See 'EOF in key in RCS file'.

'cvs [login aborted]: unrecognized auth response from SERVER'
This message typically means that the server is not set up
properly. For example, if 'inetd.conf' points to a nonexistent cvs
executable. To debug it further, find the log file which inetd
writes ('/var/log/messages' or whatever inetd uses on your system).
For details, see *note Connection::, and *note Password
authentication server::.

'cvs commit: Up-to-date check failed for `FILE''
This means that someone else has committed a change to that file
since the last time that you did a 'cvs update'. So before
proceeding with your 'cvs commit' you need to 'cvs update'. CVS
will merge the changes that you made and the changes that the other
person made. If it does not detect any conflicts it will report 'M
FILE' and you are ready to 'cvs commit'. If it detects conflicts
it will print a message saying so, will report 'C FILE', and you
need to manually resolve the conflict. For more details on this
process see *note Conflicts example::.

'Usage: diff3 [-exEX3 [-i | -m] [-L label1 -L label3]] file1 file2 file3'
Only one of [exEX3] allowed
This indicates a problem with the installation of 'diff3' and
'rcsmerge'. Specifically 'rcsmerge' was compiled to look for GNU
diff3, but it is finding unix diff3 instead. The exact text of the
message will vary depending on the system. The simplest solution
is to upgrade to a current version of CVS, which does not rely on
external 'rcsmerge' or 'diff3' programs.

'warning: unrecognized response `TEXT' from cvs server'
If TEXT contains a valid response (such as 'ok') followed by an
extra carriage return character (on many systems this will cause
the second part of the message to overwrite the first part), then
it probably means that you are using the ':ext:' access method with
a version of rsh, such as most non-unix rsh versions, which does
not by default provide a transparent data stream. In such cases
you probably want to try ':server:' instead of ':ext:'. If TEXT is
something else, this may signify a problem with your CVS server.
Double-check your installation against the instructions for setting
up the CVS server.

'cvs commit: [TIME] waiting for USER's lock in DIRECTORY'
This is a normal message, not an error. See *note Concurrency::,
for more details.

'cvs commit: warning: editor session failed'
This means that the editor which CVS is using exits with a nonzero
exit status. Some versions of vi will do this even when there was
not a problem editing the file. If so, point the 'CVSEDITOR'
environment variable to a small script such as:

#!/bin/sh
vi $*
exit 0

'cvs update: warning: FILE was lost'
This means that the working copy of FILE has been deleted but it
has not been removed from CVS. This is nothing to be concerned
about, the update will just recreate the local file from the
repository. (This is a convenient way to discard local changes to
a file: just delete it and then run 'cvs update'.)

'cvs update: warning: FILE is not (any longer) pertinent'
This means that the working copy of FILE has been deleted, it has
not been removed from CVS in the current working directory, but it
has been removed from CVS in some other working directory. This is
nothing to be concerned about, the update would have removed the
local file anyway.

File: cvs.info, Node: Connection, Next: Other problems, Prev: Error messages, Up: Troubleshooting

F.2 Trouble making a connection to a CVS server
===============================================

This section concerns what to do if you are having trouble making a
connection to a CVS server. If you are running the CVS command line
client running on Windows, first upgrade the client to CVS 1.9.12 or
later. The error reporting in earlier versions provided much less
information about what the problem was. If the client is non-Windows,
CVS 1.9 should be fine.

If the error messages are not sufficient to track down the problem,
the next steps depend largely on which access method you are using.

':ext:'
Try running the rsh program from the command line. For example:
"rsh servername cvs -v" should print CVS version information. If
this doesn't work, you need to fix it before you can worry about
CVS problems.

':server:'
You don't need a command line rsh program to use this access
method, but if you have an rsh program around, it may be useful as
a debugging tool. Follow the directions given for :ext:.

':pserver:'
Errors along the lines of "connection refused" typically indicate
that inetd isn't even listening for connections on port 2401
whereas errors like "connection reset by peer", "received broken
pipe signal", "recv() from server: EOF", or "end of file from
server" typically indicate that inetd is listening for connections
but is unable to start CVS (this is frequently caused by having an
incorrect path in 'inetd.conf' or by firewall software rejecting
the connection). "unrecognized auth response" errors are caused by
a bad command line in 'inetd.conf', typically an invalid option or
forgetting to put the 'pserver' command at the end of the line.
Another less common problem is invisible control characters that
your editor "helpfully" added without you noticing.

One good debugging tool is to "telnet servername 2401". After
connecting, send any text (for example "foo" followed by return).
If CVS is working correctly, it will respond with

cvs [pserver aborted]: bad auth protocol start: foo

If instead you get:

Usage: cvs [cvs-options] command [command-options-and-arguments]
...

then you're missing the 'pserver' command at the end of the line in
'inetd.conf'; check to make sure that the entire command is on one
line and that it's complete.

Likewise, if you get something like:

Unknown command: `pserved'

CVS commands are:
add Add a new file/directory to the repository
...

then you've misspelled 'pserver' in some way. If it isn't obvious,
check for invisible control characters (particularly carriage
returns) in 'inetd.conf'.

If it fails to work at all, then make sure inetd is working right.
Change the invocation in 'inetd.conf' to run the echo program
instead of cvs. For example:

2401 stream tcp nowait root /bin/echo echo hello

After making that change and instructing inetd to re-read its
configuration file, "telnet servername 2401" should show you the
text hello and then the server should close the connection. If
this doesn't work, you need to fix it before you can worry about
CVS problems.

On AIX systems, the system will often have its own program trying
to use port 2401. This is AIX's problem in the sense that port
2401 is registered for use with CVS. I hear that there is an AIX
patch available to address this problem.

Another good debugging tool is the '-d' (debugging) option to
inetd. Consult your system documentation for more information.

If you seem to be connecting but get errors like:

cvs server: cannot open /root/.cvsignore: Permission denied
cvs [server aborted]: can't chdir(/root): Permission denied

then you probably haven't specified '-f' in 'inetd.conf'. (In
releases prior to CVS 1.11.1, this problem can be caused by your
system setting the '$HOME' environment variable for programs being
run by inetd. In this case, you can either have inetd run a shell
script that unsets '$HOME' and then runs CVS, or you can use 'env'
to run CVS with a pristine environment.)

If you can connect successfully for a while but then can't, you've
probably hit inetd's rate limit. (If inetd receives too many
requests for the same service in a short period of time, it assumes
that something is wrong and temporarily disables the service.)
Check your inetd documentation to find out how to adjust the rate
limit (some versions of inetd have a single rate limit, others
allow you to set the limit for each service separately.)

File: cvs.info, Node: Other problems, Prev: Connection, Up: Troubleshooting

F.3 Other common problems
=========================

Here is a list of problems which do not fit into the above categories.
They are in no particular order.

* On Windows, if there is a 30 second or so delay when you run a CVS
command, it may mean that you have your home directory set to
'C:/', for example (see 'HOMEDRIVE' and 'HOMEPATH' in *note
Environment variables::). CVS expects the home directory to not
end in a slash, for example 'C:' or 'C:\cvs'.

* If you are running CVS 1.9.18 or older, and 'cvs update' finds a
conflict and tries to merge, as described in *note Conflicts
example::, but doesn't tell you there were conflicts, then you may
have an old version of RCS. The easiest solution probably is to
upgrade to a current version of CVS, which does not rely on
external RCS programs.

