Table of Contents
cvs - Concurrent Versions System
- cvs
[ cvs_options ]
- cvs_command [ command_options ] [ command_args ]
This manpage is a summary of some of the features of cvs. It is auto-generated
from an appendix of the CVS manual. For more in-depth documentation, please
consult the Cederqvist manual (via the info CVS command or otherwise, as
described in the SEE ALSO section of this manpage). Cross-references in
this man page refer to nodes in the same.
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, see node ‘Invoking CVSaq in the CVS manual).
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.
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.
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 useraqs ~/.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 doesnaqt 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 (see node ‘Global optionsaq in the CVS
manual). For example the following line in .cvsrc
- cvs -z6
-
- causes cvs to
use compression level 6.
The available cvs_options (that
are given to the left of cvs_command) are:
- --allow-root=rootdir
- Specify legal
cvsroot directory. See
- see node ‘Password authentication serveraq in the
CVS manual.
- -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 (see node ‘GSSAPI authenticatedaq
in the CVS manual). Authentication prevents certain sorts of attacks involving
hijacking the active tcp connection. Enabling authentication does not enable
encryption.
- -b bindir
- In cvs 1.9.18 and older, this specified that
- rcs programs
are in the bindir directory. Current versions of cvs do not run rcs programs;
for compatibility this option is accepted, but it does nothing.
- -T tempdir
- Use tempdir as the directory where temporary files are
- located. Overrides
the setting of the $TMPDIR environment variable and any precompiled directory.
This parameter should be specified as an absolute pathname. (When running
client/server, -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. see node ‘Repositoryaq
in the CVS manual.
- -e editor
- Use editor to enter revision log information.
Overrides the
- setting of the $CVSEDITOR and $EDITOR environment variables.
For more information, see see node ‘Committing your changesaq in the CVS
manual.
- -f
- Do not read the ~/.cvsrc file. This
- option is most often used because
of the non-orthogonality of the cvs option set. For example, the cvs log
option -N (turn off display of tag names) does not have a corresponding
option to turn the display on. So if you have -N in the ~/.cvsrc entry for
log, you may need to use -f to show the tag names.
- -H
- --help
- Display usage information
about the specified cvs_command
- (but do not actually execute the command).
If you donaqt 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 (see node ‘Environment variablesaq in the CVS manual). The
default is to make working files writable, unless watches are on (see node
‘Watchesaq in the CVS manual).
- -s variable=value
- Set a user variable (see
node ‘Variablesaq in the CVS manual).
- -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 (see node ‘GSSAPI authenticatedaq in the CVS manual)
or a Kerberos connection (see node ‘Kerberos authenticatedaq in the CVS
manual). Enabling encryption implies that message traffic is also authenticated.
Encryption support is not available by default; it must be enabled using
a special configure option, --enable-encryption, when you build cvs.
- -z gzip-level
- Set the compression level.
- Valid levels are 1 (high speed, low compression)
to 9 (low speed, high compression), or 0 to disable compression (the default).
Only has an effect on the cvs client.
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, see node ‘Sticky tagsaq in the CVS
manual).
-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; see node ‘history optionsaq in
the CVS manual).
A wide variety of date formats are supported by cvs.
The most standard ones are ISO8601 (from the International Standards Organization)
and the Internet e-mail standard (specified in RFC822 as amended by RFC1123).
ISO8601 dates have many variants but a few examples are:
- 1972-09-24
- 1972-09-24
20:05
-
- There are a lot more ISO8601 date formats, and cvs
- accepts many
of them, but you probably donaqt want to hear the whole long story :-).
In
addition to the dates allowed in Internet e-mail itself, cvs also allows
some of the fields to be omitted. For example:
- 24 Sep 1972 20:05
- 24 Sep
-
- The date is interpreted as being in the
- local timezone, unless a specific
timezone is specified.
These two date formats are preferred. However, cvs
currently accepts a wide variety of other date formats. They are intentionally
not documented here in any detail, and future versions of cvs might not
accept all of them.
One such format is month/day/year. This may confuse
people who are accustomed to having the month and day in the other order;
1/4/96 is January 4, not April 1.
Remember to quote the argument to the
-D flag so that your shell doesnaqt 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 see node
‘commit optionsaq in the CVS manual, and see node ‘Removing filesaq in the
CVS manual.
