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CI(1) General Commands Manual CI(1)
NAME
ci - check in RCS revisions
SYNOPSIS
ci [options] file ...
DESCRIPTION
ci stores new revisions into RCS files. Each file name matching an RCS suffix is taken to
be an RCS file. All others are assumed to be working files containing new revisions. ci
deposits the contents of each working file into the corresponding RCS file. If only a
working file is given, ci tries to find the corresponding RCS file in an RCS subdirectory
and then in the working file's directory. For more details, see FILE NAMING below.
For ci to work, the caller's login must be on the access list, except if the access list
is empty or the caller is the superuser or the owner of the file. To append a new revi-
sion to an existing branch, the tip revision on that branch must be locked by the caller.
Otherwise, only a new branch can be created. This restriction is not enforced for the
owner of the file if non-strict locking is used (see rcs(1)). A lock held by someone else
can be broken with the rcs command.
Unless the -f option is given, ci checks whether the revision to be deposited differs from
the preceding one. If not, instead of creating a new revision ci reverts to the preceding
one. To revert, ordinary ci removes the working file and any lock; ci -l keeps and ci -u
removes any lock, and then they both generate a new working file much as if co -l or co -u
had been applied to the preceding revision. When reverting, any -n and -s options apply
to the preceding revision.
For each revision deposited, ci prompts for a log message. The log message should summa-
rize the change and must be terminated by end-of-file or by a line containing . by itself.
If several files are checked in ci asks whether to reuse the previous log message. If the
standard input is not a terminal, ci suppresses the prompt and uses the same log message
for all files. See also -m.
If the RCS file does not exist, ci creates it and deposits the contents of the working
file as the initial revision (default number: 1.1). The access list is initialized to
empty. Instead of the log message, ci requests descriptive text (see -t below).
The number rev of the deposited revision can be given by any of the options -f, -i, -I,
-j, -k, -l, -M, -q, -r, or -u. rev can be symbolic, numeric, or mixed. Symbolic names in
rev must already be defined; see the -n and -N options for assigning names during checkin.
If rev is $, ci determines the revision number from keyword values in the working file.
If rev begins with a period, then the default branch (normally the trunk) is prepended to
it. If rev is a branch number followed by a period, then the latest revision on that
branch is used.
If rev is a revision number, it must be higher than the latest one on the branch to which
rev belongs, or must start a new branch.
If rev is a branch rather than a revision number, the new revision is appended to that
branch. The level number is obtained by incrementing the tip revision number of that
branch. If rev indicates a non-existing branch, that branch is created with the initial
revision numbered rev.1.
If rev is omitted, ci tries to derive the new revision number from the caller's last lock.
If the caller has locked the tip revision of a branch, the new revision is appended to
that branch. The new revision number is obtained by incrementing the tip revision number.
If the caller locked a non-tip revision, a new branch is started at that revision by in-
crementing the highest branch number at that revision. The default initial branch and
level numbers are 1.
If rev is omitted and the caller has no lock, but owns the file and locking is not set to
strict, then the revision is appended to the default branch (normally the trunk; see the
-b option of rcs(1)).
Exception: On the trunk, revisions can be appended to the end, but not inserted.
OPTIONS
-rrev Check in revision rev.
-r The bare -r option (without any revision) has an unusual meaning in ci. With other
RCS commands, a bare -r option specifies the most recent revision on the default
branch, but with ci, a bare -r option reestablishes the default behavior of releas-
ing a lock and removing the working file, and is used to override any default -l or
-u options established by shell aliases or scripts.
-l[rev]
works like -r, except it performs an additional co -l for the deposited revision.
Thus, the deposited revision is immediately checked out again and locked. This is
useful for saving a revision although one wants to continue editing it after the
checkin.
-u[rev]
works like -l, except that the deposited revision is not locked. This lets one
read the working file immediately after checkin.
The -l, bare -r, and -u options are mutually exclusive and silently override each
other. For example, ci -u -r is equivalent to ci -r because bare -r overrides -u.
-f[rev]
forces a deposit; the new revision is deposited even it is not different from the
preceding one.
-k[rev]
searches the working file for keyword values to determine its revision number, cre-
ation date, state, and author (see co(1)), and assigns these values to the de-
posited revision, rather than computing them locally. It also generates a default
login message noting the login of the caller and the actual checkin date. This op-
tion is useful for software distribution. A revision that is sent to several sites
should be checked in with the -k option at these sites to preserve the original
number, date, author, and state. The extracted keyword values and the default log
message can be overridden with the options -d, -m, -s, -w, and any option that car-
ries a revision number.