File: cvs.info, Node: Credits, Next: BUGS, Prev: Troubleshooting, Up: Top

Appendix G Credits
******************

Roland Pesch, then of Cygnus Support <roland AT wrs.com> wrote the manual
pages which were distributed with CVS 1.3. Much of their text was
copied into this manual. He also read an early draft of this manual and
contributed many ideas and corrections.

The mailing-list 'info-cvs' is sometimes informative. I have
included information from postings made by the following persons: David
G. Grubbs <dgg AT think.com>.

Some text has been extracted from the man pages for RCS.

The CVS FAQ by David G. Grubbs has provided useful material. The FAQ
is no longer maintained, however, and this manual is about the closest
thing there is to a successor (with respect to documenting how to use
CVS, at least).

In addition, the following persons have helped by telling me about
mistakes I've made:

Roxanne Brunskill <rbrunski AT datap.ca>,
Kathy Dyer <dyer AT phoenix.gov>,
Karl Pingle <pingle AT acuson.com>,
Thomas A Peterson <tap AT src.com>,
Inge Wallin <ingwa AT signum.se>,
Dirk Koschuetzki <koschuet AT fmi.de>
and Michael Brown <brown AT wi.com>.

The list of contributors here is not comprehensive; for a more
complete list of who has contributed to this manual see the file
'doc/ChangeLog' in the CVS source distribution.

MirBSD is the de-facto (if not de-iure yet) new upstream of GNU CVS
since 2012 or so; this version is provided in Debian as well.
Responsible is:

mirabilos <m AT mirbsd.org>

CVS Homepage: <http://www.nongnu.org/cvs/>

File: cvs.info, Node: BUGS, Next: CVS command list, Prev: Credits, Up: Top

Appendix H Dealing with bugs in CVS or this manual
**************************************************

Neither CVS nor this manual is perfect, and they probably never will be.
If you are having trouble using CVS, or think you have found a bug,
there are a number of things you can do about it. Note that if the
manual is unclear, that can be considered a bug in the manual, so these
problems are often worth doing something about as well as problems with
CVS itself.

* If you want someone to help you and fix bugs that you report, there
are companies which will do that for a fee. One such company is:

Ximbiot
319 S. River St.
Harrisburg, PA 17104-1657
USA
Email: info AT ximbiot.com
Phone: (717) 579-6168
Fax: (717) 234-3125
<http://ximbiot.com/>

* If you got CVS through a distributor, such as an operating system
vendor or a vendor of freeware CD-ROMs, you may wish to see whether
the distributor provides support. Often, they will provide no
support or minimal support, but this may vary from distributor to
distributor.

* If you have the skills and time to do so, you may wish to fix the
bug yourself. If you wish to submit your fix for inclusion in
future releases of CVS, see the file HACKING in the CVS source
distribution. It contains much more information on the process of
submitting fixes.

* There may be resources on the net which can help. A good place to
start is:

<http://cvs.nongnu.org/>

If you are so inspired, increasing the information available on the
net is likely to be appreciated. For example, before the standard
CVS distribution worked on Windows 95, there was a web page with
some explanation and patches for running CVS on Windows 95, and
various people helped out by mentioning this page on mailing lists
or newsgroups when the subject came up.

* It is also possible to report bugs to <bug-cvs AT nongnu.org>. Note
that someone may or may not want to do anything with your bug
report--if you need a solution consider one of the options
mentioned above. People probably do want to hear about bugs which
are particularly severe in consequences and/or easy to fix,
however. You can also increase your odds by being as clear as
possible about the exact nature of the bug and any other relevant
information. The way to report bugs is to send email to
<bug-cvs AT nongnu.org>. Note that submissions to
<bug-cvs AT nongnu.org> may be distributed under the terms of the GNU
General Public License, so if you don't like this, don't submit
them. There is usually no justification for sending mail directly
to one of the CVS maintainers rather than to <bug-cvs AT nongnu.org>;
those maintainers who want to hear about such bug reports read
<bug-cvs AT nongnu.org>. Also note that sending a bug report to other
mailing lists or newsgroups is _not_ a substitute for sending it to
<bug-cvs AT nongnu.org>. It is fine to discuss CVS bugs on whatever
forum you prefer, but there are not necessarily any maintainers
reading bug reports sent anywhere except <bug-cvs AT nongnu.org>.

People often ask if there is a list of known bugs or whether a
particular bug is a known one. The file BUGS in the CVS source
distribution is one list of known bugs, but it doesn't necessarily try
to be comprehensive. Perhaps there will never be a comprehensive,
detailed list of known bugs.

File: cvs.info, Node: CVS command list, Next: Index, Prev: BUGS, Up: Top

Appendix I Alphabetical list of all CVS commands
************************************************

*Note the introduction into the manual: Cederqvist.

* Menu:

* add:: Add a new file/directory to the repository
* admin:: Administration front-end for RCS
* annotate:: Show last revision where each line was modified
* checkout:: Checkout sources for editing
* commit:: Check files into the repository
* diff:: Show differences between revisions
* edit:: Get ready to edit a watched file
* editors:: See who is editing a watched file
* export:: Export sources from CVS, similar to checkout
* history:: Show repository access history
* import:: Import sources into CVS, using vendor branches
* init:: Create a CVS repository
* kserver:: Act in Kerberos server mode
* log:: Print out history information for files
* login:: Prompt for password for authenticating server
* logout:: Removes entry in .cvspass for remote repository
* ls:: List files available from CVS
* pserver:: Act in password server mode
* rannotate:: Show last revision where each line of module was modified
* rdiff:: Create 'patch' format diffs between revisions
* release:: Indicate that a work subdirectory is no longer in use
* remove:: Remove an entry from the repository
* rlog:: Print out history information for a module
* rls:: List files in a module
* rtag:: Add a symbolic tag to a module
* server:: Act in server mode
* suck:: Download RCS ,v file raw
* status:: Display status information on checked out files
* tag:: Add a symbolic tag to checked out version of files
* unedit:: Undo an edit command
* update:: Bring work tree in sync with repository
* version:: Show current CVS version(s)
* watch:: Set watches
* watchers:: See who is watching a file

File: cvs.info, Node: Index, Prev: CVS command list, Up: Top

Index
*****

* Menu:

* !, in modules file: Excluding directories.
(line 6)
* #cvs.lock, removing: Concurrency. (line 11)
* #cvs.lock, technical details: Locks. (line 6)
* #cvs.pfl, technical details: Locks. (line 6)
* #cvs.rfl, and backups: Backing up. (line 10)
* #cvs.rfl, removing: Concurrency. (line 11)
* #cvs.rfl, technical details: Locks. (line 6)
* #cvs.tfl: Locks. (line 14)
* #cvs.wfl, removing: Concurrency. (line 11)
* #cvs.wfl, technical details: Locks. (line 6)
* &, in modules file: Ampersand modules. (line 6)
* -a, in modules file: Alias modules. (line 6)
* -d, in modules file: Module options. (line 9)
* -e, in modules file: Module options. (line 12)
* -e, in modules file <1>: Module program options.
(line 6)
* -j (merging branches): Merging a branch. (line 6)
* -j (merging branches), and keyword substitution: Merging and keywords.
(line 6)
* -k (keyword substitution): Substitution modes. (line 6)
* -kk, to avoid conflicts during a merge: Merging and keywords.
(line 6)
* -o, in modules file: Module options. (line 16)
* -o, in modules file <1>: Module program options.
(line 6)
* -s, in modules file: Module options. (line 22)
* -t, in modules file: Module options. (line 30)
* -t, in modules file <1>: Module program options.
(line 6)
* .# files: update output. (line 49)
* .bashrc, setting CVSROOT in: Specifying a repository.
(line 12)
* .cshrc, setting CVSROOT in: Specifying a repository.
(line 12)
* .cvsrc file: ~/.cvsrc. (line 6)
* .profile, setting CVSROOT in: Specifying a repository.
(line 12)
* .tcshrc, setting CVSROOT in: Specifying a repository.
(line 12)
* /usr/local/cvsroot, as example repository: Repository. (line 6)
* <<<<<<<: Conflicts example. (line 96)
* =======: Conflicts example. (line 96)
* >>>>>>>: Conflicts example. (line 96)
* __ files (VMS): update output. (line 49)
* Abandoning work: Editing files. (line 42)
* abbreviations for months: Calendar date items. (line 38)
* Access a branch: Accessing branches. (line 6)
* add (subcommand): Adding files. (line 34)
* Adding a tag: Tags. (line 45)
* Adding files: Adding files. (line 6)
* Admin (subcommand): admin. (line 6)
* Admin commands, logging: postadmin. (line 6)
* Administrative files (intro): Intro administrative files.
(line 6)
* Administrative files (reference): Administrative files.
(line 6)
* Administrative files, editing them: Intro administrative files.
(line 33)
* Alias modules: Alias modules. (line 6)
* ALL keyword, in lieu of regular expressions in script hooks: syntax.
(line 12)
* Ampersand modules: Ampersand modules. (line 6)
* annotate (subcommand): annotate. (line 6)
* Atomic transactions, lack of: Concurrency. (line 27)
* Attic: Attic. (line 6)
* Authenticated client, using: Password authentication client.
(line 6)
* Authenticating server, setting up: Password authentication server.
(line 10)
* Authentication, stream: Global options. (line 16)
* Author keyword: Keyword list. (line 8)
* authors of get_date: Authors of get_date. (line 6)
* Automatically ignored files: cvsignore. (line 23)
* Avoiding editor invocation: Common options. (line 86)
* Backing up, repository: Backing up. (line 6)
* Base directory, in CVS directory: Working directory storage.
(line 176)
* BASE, as reserved tag name: Tags. (line 25)
* BASE, special date: Common options. (line 121)
* BASE, special tag: Common options. (line 121)
* Baserev file, in CVS directory: Working directory storage.
(line 182)
* Baserev.tmp file, in CVS directory: Working directory storage.
(line 190)
* beginning of time, for POSIX: Seconds since the Epoch.
(line 15)
* Bellovin, Steven M.: Authors of get_date. (line 6)
* Berets, Jim: Authors of get_date. (line 6)
* Berry, K.: Authors of get_date. (line 14)
* Bill of materials: Builds. (line 25)
* Binary files: Binary files. (line 6)
* Branch merge example: Merging a branch. (line 15)
* Branch number: Revision numbers. (line 6)
* Branch number <1>: Branches and revisions.
(line 6)
* Branch tags, deleting: Modifying tags. (line 19)
* Branch tags, moving: Modifying tags. (line 37)
* Branch, accessing: Accessing branches. (line 6)
* Branch, check out: Accessing branches. (line 6)
* Branch, creating a: Creating a branch. (line 6)
* Branch, identifying: Accessing branches. (line 6)
* Branch, retrieving: Accessing branches. (line 6)
* Branch, vendor-: Tracking sources. (line 10)
* Branches motivation: Branches motivation. (line 6)
* Branches, copying changes between: Branching and merging.
(line 6)
* Branches, sticky: Accessing branches. (line 37)
* Branching: Branching and merging.
(line 6)
* Bringing a file up to date: Updating a file. (line 6)
* Bugs in this manual or CVS: BUGS. (line 6)
* Bugs, reporting: BUGS. (line 13)
* Builds: Builds. (line 6)
* calendar date item: Calendar date items. (line 6)
* case, ignored in dates: General date syntax. (line 65)
* Changes, copying between branches: Branching and merging.
(line 6)
* Changing a log message: admin options. (line 73)
* Check out a branch: Accessing branches. (line 6)
* Checked out copy, keeping: Keeping a checked out copy.
(line 6)
* Checking out source: Getting the source. (line 6)
* checkout (subcommand): checkout. (line 6)
* Checkout program: Module options. (line 16)
* Checkout, as term for getting ready to edit: Editing files. (line 6)
* Checkout, example: Getting the source. (line 6)
* checkoutlist: checkoutlist. (line 6)
* Choosing, reserved or unreserved checkouts: Choosing a model.
(line 6)
* Cleaning up: Cleaning up. (line 6)
* Client/Server Operation: Remote repositories. (line 6)
* Client/Server Operation, port specification: Remote repositories.
(line 6)
* Client/Server Operation, port specification <1>: Password authentication server.
(line 10)
* co (subcommand): checkout. (line 6)
* Command reference: Invoking CVS. (line 6)
* Command structure: Structure. (line 6)
* Comment leader: admin options. (line 27)
* comments, in dates: General date syntax. (line 65)
* commit (subcommand): commit. (line 6)
* commit files, see Info files: commit files. (line 6)
* COMMITID, internal variable: Variables. (line 50)
* COMMITID, internal variable <1>: Variables. (line 56)
* commitinfo: commitinfo. (line 6)
* commitinfo (admin file): commitinfo. (line 6)
* commitinfo (admin file), exit status: commitinfo. (line 29)
* commitinfo (admin file), updating legacy repositories: commitinfo.
(line 22)
* commitinfo, command environment: commitinfo. (line 33)
* commitinfo, working directory: commitinfo. (line 33)
* Commits, administrative support files: commit files. (line 6)
* Commits, precommit verification of: commitinfo. (line 6)
* Committing changes to files: Committing your changes.
(line 6)
* Committing, when to: When to commit. (line 6)
* Common options: Common options. (line 6)
* Common syntax of info files, format strings: syntax. (line 35)
* Common syntax of info files, updating legacy repositories: Updating Commit Files.
(line 6)
* compatibility notes, commitinfo admin file: commitinfo. (line 22)
* compatibility notes, config admin file: config. (line 244)
* compatibility notes, loginfo admin file: loginfo. (line 47)
* compatibility notes, taginfo admin file: taginfo. (line 38)