- -k kflag
- Override the default processing of RCS keywords other
than
- -kb. see node ‘Keyword substitutionaq in the CVS manual, 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 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. see node ‘Merging and keywordsaq in the
CVS manual, 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 (see node ‘modulesaq
in the CVS manual); 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 see node ‘Removing directoriesaq in the CVS
manual.
- -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
- Use the revision specified by the tag argument instead of the
- default
head revision. As well as arbitrary tags defined with the tag or rtag command,
two special tags are always available: HEAD refers to the most recent version
available in the repository, and BASE refers to the revision you last checked
out into the current working directory.
The tag specification is sticky
when you use this with checkout or update to make your own copy of a file:
cvs remembers the tag and continues to use it on future update commands,
until you specify otherwise (for more information on sticky tags/dates,
see node ‘Sticky tagsaq in the CVS manual).
The tag can be either a symbolic
or numeric tag, as described in see node ‘Tagsaq in the CVS manual, or the
name of a branch, as described in see node ‘Branching and mergingaq in the
CVS manual.
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 is
available with the checkout, commit, diff, history, export, rdiff, rtag,
and update commands.
- -W
- Specify file names that should be filtered. You can
- use this option repeatedly. The spec can be a file name pattern of the
same type that you can specify in the .cvswrappers file. Available with the
following commands: import, and update.
- 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 see node ‘configaq in the CVS manual 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.
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 (see node ‘Sticky tagsaq in the CVS manual) 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 vendoraqs version when using vendor
branches (see node ‘Reverting local changesaq in the CVS manual). 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. see node ‘Keyword
substitutionaq in the CVS manual.
- -e[logins]
- Might not work together with
cvs. Erase the login
- names appearing in the comma-separated list logins
from the access list of the RCS file. If logins is omitted, erase the entire
access list. There can be no space between -e and its argument.
- -I
- Run interactively,
even if the standard input is not a
- terminal. This option does not work
with the client/server cvs and is likely to disappear in a future release
of cvs.
- -i
- Useless with cvs. This creates and initializes a
- new rcs file,
without depositing a revision. With cvs, add files with the cvs add command
(see node ‘Adding filesaq in the CVS manual).
- -ksubst
- Set the default keyword
- substitution to subst. see node ‘Keyword substitutionaq in the CVS manual.
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 see node ‘Magic branch numbersaq in the CVS manual.
- -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 isnaqt 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. see node
‘Magic branch numbersaq in the CVS manual, 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 (see node ‘Merging
two revisionsaq in the CVS manual).
- -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 (see node ‘logaq in the CVS manual),
and in the $Log$ and $State$ keywords (see node ‘Keyword substitutionaq
in the CVS manual). Note that cvs uses the dead state for its own purposes;
to take a file to or from the dead state use commands like cvs remove and
cvs add, not cvs admin -s.
- -t[file]
- Useful with cvs. Write descriptive text
from the
- contents of the named file into the RCS file, deleting the existing
text. The file pathname may not begin with -. The descriptive text can be
seen in the output from cvs log (see node ‘logaq in the CVS manual). 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 (see node ‘Getting Notifiedaq in the CVS manual). 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.
These standard
options are supported by annotate (see node ‘Common optionsaq in the CVS
manual, for a complete description of them):
- -l
- Local directory only, no
recursion.
- -R
- Process directories recursively.
- -f
- Use head revision if tag/date
not found.
- -F
- Annotate binary files.
- -r revision
- Annotate file as of specified
revision/tag.
- -D date
- Annotate file as of specified date.
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 doesnaqt tell you anything about lines which have been deleted or
replaced; you need to use cvs diff for that (see node ‘diffaq in the CVS
manual).
The options to cvs annotate are listed in see node ‘Invoking CVSaq
in the CVS manual, and can be used to select the files and revisions to
annotate. The options are described in more detail there and in see node
‘Common optionsaq in the CVS manual.
- 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. see node ‘modulesaq in the CVS manual.
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 (see
node ‘Global optionsaq in the CVS manual) is specified, the CVSREAD environment
variable is specified (see node ‘Environment variablesaq in the CVS manual),
or a watch is in effect for that file (see node ‘Watchesaq in the CVS manual).
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,
donaqt forget to change your directory to the top level directory.
For the
output produced by the checkout command see see node ‘update outputaq in
the CVS manual.
These standard options are supported by
checkout (see node ‘Common optionsaq in the CVS manual, 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 see node ‘Sticky tagsaq in the CVS manual,
for more information on sticky tags/dates.
- -f
- Only useful with the -D date
or -r
- tag flags. If no matching revision is found, retrieve the most recent
revision (instead of ignoring the file).