-q[rev]
quiet mode; diagnostic output is not printed. A revision that is not different
from the preceding one is not deposited, unless -f is given.
-i[rev]
initial checkin; report an error if the RCS file already exists. This avoids race
conditions in certain applications.
-j[rev]
just checkin and do not initialize; report an error if the RCS file does not al-
ready exist.
-I[rev]
interactive mode; the user is prompted and questioned even if the standard input is
not a terminal.
-d[date]
uses date for the checkin date and time. The date is specified in free format as
explained in co(1). This is useful for lying about the checkin date, and for -k if
no date is available. If date is empty, the working file's time of last modifica-
tion is used.
-M[rev]
Set the modification time on any new working file to be the date of the retrieved
revision. For example, ci -d -M -u f does not alter f's modification time, even if
f's contents change due to keyword substitution. Use this option with care; it can
confuse make(1).
-m[msg]
uses the string msg as the log message for all revisions checked in. If msg is
omitted, it defaults to "*** empty log message ***". By convention, log messages
that start with # are comments and are ignored by programs like GNU Emacs's vc
package. Also, log messages that start with {clumpname} (followed by white space)
are meant to be clumped together if possible, even if they are associated with dif-
ferent files; the {clumpname} label is used only for clumping, and is not consid-
ered to be part of the log message itself.
-nname assigns the symbolic name name to the number of the checked-in revision. ci prints
an error message if name is already assigned to another number.
-Nname same as -n, except that it overrides a previous assignment of name.
-sstate
sets the state of the checked-in revision to the identifier state. The default
state is Exp.
-tfile writes descriptive text from the contents of the named file into the RCS file,
deleting the existing text. The file cannot begin with -.
-t-string
Write descriptive text from the string into the RCS file, deleting the existing
text.
The -t option, in both its forms, has effect only during an initial checkin; it is
silently ignored otherwise.
During the initial checkin, if -t is not given, ci obtains the text from standard
input, terminated by end-of-file or by a line containing . by itself. The user is
prompted for the text if interaction is possible; see -I.
For backward compatibility with older versions of RCS, a bare -t option is ignored.
-T Set the RCS file's modification time to the new revision's time if the former pre-
cedes the latter and there is a new revision; preserve the RCS file's modification
time otherwise. If you have locked a revision, ci usually updates the RCS file's
modification time to the current time, because the lock is stored in the RCS file
and removing the lock requires changing the RCS file. This can create an RCS file
newer than the working file in one of two ways: first, ci -M can create a working
file with a date before the current time; second, when reverting to the previous
revision the RCS file can change while the working file remains unchanged. These
two cases can cause excessive recompilation caused by a make(1) dependency of the
working file on the RCS file. The -T option inhibits this recompilation by lying
about the RCS file's date. Use this option with care; it can suppress recompila-
tion even when a checkin of one working file should affect another working file as-
sociated with the same RCS file. For example, suppose the RCS file's time is
01:00, the (changed) working file's time is 02:00, some other copy of the working
file has a time of 03:00, and the current time is 04:00. Then ci -d -T sets the
RCS file's time to 02:00 instead of the usual 04:00; this causes make(1) to think
(incorrectly) that the other copy is newer than the RCS file.
-wlogin
uses login for the author field of the deposited revision. Useful for lying about
the author, and for -k if no author is available.
-V Print RCS's version number.
-Vn Emulate RCS version n. See co(1) for details.
-xsuffixes
specifies the suffixes for RCS files. A nonempty suffix matches any file name end-
ing in the suffix. An empty suffix matches any file name of the form RCS/frag or
frag1/RCS/frag2. The -x option can specify a list of suffixes separated by /. For
example, -x,v/ specifies two suffixes: ,v and the empty suffix. If two or more
suffixes are specified, they are tried in order when looking for an RCS file; the
first one that works is used for that file. If no RCS file is found but an RCS
file can be created, the suffixes are tried in order to determine the new RCS
file's name. The default for suffixes is installation-dependent; normally it is
,v/ for hosts like Unix that permit commas in file names, and is empty (i.e. just
the empty suffix) for other hosts.