* compatibility notes, verifymsg admin file: verifymsg. (line 32)
* Compatibility, between CVS versions: Compatibility. (line 6)
* Compression: Global options. (line 164)
* Compression <1>: Invoking CVS. (line 84)
* Compression levels, restricting on server: config. (line 148)
* COMSPEC, environment variable: Environment variables.
(line 141)
* config (admin file), import: config. (line 90)
* config (admin file), updating legacy repositories: config. (line 244)
* config, in CVSROOT: config. (line 6)
* configuration file: server & pserver. (line 24)
* configuration file <1>: config. (line 6)
* Configuring keyword expansion: Configuring keyword expansion.
(line 6)
* Conflict markers: Conflicts example. (line 96)
* Conflict resolution: Conflicts example. (line 101)
* Conflicts (merge example): Conflicts example. (line 68)
* connection method options: The connection method.
(line 16)
* Contributors (CVS program): What is CVS?. (line 28)
* Contributors (manual): Credits. (line 6)
* Copying a repository: Moving a repository. (line 6)
* Copying changes: Branching and merging.
(line 6)
* Correcting a log message: admin options. (line 73)
* Creating a branch: Creating a branch. (line 6)
* Creating a project: Starting a new project.
(line 6)
* Creating a repository: Creating a repository.
(line 6)
* Credits (CVS program): What is CVS?. (line 28)
* Credits (manual): Credits. (line 6)
* CVS 1.6, and watches: Watches Compatibility.
(line 6)
* CVS command structure: Structure. (line 6)
* CVS directory, in repository: CVS in repository. (line 6)
* CVS directory, in working directory: Working directory storage.
(line 6)
* CVS passwd file: Password authentication server.
(line 70)
* CVS, history of: What is CVS?. (line 28)
* CVS, introduction to: What is CVS?. (line 6)
* CVS, versions of: Compatibility. (line 6)
* CVS/Base directory: Working directory storage.
(line 176)
* CVS/Baserev file: Working directory storage.
(line 182)
* CVS/Baserev.tmp file: Working directory storage.
(line 190)
* CVS/Entries file: Working directory storage.
(line 60)
* CVS/Entries.Backup file: Working directory storage.
(line 143)
* CVS/Entries.Log file: Working directory storage.
(line 120)
* CVS/Entries.Static file: Working directory storage.
(line 148)
* CVS/Notify file: Working directory storage.
(line 166)
* CVS/Notify.tmp file: Working directory storage.
(line 171)
* CVS/Repository file: Working directory storage.
(line 32)
* CVS/Root file: Specifying a repository.
(line 25)
* CVS/Tag file: Working directory storage.
(line 155)
* CVS/Template file: Working directory storage.
(line 196)
* cvsadmin: admin. (line 16)
* CVSEDITOR, environment variable: Committing your changes.
(line 17)
* CVSEDITOR, environment variable <1>: Environment variables.
(line 49)
* CVSEDITOR, internal variable: Variables. (line 37)
* CVSHeader keyword: Keyword list. (line 11)
* cvsignore (admin file), global: cvsignore. (line 6)
* CVSIGNORE, environment variable: Environment variables.
(line 10)
* CVSREAD, environment variable: Environment variables.
(line 18)
* CVSREAD, overriding: Global options. (line 148)
* CVSREADONLYFS, environment variable: Environment variables.
(line 24)
* cvsroot: Repository. (line 6)
* CVSROOT (file): Administrative files.
(line 6)
* CVSROOT, environment variable: Specifying a repository.
(line 12)
* CVSROOT, internal variable: Variables. (line 26)
* CVSROOT, module name: Intro administrative files.
(line 6)
* CVSROOT, multiple repositories: Multiple repositories.
(line 6)
* CVSROOT, overriding: Global options. (line 52)
* CVSROOT, storage of files: CVSROOT storage. (line 6)
* CVSROOT/config: config. (line 6)
* CVSROOT/Emptydir directory: Working directory storage.
(line 58)
* CVSROOT/val-tags file, and read-only access to projects: File permissions.
(line 26)
* CVSROOT/val-tags file, forcing tags into: Error messages. (line 198)
* CVSUMASK, environment variable: File permissions. (line 34)
* cvswrappers (admin file): Wrappers. (line 6)
* CVSWRAPPERS, environment variable: Wrappers. (line 6)
* CVSWRAPPERS, environment variable <1>: Environment variables.
(line 14)
* CVS_CLIENT_LOG, environment variable: Environment variables.
(line 104)
* CVS_CLIENT_PORT: Environment variables.
(line 87)
* CVS_IGNORE_REMOTE_ROOT, environment variable: Environment variables.
(line 127)
* CVS_LOCAL_BRANCH_NUM, environment variable: Environment variables.
(line 133)
* CVS_PASSFILE, environment variable: Password authentication client.
(line 46)
* CVS_PID, environment variable: Environment variables.
(line 149)
* CVS_PROXY_PORT: The connection method.
(line 26)
* CVS_PROXY_PORT <1>: Environment variables.
(line 93)
* CVS_RCMD_PORT, environment variable: Environment variables.
(line 99)
* CVS_RSH method option: The connection method.
(line 51)
* CVS_RSH, environment variable: Environment variables.
(line 69)
* CVS_SECONDARY_LOG, environment variable: Environment variables.
(line 110)
* CVS_SERVER method option: The connection method.
(line 65)
* CVS_SERVER, and fork method: Connecting via fork. (line 24)
* CVS_SERVER, environment variable: Connecting via rsh. (line 22)
* CVS_SERVER_LOG, environment variable: Environment variables.
(line 116)
* CVS_SERVER_SLEEP, environment variable: Environment variables.
(line 122)
* CVS_USER, environment variable: Variables. (line 83)
* date format, ISO 8601: Calendar date items. (line 30)
* date input formats: Date input formats. (line 6)
* Date keyword: Keyword list. (line 25)
* Dates: Common options. (line 18)
* day of week item: Day of week items. (line 6)
* Dead state: Attic. (line 17)
* Decimal revision number: Revision numbers. (line 6)
* DEFAULT keyword, in lieu of regular expressions in script hooks: syntax.
(line 12)
* Defining a module: Defining the module. (line 6)
* Defining modules (intro): Intro administrative files.
(line 6)
* Defining modules (reference manual): modules. (line 6)
* Deleting branch tags: Modifying tags. (line 19)
* Deleting files: Removing files. (line 6)
* Deleting revisions: admin options. (line 95)
* Deleting sticky tags: Sticky tags. (line 31)
* Deleting tags: Modifying tags. (line 19)
* Descending directories: Recursive behavior. (line 6)
* Device nodes: Special Files. (line 6)
* Diff: Viewing differences. (line 6)
* diff (subcommand): diff. (line 6)
* Differences, merging: Merging two revisions.
(line 6)
* Directories, moving: Moving directories. (line 6)
* Directories, removing: Removing directories.
(line 6)
* Directory, descending: Recursive behavior. (line 6)
* Disjoint repositories: Multiple repositories.
(line 6)
* displacement of dates: Relative items in date strings.
(line 6)
* Distributing log messages: loginfo. (line 6)
* driver.c (merge example): Conflicts example. (line 6)
* edit (subcommand): Editing files. (line 13)
* Editing administrative files: Intro administrative files.
(line 33)
* Editing the modules file: Defining the module. (line 6)
* Editor, avoiding invocation of: Common options. (line 86)
* EDITOR, environment variable: Committing your changes.
(line 17)
* EDITOR, environment variable <1>: Environment variables.