- -k kflag
- Process keywords according
to kflag. See
- see node ‘Keyword substitutionaq in the CVS manual. 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 see node ‘Invoking CVSaq in the CVS manual, 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; see node ‘modulesaq in the CVS manual).
- -P
- Prune empty directories.
See see node ‘Moving directoriesaq in the CVS manual.
- -p
- Pipe files to the
standard output.
- -R
- Checkout directories recursively. This option is on by
default.
- -r tag
- Use revision tag. This option is sticky, and implies -P.
- See
see node ‘Sticky tagsaq in the CVS manual, for more information on sticky
tags/dates.
In addition to those, you can use these special command options
with checkout:
- -A
- Reset any sticky tags, dates, or -k options.
- See see node
‘Sticky tagsaq in the CVS manual, 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 doesnaqt contain empty intermediate
directories. In this case only, cvs tries to ‘‘shortenaqaq 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.
see node ‘Branching and mergingaq in the CVS manual.
- -N
- Only useful together
with -d dir. With
- this option, cvs will not ‘‘shortenaqaq 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. see node ‘modulesaq in the CVS manual,
for info about the -s option that is used inside the modules file to set
the module status.
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
-
- Synopsis:
commit [-lnRf] [-m aqlog_messageaq | -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 donaqt 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 (see node ‘updateaq in the CVS manual). 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 (see node
‘modulesaq in the CVS manual, and see node ‘loginfoaq in the CVS manual)
and placed in the rcs file inside the repository. This log message can
be retrieved with the log command; see see node ‘logaq in the CVS manual.
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.
These
standard options are supported by commit (see node ‘Common optionsaq in
the CVS manual, 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 (see node ‘Assigning revisionsaq in the CVS manual). You
cannot commit to a specific revision on a branch.
commit also supports these
options:
- -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 see node ‘Common optionsaq in the CVS manual.
Force cvs to commit
a new revision even if you havenaqt made any changes to the file. 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.
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 (see node ‘Branching and mergingaq in the CVS manual). 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.
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 utilize 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
-
- Synopsis: diff [-lR] [-k kflag] [format_options] [[-r rev1
| -D date1] [-r rev2 | -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 see node ‘Exit statusaq
in the CVS manual.
These standard options are supported by diff
(see node ‘Common optionsaq in the CVS manual, 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
- see node ‘Keyword substitutionaq in the CVS manual.
- -l
- Local;
run only in current working directory.
- -R
- Examine directories recursively.
This option is on by
- default.
- -r tag
- Compare with revision tag. 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.
see node ‘Line group formatsaq in the CVS manual.
- -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.
- see node ‘Line formatsaq in the CVS manual.
- --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. see node
‘Line group formatsaq in the CVS manual.
- --new-line-format=format
- Use format
to output a line taken from just the second file in
- if-then-else format.
see node ‘Line formatsaq in the CVS manual.
- --old-group-format=format
- Use format
to output a group of lines taken from just the first
- file in if-then-else
format. see node ‘Line group formatsaq in the CVS manual.
- --old-line-format=format
- Use format to output a line taken from just the first file in
- if-then-else
format. see node ‘Line formatsaq in the CVS manual.
- -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. see node ‘Line group formatsaq in the CVS manual.
- --unchanged-line-format=format
- Use format to output a line common to both files in if-then-else
- format.
see node ‘Line formatsaq in the CVS manual.
- -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.
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=aq\begin{em}
- %<\end{em}
- aq \
- --new-group-format=aq\begin{bf}
- %>\end{bf}
- aq \
- 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=aq\begin{em}
- %<\end{em}
- aq \
- --new-group-format=aq\begin{bf}
- %>\end{bf}
- aq \
- --unchanged-group-format=aq%=aq \
- --changed-group-format=aq\begin{em}
- %<\end{em}
- \begin{bf}
- %>\end{bf}
- aq \
- myfile
-
- Here is a more advanced example, which outputs a diff listing
with
- headers containing line numbers in a ‘‘plain Englishaqaq style.
- cvs
diff \
- --unchanged-group-format=aqaq \
- --old-group-format=aq-------- %dn line%(n=1?:s) deleted at %df:
- %<aq \
- --new-group-format=aq-------- %dN line%(N=1?:s) added after %de:
- %>aq \
- --changed-group-format=aq-------- %dn line%(n=1?:s) changed at %df:
- %<-------- to:
- %>aq \
- 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 (see node ‘Line
formatsaq in the CVS manual).