-zzone specifies the date output format in keyword substitution, and specifies the default
time zone for date in the -ddate option. The zone should be empty, a numeric UTC
offset, or the special string LT for local time. The default is an empty zone,
which uses the traditional RCS format of UTC without any time zone indication and
with slashes separating the parts of the date; otherwise, times are output in ISO
8601 format with time zone indication. For example, if local time is January 11,
1990, 8pm Pacific Standard Time, eight hours west of UTC, then the time is output
as follows:
option time output
-z 1990/01/12 04:00:00 (default)
-zLT 1990-01-11 20:00:00-08
-z+05:30 1990-01-12 09:30:00+05:30
The -z option does not affect dates stored in RCS files, which are always UTC.
FILE NAMING
Pairs of RCS files and working files can be specified in three ways (see also the example
section).
1) Both the RCS file and the working file are given. The RCS file name is of the form
frag1/workfileX and the working file name is of the form frag2/workfile where frag1/ and
frag2/ are (possibly different or empty) file names, workfile is a file name, and X is an
RCS suffix. If X is empty, frag1/ must start with RCS/ or must contain /RCS/.
2) Only the RCS file is given. Then the working file is created in the current directory
and its name is derived from the RCS file name by removing frag1/ and the suffix X.
3) Only the working file is given. Then ci considers each RCS suffix X in turn, looking
for an RCS file of the form frag2/RCS/workfileX or (if the former is not found and X is
nonempty) frag2/workfileX.
If the RCS file is specified without a file name in 1) and 2), ci looks for the RCS file
first in the directory ./RCS and then in the current directory.
ci reports an error if an attempt to open an RCS file fails for an unusual reason, even if
the RCS file's name is just one of several possibilities. For example, to suppress use of
RCS commands in a directory d, create a regular file named d/RCS so that casual attempts
to use RCS commands in d fail because d/RCS is not a directory.
EXAMPLES
Suppose ,v is an RCS suffix and the current directory contains a subdirectory RCS with an
RCS file io.c,v. Then each of the following commands check in a copy of io.c into
RCS/io.c,v as the latest revision, removing io.c.
ci io.c; ci RCS/io.c,v; ci io.c,v;
ci io.c RCS/io.c,v; ci io.c io.c,v;
ci RCS/io.c,v io.c; ci io.c,v io.c;
Suppose instead that the empty suffix is an RCS suffix and the current directory contains
a subdirectory RCS with an RCS file io.c. The each of the following commands checks in a
new revision.
ci io.c; ci RCS/io.c;
ci io.c RCS/io.c;
ci RCS/io.c io.c;
FILE MODES
An RCS file created by ci inherits the read and execute permissions from the working file.
If the RCS file exists already, ci preserves its read and execute permissions. ci always
turns off all write permissions of RCS files.
FILES
Temporary files are created in the directory containing the working file, and also in the
temporary directory (see TMPDIR under ENVIRONMENT). A semaphore file or files are created
in the directory containing the RCS file. With a nonempty suffix, the semaphore names be-
gin with the first character of the suffix; therefore, do not specify an suffix whose
first character could be that of a working file name. With an empty suffix, the semaphore
names end with _ so working file names should not end in _.
ci never changes an RCS file or working file. Normally, ci unlinks the file and creates a
new one; but instead of breaking a chain of one or more symbolic links to an RCS file, it
unlinks the destination file instead. Therefore, ci breaks any hard or symbolic links to
any working file it changes; and hard links to RCS files are ineffective, but symbolic
links to RCS files are preserved.
The effective user must be able to search and write the directory containing the RCS file.
Normally, the real user must be able to read the RCS and working files and to search and
write the directory containing the working file; however, some older hosts cannot easily
switch between real and effective users, so on these hosts the effective user is used for
all accesses. The effective user is the same as the real user unless your copies of ci
and co have setuid privileges. As described in the next section, these privileges yield
extra security if the effective user owns all RCS files and directories, and if only the
effective user can write RCS directories.
Users can control access to RCS files by setting the permissions of the directory contain-
ing the files; only users with write access to the directory can use RCS commands to
change its RCS files. For example, in hosts that allow a user to belong to several
groups, one can make a group's RCS directories writable to that group only. This approach
suffices for informal projects, but it means that any group member can arbitrarily change
the group's RCS files, and can even remove them entirely. Hence more formal projects
sometimes distinguish between an RCS administrator, who can change the RCS files at will,
and other project members, who can check in new revisions but cannot otherwise change the
RCS files.