(line 50)
* EDITOR, internal variable: Variables. (line 38)
* EDITOR, overriding: Global options. (line 57)
* editors (subcommand): Watch information. (line 15)
* Eggert, Paul: Authors of get_date. (line 6)
* emerge: Conflicts example. (line 140)
* Emptydir, in CVSROOT directory: Working directory storage.
(line 58)
* Encryption: Global options. (line 154)
* Entries file, in CVS directory: Working directory storage.
(line 60)
* Entries.Backup file, in CVS directory: Working directory storage.
(line 143)
* Entries.Log file, in CVS directory: Working directory storage.
(line 120)
* Entries.Static file, in CVS directory: Working directory storage.
(line 148)
* Environment variables: Environment variables.
(line 6)
* environment variables, passed to administrative files: Variables.
(line 82)
* epoch, for POSIX: Seconds since the Epoch.
(line 15)
* Errors, reporting: BUGS. (line 13)
* Example of a work-session: A sample session. (line 6)
* Example of merge: Conflicts example. (line 6)
* Example, branch merge: Merging a branch. (line 15)
* Excluding directories, in modules file: Excluding directories.
(line 6)
* Exit status, of commitinfo: commitinfo. (line 29)
* Exit status, of CVS: Exit status. (line 6)
* Exit status, of editor: Error messages. (line 330)
* Exit status, of taginfo admin file: taginfo. (line 45)
* Exit status, of verifymsg: verifymsg. (line 44)
* export (subcommand): export. (line 6)
* Export program: Module options. (line 12)
* ext method, setting up: Connecting via rsh. (line 35)
* ext method, troubleshooting: Connection. (line 16)
* Fetching source: Getting the source. (line 6)
* File had conflicts on merge: File status. (line 46)
* File locking: Multiple developers. (line 6)
* File permissions, general: File permissions. (line 6)
* File permissions, Windows-specific: Windows permissions. (line 6)
* File status: File status. (line 6)
* Files, moving: Moving files. (line 6)
* Files, reference manual: Administrative files.
(line 6)
* Fixing a log message: admin options. (line 73)
* Forcing a tag match: Common options. (line 43)
* fork method, setting up: Connecting via fork. (line 6)
* fork, access method: Connecting via fork. (line 6)
* Form for log message: rcsinfo. (line 6)
* Format of CVS commands: Structure. (line 6)
* format strings: syntax. (line 35)
* format strings, commitinfo admin file: commitinfo. (line 16)
* format strings, common syntax: syntax. (line 35)
* format strings, config admin file: config. (line 244)
* format strings, loginfo admin file: loginfo. (line 32)
* format strings, postadmin admin file: postadmin. (line 12)
* format strings, postproxy admin file: postproxy. (line 23)
* format strings, posttag admin file: posttag. (line 12)
* format strings, postwatch admin file: postwatch. (line 13)
* format strings, preproxy admin file: preproxy. (line 20)
* format strings, taginfo admin file: taginfo. (line 12)
* format strings, verifymsg admin file: verifymsg. (line 20)
* general date syntax: General date syntax. (line 6)
* Getting started: A sample session. (line 6)
* Getting the source: Getting the source. (line 6)
* Global cvsignore: cvsignore. (line 6)
* Global options: Global options. (line 6)
* Group, UNIX file permissions, in repository: File permissions.
(line 6)
* gserver (client/server connection method), port specification: Remote repositories.
(line 6)
* gserver (client/server connection method), port specification <1>: Password authentication server.
(line 10)
* gserver method, setting up: GSSAPI authenticated.
(line 6)
* GSSAPI: GSSAPI authenticated.
(line 6)
* Gzip: Global options. (line 164)
* Gzip <1>: Invoking CVS. (line 84)
* Hard links: Special Files. (line 6)
* HEAD, as reserved tag name: Tags. (line 25)
* HEAD, special tag: Common options. (line 121)
* Header keyword: Keyword list. (line 34)
* history (subcommand): history. (line 6)
* History browsing: History browsing. (line 6)
* History file: history file. (line 6)
* History files: Repository files. (line 68)
* History of CVS: What is CVS?. (line 28)
* HistoryLogPath, in CVSROOT/config: config. (line 61)
* HistorySearchPath, in CVSROOT/config: config. (line 70)
* HOME, environment variable: Environment variables.
(line 60)
* HOMEDRIVE, environment variable: Environment variables.
(line 62)
* HOMEPATH, environment variable: Environment variables.
(line 61)
* HTTP proxies, connecting via: The connection method.
(line 26)
* Id keyword: Keyword list. (line 40)
* Ident (shell command): Using keywords. (line 19)
* Identifying a branch: Accessing branches. (line 6)
* Identifying files: Keyword substitution.
(line 6)
* Ignored files: cvsignore. (line 23)
* Ignoring files: cvsignore. (line 6)
* import (subcommand): import. (line 6)
* import, config admin file: config. (line 90)
* Importing files: From files. (line 6)
* Importing files, from other version control systems: From other version control systems.
(line 6)
* Importing modules: First import. (line 6)
* ImportNewFilesToVendorBranchOnly, in CVSROOT/config: config.
(line 90)
* Index: Index. (line 6)
* inetd, configuring for pserver: Password authentication server.
(line 10)
* info files: Trigger Scripts. (line 6)
* info files, commitinfo: commitinfo. (line 6)
* info files, common syntax: syntax. (line 6)
* info files, common syntax, format strings: syntax. (line 35)
* info files, common syntax, updating legacy repositories: Updating Commit Files.
(line 6)
* info files, precommit verification of commits: commitinfo. (line 6)
* info files, security: Trigger Script Security.
(line 6)
* Informing others: Informing others. (line 6)
* init (subcommand): Creating a repository.
(line 43)
* Installed images (VMS): File permissions. (line 58)
* Internal variables: Variables. (line 6)
* Introduction to CVS: What is CVS?. (line 6)
* Invoking CVS: Invoking CVS. (line 6)
* ISO 8601 date format: Calendar date items. (line 30)
* Isolation: History browsing. (line 6)
* items in date strings: General date syntax. (line 6)
* Join: Merging a branch. (line 13)
* Keeping a checked out copy: Keeping a checked out copy.
(line 6)
* Kerberos, using gserver method: GSSAPI authenticated.
(line 6)
* Kerberos, using kerberized rsh: Connecting via rsh. (line 35)
* Kerberos, using kserver method: Kerberos authenticated.
(line 6)
* Keyword expansion: Keyword substitution.
(line 6)
* Keyword List: Keyword list. (line 6)
* Keyword substitution: Keyword substitution.
(line 6)
* Keyword substitution, and merging: Merging and keywords.
(line 6)
* Keyword substitution, changing modes: Substitution modes. (line 6)
* KeywordExpand, in CVSROOT/config: config. (line 97)
* Kflag: Substitution modes. (line 6)
* kinit: Kerberos authenticated.
(line 27)
* Known bugs in this manual or CVS: BUGS. (line 70)
* kserver (client/server connection method), port specification: Remote repositories.
(line 6)
* kserver (client/server connection method), port specification <1>: Password authentication server.
(line 10)
* kserver method, setting up: Kerberos authenticated.
(line 6)
* language, in dates: General date syntax. (line 35)