- %>
- 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 %.
- %caqCaq
- where C is a single character, stands
for C.
- C may not be a backslash or an apostrophe. For example, %caq:aq stands
for a colon, even inside the then-part of an if-then-else format, which a
colon would normally terminate.
- %caq\Oaq
- where O is a string of 1, 2, or
3 octal digits,
- stands for the character with octal code O. For example,
%caq\0aq stands for a null character.
- Fn
- where F is a printf conversion specification
and n is one
- of the following letters, stands for naqs 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 Aaqs value
equals Baqs; 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.
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=aq-%l
- aq \
- --new-line-format=aq|%l
- aq \
- --unchanged-line-format=aq %l
- aq \
- 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 %.
- %caqCaq
- where C is a single character,
stands for C.
- C may not be a backslash or an apostrophe. For example, %caq:aq
stands for a colon.
- %caq\Oaq
- where O is a string of 1, 2, or 3 octal digits,
- stands for the character with octal code O. For example, %caq\0aq 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". see node ‘Line group formatsaq in
the CVS manual, 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 diffaqs
normal format. You can tailor this command to get fine control over diffaqs
output.
- cvs diff \
- --old-line-format=aq< %l
- aq \
- --new-line-format=aq> %l
- aq \
- --old-group-format=aq%df%(f=l?:,%dl)d%dE
- %<aq \
- --new-group-format=aq%dea%dF%(F=L?:,%dL)
- %>aq \
- --changed-group-format=aq%df%(f=l?:,%dl)c%dF%(F=L?:,%dL)
- %<--
- %>aq \
- --unchanged-group-format=aqaq \
- myfile
-
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
-
- Synopsis: export [-flNnR]
[-r rev|-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 doesnaqt 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.
These standard options are supported by export (see node ‘Common
optionsaq in the CVS manual, 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
- Use
revision tag.
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. see node ‘checkout optionsaq
in the CVS manual, for complete details on how cvs handles this flag.
- -k
subst
- Set keyword expansion mode (see node ‘Substitution modesaq in the
CVS manual).
- -N
- Only useful together with -d dir.
- see node ‘checkout optionsaq
in the CVS manual, for complete details on how cvs handles this flag.
- Synopsis: history [-report] [-flags] [-options
args] [files...]
- Requires: the file $CVSROOT/CVSROOT/history
- Changes: nothing.
cvs can keep a history file that tracks each use of the checkout, commit,
rtag, update, and release commands. You can use history to display this
information in various formats.
Logging must be enabled by creating the
file $CVSROOT/CVSROOT/history.
Note: history uses -f, -l, -n, and -p in ways
that conflict with the normal use inside cvs (see node ‘Common optionsaq
in the CVS manual).
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,
youaqll 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.
- 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. see node ‘Tracking sourcesaq in the CVS manual,
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 (see
node ‘cvsignoreaq in the CVS manual), it does not import it and prints I
followed by the filename (see node ‘import outputaq in the CVS manual,
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. see node ‘Wrappersaq in the
CVS manual.
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 identify the files at the leaves created
each time you execute import.
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 (see node
‘Getting the sourceaq in the CVS manual).
This standard option
is supported by import (see node ‘Common optionsaq in the CVS manual, 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 see node ‘Multiple vendor branchesaq in the CVS manual.
- -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 see node ‘Substitution modesaq in the CVS
manual, 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 !aq.
name can be a file name pattern of the same type that you can specify in
the .cvsignore file. see node ‘cvsignoreaq in the CVS manual.
- -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. see node ‘Wrappersaq in the CVS manual.
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 (see node ‘cvsignoreaq
in the CVS manual).
- 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.; see node ‘modulesaq in the CVS
manual.)
See see node ‘Tracking sourcesaq in the CVS manual,
and see node ‘From filesaq in the CVS manual.
- Synopsis: log [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 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 (see node ‘Common
optionsaq in the CVS manual).
By default, log prints all information
that is available. All other options restrict the output.
- -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
(see node ‘Common optionsaq in the CVS manual). 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"aqing
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.
- -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 useraqs 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.
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.)
- ls [-e | -l] [-RP] [-r revision] [-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.
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
- Donaqt list contents of empty directories when recursing.
- -R
- List recursively.
- -r revision
- Show files with revision or tag.
- -D date
- Show
files from date.