SETUID USE
To prevent anybody but their RCS administrator from deleting revisions, a set of users can
employ setuid privileges as follows.
o Check that the host supports RCS setuid use. Consult a trustworthy expert if there are
any doubts. It is best if the seteuid system call works as described in Posix 1003.1a
Draft 5, because RCS can switch back and forth easily between real and effective users,
even if the real user is root. If not, the second best is if the setuid system call
supports saved setuid (the {_POSIX_SAVED_IDS} behavior of Posix 1003.1-1990); this fails
only if the real or effective user is root. If RCS detects any failure in setuid, it
quits immediately.
o Choose a user A to serve as RCS administrator for the set of users. Only A can invoke
the rcs command on the users' RCS files. A should not be root or any other user with
special powers. Mutually suspicious sets of users should use different administrators.
o Choose a file name B to be a directory of files to be executed by the users.
o Have A set up B to contain copies of ci and co that are setuid to A by copying the com-
mands from their standard installation directory D as follows:
mkdir B
cp D/c[io] B
chmod go-w,u+s B/c[io]
o Have each user prepend B to their command search path as follows:
PATH=B:$PATH; export PATH # ordinary shell
set path=(B $path) # C shell
o Have A create each RCS directory R with write access only to A as follows:
mkdir R
chmod go-w R
o If you want to let only certain users read the RCS files, put the users into a group G,
and have A further protect the RCS directory as follows:
chgrp G R
chmod g-w,o-rwx R
o Have A copy old RCS files (if any) into R, to ensure that A owns them.
o An RCS file's access list limits who can check in and lock revisions. The default ac-
cess list is empty, which grants checkin access to anyone who can read the RCS file. If
you want limit checkin access, have A invoke rcs -a on the file; see rcs(1). In partic-
ular, rcs -e -aA limits access to just A.
o Have A initialize any new RCS files with rcs -i before initial checkin, adding the -a
option if you want to limit checkin access.
o Give setuid privileges only to ci, co, and rcsclean; do not give them to rcs or to any
other command.
o Do not use other setuid commands to invoke RCS commands; setuid is trickier than you
think!
ENVIRONMENT
RCSINIT
Options prepended to the argument list, separated by spaces. A backslash escapes
spaces within an option. The RCSINIT options are prepended to the argument lists
of most RCS commands. Useful RCSINIT options include -q, -V, -x, and -z.
RCS_MEM_LIMIT
Normally, for speed, commands either memory map or copy into memory the RCS file if
its size is less than the memory-limit, currently defaulting to ``unlimited''.
Otherwise (or if the initially-tried speedy ways fail), the commands fall back to
using standard i/o routines. You can adjust the memory limit by setting
RCS_MEM_LIMIT to a numeric value lim (measured in kilobytes). An empty value is
silently ignored. As a side effect, specifying RCS_MEM_LIMIT inhibits fall-back to
slower routines.
TMPDIR Name of the temporary directory. If not set, the environment variables TMP and
TEMP are inspected instead and the first value found is taken; if none of them are
set, a host-dependent default is used, typically /tmp.
DIAGNOSTICS
For each revision, ci prints the RCS file, the working file, and the number of both the
deposited and the preceding revision. The exit status is zero if and only if all opera-
tions were successful.
IDENTIFICATION
Author: Walter F. Tichy.
Manual Page Revision: 5.10.1; Release Date: 2022-02-19.
Copyright (C) 2010-2022 Thien-Thi Nguyen.
Copyright (C) 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995 Paul Eggert.
Copyright (C) 1982, 1988, 1989 Walter F. Tichy.
SEE ALSO
co(1), emacs(1), ident(1), make(1), rcs(1), rcsclean(1), rcsdiff(1), rcsmerge(1), rlog(1),
setuid(2), rcsfile(5).
Walter F. Tichy, RCS--A System for Version Control, Software--Practice & Experience 15, 7
(July 1985), 637-654.
The full documentation for RCS is maintained as a Texinfo manual. If the info(1) and RCS
programs are properly installed at your site, the command
info rcs
should give you access to the complete manual. Additionally, the RCS homepage:
http://www.gnu.org/software/rcs/
has news and links to the latest release, development site, etc.
GNU RCS 5.10.1 2022-02-19 CI(1)
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