* language, in dates <1>: General date syntax. (line 39)
* Layout of repository: Repository. (line 6)
* Left-hand options: Global options. (line 6)
* Linear development: Revision numbers. (line 6)
* Link, symbolic, importing: import output. (line 23)
* List, mailing list: What is CVS?. (line 44)
* Local keyword: Keyword list. (line 102)
* local method, setting up: Repository. (line 19)
* LocalKeyword, in CVSROOT/config: config. (line 104)
* Locally Added: File status. (line 19)
* Locally Modified: File status. (line 16)
* Locally Removed: File status. (line 23)
* LockDir, in CVSROOT/config: config. (line 109)
* Locker keyword: Keyword list. (line 49)
* Locking files: Multiple developers. (line 6)
* Locks, cvs, and backups: Backing up. (line 10)
* Locks, cvs, introduction: Concurrency. (line 6)
* Locks, cvs, technical details: Locks. (line 6)
* log (subcommand): log. (line 6)
* Log information, saving: history file. (line 6)
* Log keyword: Keyword list. (line 53)
* Log keyword, configuring substitution behavior: Keyword list.
(line 53)
* Log keyword, configuring substitution behavior <1>: config. (line 136)
* Log keyword, configuring substitution behavior <2>: config. (line 233)
* Log message entry: Committing your changes.
(line 6)
* Log message template: rcsinfo. (line 6)
* Log message, correcting: admin options. (line 73)
* Log message, verifying: verifymsg. (line 6)
* Log messages: loginfo. (line 6)
* logging, commits: verifymsg. (line 6)
* logging, commits <1>: loginfo. (line 6)
* logging, commits <2>: rcsinfo. (line 6)
* LogHistory, in CVSROOT/config: config. (line 128)
* Login (subcommand): Password authentication client.
(line 6)
* loginfo (admin file): loginfo. (line 6)
* loginfo (admin file), updating legacy repositories: loginfo.
(line 47)
* LOGNAME, environment variable: Variables. (line 90)
* Logout (subcommand): Password authentication client.
(line 70)
* ls (subcommand): ls & rls. (line 6)
* MacKenzie, David: Authors of get_date. (line 6)
* Mail, automatic mail on commit: Informing others. (line 6)
* Mailing list: What is CVS?. (line 44)
* Mailing log messages: loginfo. (line 6)
* Main trunk and branches: Branching and merging.
(line 6)
* make: Builds. (line 6)
* Many repositories: Multiple repositories.
(line 6)
* Markers, conflict: Conflicts example. (line 96)
* MaxCommentLeaderLength: Keyword list. (line 53)
* MaxCommentLeaderLength, in CVSROOT/config: config. (line 136)
* MaxCompressionLevel, in CVSROOT/config: config. (line 148)
* Mdocdate keyword: Keyword list. (line 28)
* Merge, an example: Conflicts example. (line 6)
* Merge, branch example: Merging a branch. (line 15)
* Merging: Branching and merging.
(line 6)
* Merging a branch: Merging a branch. (line 6)
* Merging a file: Updating a file. (line 6)
* Merging two revisions: Merging two revisions.
(line 6)
* Merging, and keyword substitution: Merging and keywords.
(line 6)
* Meyering, Jim: Authors of get_date. (line 6)
* MinCompressionLevel, in CVSROOT/config: config. (line 148)
* minutes, time zone correction by: Time of day items. (line 28)
* mkmodules: Error messages. (line 166)
* Modifications, copying between branches: Branching and merging.
(line 6)
* Module status: Module options. (line 22)
* Module, defining: Defining the module. (line 6)
* Modules (admin file): modules. (line 6)
* Modules file: Intro administrative files.
(line 6)
* Modules file program options: Module program options.
(line 6)
* Modules file, changing: Defining the module. (line 6)
* modules.db: CVSROOT storage. (line 25)
* modules.dir: CVSROOT storage. (line 25)
* modules.pag: CVSROOT storage. (line 25)
* month names in date strings: Calendar date items. (line 38)
* months, written-out: General date syntax. (line 31)
* Motivation for branches: Branches motivation. (line 6)
* Moving a repository: Moving a repository. (line 6)
* Moving branch tags: Modifying tags. (line 37)
* Moving directories: Moving directories. (line 6)
* Moving files: Moving files. (line 6)
* Moving tags: Modifying tags. (line 37)
* Multiple developers: Multiple developers. (line 6)
* Multiple repositories: Multiple repositories.
(line 6)
* Name keyword: Keyword list. (line 43)
* Name, symbolic (tag): Tags. (line 25)
* Needs Checkout: File status. (line 27)
* Needs Merge: File status. (line 37)
* Needs Patch: File status. (line 32)
* Newsgroups: What is CVS?. (line 44)
* notify (admin file): Getting Notified. (line 58)
* Notify file, in CVS directory: Working directory storage.
(line 166)
* Notify.tmp file, in CVS directory: Working directory storage.
(line 171)
* Number, branch: Revision numbers. (line 6)
* Number, branch <1>: Branches and revisions.
(line 6)
* Number, revision-: Revision numbers. (line 6)
* numbers, written-out: General date syntax. (line 21)
* Option defaults: ~/.cvsrc. (line 6)
* options, connection method: The connection method.
(line 16)
* Options, global: Global options. (line 6)
* Options, in modules file: Module options. (line 6)
* ordinal numbers: General date syntax. (line 21)
* Outdating revisions: admin options. (line 95)
* Overlap: Updating a file. (line 24)
* Overriding CVSREAD: Global options. (line 148)
* Overriding CVSROOT: Global options. (line 52)
* Overriding EDITOR: Global options. (line 57)
* Overriding RCSBIN: Global options. (line 24)
* Overview: Overview. (line 6)
* Ownership, saving in CVS: Special Files. (line 6)
* Parallel repositories: Multiple repositories.
(line 6)
* passwd (admin file): Password authentication server.
(line 70)
* Password client, using: Password authentication client.
(line 6)
* Password server, setting up: Password authentication server.
(line 10)
* PATH, environment variable: Environment variables.
(line 56)
* Per-directory sticky tags/dates: Working directory storage.
(line 155)
* Permissions, general: File permissions. (line 6)
* Permissions, saving in CVS: Special Files. (line 6)
* Permissions, Windows-specific: Windows permissions. (line 6)
* Pinard, F.: Authors of get_date. (line 14)
* Policy: When to commit. (line 6)
* port, specifying for remote repositories: Remote repositories.
(line 6)
* port, specifying for remote repositories <1>: Password authentication server.
(line 10)
* postadmin (admin file): postadmin. (line 6)
* postproxy (admin file): postproxy. (line 6)
* posttag (admin file): posttag. (line 6)
* postwatch (admin file): postwatch. (line 6)
* preproxy (admin file): preproxy. (line 6)
* Primary server: Write proxies. (line 6)
* Primary server <1>: config. (line 167)
* PrimaryServer, in CVSROOT/config: Write proxies. (line 6)
* PrimaryServer, in CVSROOT/config <1>: config. (line 167)
* proxies, HTTP, connecting via: The connection method.
(line 26)
* proxies, web, connecting via: The connection method.
(line 26)
* proxy, method option: The connection method.
(line 26)
* proxy, write: Write proxies. (line 6)
* proxy, write <1>: config. (line 167)
* proxyport, method option: The connection method.
(line 26)
* pserver (client/server connection method), port specification: Remote repositories.
(line 6)
* pserver (client/server connection method), port specification <1>: Password authentication server.