- $ cvs rls
- cvs rls: Listing module: ‘.aq
- CVSROOT
- first-dir
-
- $ cvs rls CVSROOT
- cvs rls: Listing module: ‘CVSROOTaq
- checkoutlist
- commitinfo
- config
- cvswrappers
- loginfo
- modules
- notify
- rcsinfo
- taginfo
- verifymsg
- rdiff [-flags] [-V vn] [-r
t|-D d [-r t2|-D d2]] 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 doesnaqt 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.
These
standard options are supported by rdiff (see node ‘Common optionsaq in the
CVS manual, 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; donaqt
descend subdirectories.
- -R
- Examine directories recursively. This option is
on by default.
- -r tag
- Use revision tag.
In addition to the above, these options
are available:
- -c
- Use the context diff format. This is the default format.
- -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 canaqt 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.
Suppose you receive mail from foo@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 aqThe patches you asked foraq
foo@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
-
- 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 doesnaqt lock files,
it isnaqt 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
(see node ‘history fileaq in the CVS manual) that youaqve 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.
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; see node ‘Adding filesaq in the CVS manual) will be silently deleted--even
if it is non-empty!
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. see node
‘commitaq in the CVS manual.
- 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 see node ‘cvsignoreaq in the CVS
manual). If you remove your working sources, this file will be lost.
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 ‘tcaq: y
- $
-
- update [-ACdflPpR] [-I name] [-j rev [-j rev]] [-k kflag] [-r
tag|-D date] [-W spec] files...
- Requires: repository, working directory.
- Changes:
working directory.
After youaqve 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.
These
standard options are available with update (see node ‘Common optionsaq in
the CVS manual, 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 see node ‘Sticky tagsaq in the CVS manual, for more information on sticky
tags/dates.
- -f
- Only useful with the -D date or -r
- tag flags. If no matching
revision is found, retrieve the most recent revision (instead of ignoring
the file).
- -k kflag
- Process keywords according to kflag. See
- see node ‘Keyword
substitutionaq in the CVS manual. 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 see node ‘Invoking
CVSaq in the CVS manual, for more information on the status command.
- -l
- Local;
run only in current working directory. see node ‘Recursive behavioraq in
the CVS manual.
- -P
- Prune empty directories. See see node ‘Moving directoriesaq
in the CVS manual.
- -p
- Pipe files to the standard output.
- -R
- Update directories
recursively (default). see node ‘Recursive
- behavioraq in the CVS manual.
- -r rev
- Retrieve revision/tag rev. This option is sticky,
- and implies -P. See
see node ‘Sticky tagsaq in the CVS manual, for more information on sticky
tags/dates.
These special options are also available with update.
- -A
- Reset
any sticky tags, dates, or -k options.
- See see node ‘Sticky tagsaq in the
CVS manual, 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
- theyaqre 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. see node ‘cvsignoreaq in the CVS manual,
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. see node ‘Wrappersaq in the CVS manual.
- -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.
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.
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. see node ‘Merging
adds and removalsaq in the CVS manual, 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.
see node ‘Branching and mergingaq in the CVS manual.
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
source, and for files that you havenaqt 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 youaqre 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 see node ‘Conflicts
exampleaq in the CVS manual. (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
- 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 see node ‘cvsignoreaq in the CVS
manual).
- Dick Grune
- Original author of the cvs shell script version
posted to comp.sources.unix in the volume6 release of December, 1986. Credited
with much of the cvs conflict resolution algorithms.
- Brian Berliner
- Coder
and designer of the cvs program itself in April, 1989, based on the original
work done by Dick.
- Jeff Polk
- Helped Brian with the design of the cvs module
and vendor branch support and author of the checkin(1)
shell script (the
ancestor of cvs import).
- Larry Jones, Derek R. Price, and Mark D. Baushke
- Have helped maintain cvs for many years.
- And many others too numerous to
mention here.
The most comprehensive manual for CVS is Version Management
with CVS by Per Cederqvist et al. Depending on your system, you may be
able to get it with the info CVS command or it may be available as cvs.pdf
(Portable Document Format), cvs.ps (PostScript), cvs.texinfo (Texinfo source),
or cvs.html.
For CVS updates, more information on documentation, software
related to CVS, development of CVS, and more, see:
- http://cvshome.org
- http://www.loria.fr/~molli/cvs-index.html
-
ci(1)
, co(1)
, cvs(5)
, cvsbug(8)
,
diff(1)
, grep(1)
, patch(1)
, rcs(1)
, rcsdiff(1)
, rcsmerge(1)
, rlog(1)
.
Table of Contents