(line 10)
* pserver (subcommand): Password authentication server.
(line 10)
* pserver (subcommand) <1>: server & pserver. (line 6)
* pserver method, setting up: Password authentication client.
(line 6)
* pserver method, troubleshooting: Connection. (line 27)
* pure numbers in date strings: Pure numbers in date strings.
(line 6)
* PVCS, importing files from: From other version control systems.
(line 44)
* RCS history files: Repository files. (line 68)
* RCS revision numbers: Tags. (line 10)
* RCS, importing files from: From other version control systems.
(line 10)
* RCS-style locking: Multiple developers. (line 6)
* RCSBIN, in CVSROOT/config: config. (line 185)
* RCSBIN, internal variable: Variables. (line 32)
* RCSBIN, overriding: Global options. (line 24)
* RCSfile keyword: Keyword list. (line 89)
* rcsinfo (admin file): rcsinfo. (line 6)
* rdiff (subcommand): rdiff. (line 6)
* Read-only files, and -r: Global options. (line 130)
* Read-only files, and CVSREAD: Environment variables.
(line 18)
* Read-only files, and watches: Setting a watch. (line 11)
* Read-only files, in repository: File permissions. (line 6)
* Read-only mode: Global options. (line 111)
* Read-only repository access: Read-only access. (line 6)
* Read-only repository mode: Global options. (line 103)
* readers (admin file): Read-only access. (line 6)
* Recursive (directory descending): Recursive behavior. (line 6)
* Redirect, method option: The connection method.
(line 86)
* Reference manual (files): Administrative files.
(line 6)
* Reference manual for variables: Environment variables.
(line 6)
* Reference, commands: Invoking CVS. (line 6)
* Regular expression syntax: syntax. (line 10)
* Regular modules: Regular modules. (line 6)
* relative items in date strings: Relative items in date strings.
(line 6)
* release (subcommand): release. (line 6)
* Releases, revisions and versions: Versions revisions releases.
(line 6)
* Releasing your working copy: Cleaning up. (line 6)
* Remote repositories: Remote repositories. (line 6)
* Remote repositories, port specification: Remote repositories.
(line 6)
* Remote repositories, port specification <1>: Password authentication server.
(line 10)
* Remove (subcommand): Removing files. (line 34)
* Removing a change: Merging two revisions.
(line 9)
* Removing branch tags: Modifying tags. (line 19)
* Removing directories: Removing directories.
(line 6)
* Removing files: Removing files. (line 6)
* Removing tags: Modifying tags. (line 19)
* Removing your working copy: Cleaning up. (line 6)
* Renaming directories: Moving directories. (line 6)
* Renaming files: Moving files. (line 6)
* Renaming tags: Modifying tags. (line 57)
* Replacing a log message: admin options. (line 73)
* Reporting bugs: BUGS. (line 13)
* Repositories, multiple: Multiple repositories.
(line 6)
* Repositories, remote: Remote repositories. (line 6)
* Repositories, remote, port specification: Remote repositories.
(line 6)
* Repositories, remote, port specification <1>: Password authentication server.
(line 10)
* Repository (intro): Repository. (line 6)
* Repository file, in CVS directory: Working directory storage.
(line 32)
* Repository, backing up: Backing up. (line 6)
* Repository, example: Repository. (line 6)
* Repository, how data is stored: Repository storage. (line 6)
* Repository, moving: Moving a repository. (line 6)
* Repository, setting up: Creating a repository.
(line 6)
* RereadLogAfterVerify, in CVSROOT/config: config. (line 191)
* Reserved checkouts: Multiple developers. (line 6)
* Resetting sticky tags: Sticky tags. (line 31)
* Resolving a conflict: Conflicts example. (line 101)
* Restoring old version of removed file: Merging two revisions.
(line 19)
* Resurrecting old version of dead file: Merging two revisions.
(line 19)
* Retrieve a branch: Accessing branches. (line 6)
* Retrieving an old revision using tags: Tags. (line 85)
* Reverting to repository version: Editing files. (line 42)
* Revision keyword: Keyword list. (line 92)
* Revision management: Revision management. (line 6)
* Revision numbers: Revision numbers. (line 6)
* Revision numbers (branches): Branches and revisions.
(line 6)
* Revision tree: Revision numbers. (line 6)
* Revision tree, making branches: Branching and merging.
(line 6)
* Revisions, merging differences between: Merging two revisions.
(line 6)
* Revisions, versions and releases: Versions revisions releases.
(line 6)
* Right-hand options: Common options. (line 6)
* rls (subcommand): ls & rls. (line 6)
* Root file, in CVS directory: Specifying a repository.
(line 25)
* rsh: Connecting via rsh. (line 6)
* rsh replacements (Kerberized, SSH, &c): Connecting via rsh. (line 35)
* rtag (subcommand): Tagging by date/tag. (line 6)
* rtag (subcommand), creating a branch using: Creating a branch.
(line 6)
* Salz, Rich: Authors of get_date. (line 6)
* Saving space: admin options. (line 95)
* SCCS, importing files from: From other version control systems.
(line 37)
* script hook, postadmin: postadmin. (line 6)
* script hook, postproxy: postproxy. (line 6)
* script hook, posttag: posttag. (line 6)
* script hook, postwatch: postwatch. (line 6)
* script hook, preproxy: preproxy. (line 6)
* script hook, taginfo: taginfo. (line 6)
* script hooks: Trigger Scripts. (line 6)
* script hooks, commitinfo: commitinfo. (line 6)
* script hooks, common syntax: syntax. (line 6)
* script hooks, precommit verification of commits: commitinfo.
(line 6)
* script hooks, security: Trigger Script Security.
(line 6)
* Secondary server: Write proxies. (line 6)
* Secondary server <1>: config. (line 167)
* secondary server, pull updates: postproxy. (line 6)
* Security, file permissions in repository: File permissions. (line 6)
* Security, GSSAPI: GSSAPI authenticated.
(line 6)
* Security, Kerberos: Kerberos authenticated.
(line 6)
* Security, of pserver: Password authentication security.
(line 6)
* Security, setuid: File permissions. (line 58)
* server (subcommand): server & pserver. (line 6)
* server method, setting up: Connecting via rsh. (line 35)
* server method, troubleshooting: Connection. (line 22)
* Server, CVS: Remote repositories. (line 6)
* Server, temporary directories: Server temporary directory.
(line 6)
* Setgid: File permissions. (line 58)
* Setting up a repository: Creating a repository.
(line 6)
* Setuid: File permissions. (line 58)
* Source keyword: Keyword list. (line 95)
* Source, getting CVS source: What is CVS?. (line 38)
* Source, getting from CVS: Getting the source. (line 6)
* Special files: Special Files. (line 6)
* Specifying dates: Common options. (line 18)
* Spreading information: Informing others. (line 6)
* SSH (rsh replacement): Connecting via rsh. (line 35)
* Starting a project with CVS: Starting a new project.
(line 6)
* State keyword: Keyword list. (line 98)
* Status of a file: File status. (line 6)
* Status of a module: Module options. (line 22)
* Sticky date: Sticky tags. (line 37)
* Sticky tags: Sticky tags. (line 6)
* Sticky tags, resetting: Sticky tags. (line 31)
* Sticky tags/dates, per-directory: Working directory storage.
(line 155)
* Storing log messages: loginfo. (line 6)
* Stream authentication: Global options. (line 16)
* Structure: Structure. (line 6)
* Subdirectories: Recursive behavior. (line 6)
* suck (subcommand): suck. (line 6)
* Support, getting CVS support: BUGS. (line 16)
* Symbolic link, importing: import output. (line 23)
* Symbolic links: Special Files. (line 6)
* Symbolic name (tag): Tags. (line 25)
* Syntax of info files, updating legacy repositories: Updating Commit Files.
(line 6)
* syntax of trigger script hooks: syntax. (line 6)
* SystemAuth, in CVSROOT/config: config. (line 208)
* tag (subcommand): Tagging the working directory.
(line 6)
* tag (subcommand), creating a branch using: Creating a branch.
(line 6)
* tag (subcommand), introduction: Tags. (line 25)
* Tag file, in CVS directory: Working directory storage.
(line 155)
* Tag program: Module options. (line 30)
* taginfo (admin file): taginfo. (line 6)
* taginfo (admin file), exit status: taginfo. (line 45)
* taginfo (admin file), updating legacy repositories: taginfo.
(line 38)
* Tags: Tags. (line 6)
* Tags, deleting: Modifying tags. (line 19)
* Tags, example: Tags. (line 45)
* Tags, logging: taginfo. (line 6)
* Tags, logging <1>: posttag. (line 6)
* Tags, moving: Modifying tags. (line 37)
* Tags, renaming: Modifying tags. (line 57)
* Tags, retrieving old revisions: Tags. (line 85)
* Tags, sticky: Sticky tags. (line 6)
* Tags, symbolic name: Tags. (line 25)
* Tags, verifying: taginfo. (line 6)
* tc, Trivial Compiler (example): A sample session. (line 6)
* Team of developers: Multiple developers. (line 6)
* Template file, in CVS directory: Working directory storage.
(line 196)
* Template for log message: rcsinfo. (line 6)
* Temporary directories, and server: Server temporary directory.
(line 6)
* temporary directory, set in config: config. (line 215)
* temporary file directory, set via command line: Global options.
(line 30)
* temporary file directory, set via config: Global options. (line 30)
* temporary file directory, set via environment variable: Global options.
(line 30)
* temporary file directory, set via environment variable <1>: Environment variables.
(line 145)
* temporary files, location of: Global options. (line 30)
* temporary files, location of <1>: config. (line 215)
* temporary files, location of <2>: Environment variables.
(line 145)
* Third-party sources: Tracking sources. (line 6)
* Time: Common options. (line 18)
* time of day item: Time of day items. (line 6)
* time zone correction: Time of day items. (line 28)
* time zone item: General date syntax. (line 39)
* time zone item <1>: Time zone items. (line 6)
* Timezone, in output: log. (line 17)
* Timezone, in output <1>: log examples. (line 6)
* TMPDIR, environment variable: Global options. (line 30)
* TMPDIR, environment variable <1>: Environment variables.
(line 145)
* TmpDir, in config: config. (line 215)
* TopLevelAdmin, in CVSROOT/config: config. (line 220)
* Trace: Global options. (line 139)
* Traceability: History browsing. (line 6)
* Tracking sources: Tracking sources. (line 6)
* Transactions, atomic, lack of: Concurrency. (line 27)
* trigger script hooks, common syntax: syntax. (line 6)
* trigger scripts: Trigger Scripts. (line 6)
* trigger scripts, commitinfo: commitinfo. (line 6)
* trigger scripts, precommit verification of commits: commitinfo.
(line 6)
* trigger scripts, security: Trigger Script Security.
(line 6)
* Trivial Compiler (example): A sample session. (line 6)
* Typical repository: Repository. (line 6)
* Umask, for repository files: File permissions. (line 34)
* Undoing a change: Merging two revisions.
(line 9)
* unedit (subcommand): Editing files. (line 42)
* Unknown: File status. (line 51)
* Unreserved checkouts: Multiple developers. (line 6)
* Unresolved Conflict: File status. (line 41)
* Up-to-date: File status. (line 11)
* update (subcommand): update. (line 6)
* Update, introduction: Updating a file. (line 6)
* update, to display file status: File status. (line 73)
* Updating a file: Updating a file. (line 6)
* UseArchiveCommentLeader: Keyword list. (line 53)
* UseArchiveCommentLeader, in CVSROOT/config: config. (line 233)
* UseNewInfoFmtStrings, in CVSROOT/config: config. (line 244)
* User aliases: Password authentication server.
(line 99)
* User variables: Variables. (line 62)
* USER, environment variable: Variables. (line 93)
* USER, internal variable: Variables. (line 43)
* UserAdminOptions, in CVSROOT/config: admin. (line 16)
* UserAdminOptions, in CVSROOT/config <1>: config. (line 256)
* users (admin file): Getting Notified. (line 73)
* val-tags file, and read-only access to projects: File permissions.
(line 26)
* val-tags file, forcing tags into: Error messages. (line 198)
* Variables: Variables. (line 6)
* Vendor: Tracking sources. (line 10)
* Vendor branch: Tracking sources. (line 10)
* verifymsg (admin file): verifymsg. (line 6)
* verifymsg (admin/commit file), updating legacy repositories: verifymsg.
(line 32)
* verifymsg, changing the log message: verifymsg. (line 47)
* verifymsg, changing the log message <1>: config. (line 191)
* verifymsg, example: verifymsg example. (line 6)
* version (subcommand): Invoking CVS. (line 884)
* Versions, of CVS: Compatibility. (line 6)
* Versions, revisions and releases: Versions revisions releases.
(line 6)
* Viewing differences: Viewing differences. (line 6)
* VISUAL, environment variable: Committing your changes.
(line 23)
* VISUAL, environment variable <1>: Environment variables.
(line 51)
* VISUAL, internal variable: Variables. (line 39)
* watch add (subcommand): Getting Notified. (line 11)
* Watch family of commands, logging: postwatch. (line 6)
* watch off (subcommand): Setting a watch. (line 25)
* watch on (subcommand): Setting a watch. (line 9)
* watch remove (subcommand): Getting Notified. (line 52)
* watchers (subcommand): Watch information. (line 6)
* Watches: Watches. (line 6)
* wdiff (import example): First import. (line 19)
* Web pages, maintaining with CVS: Keeping a checked out copy.
(line 6)
* web proxies, connecting via: The connection method.
(line 26)
* What (shell command): Using keywords. (line 32)
* What branches are good for: Branches motivation. (line 6)
* What is CVS not?: What is CVS not?. (line 6)
* What is CVS?: What is CVS?. (line 6)
* When to commit: When to commit. (line 6)
* Windows, and permissions: Windows permissions. (line 6)
* Work-session, example of: A sample session. (line 6)
* Working copy: Multiple developers. (line 6)
* Working copy, removing: Cleaning up. (line 6)
* Wrappers: Wrappers. (line 6)
* write proxy: Write proxies. (line 6)
* write proxy <1>: config. (line 167)
* Write proxy, logging: preproxy. (line 6)
* Write proxy, logging <1>: postproxy. (line 6)
* Write proxy, pull updates: postproxy. (line 6)
* Write proxy, verifying: preproxy. (line 6)
* writers (admin file): Read-only access. (line 6)
* Ximbiot: BUGS. (line 16)
* xinetd, configuring for pserver: Password authentication server.
(line 10)
* Zone, time, in output: log. (line 17)
* Zone, time, in output <1>: log examples. (line 6)

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