man rcs - Man page for rcs

June 1, 2007 – 1:45 am

RCS

Section: User Commands (1)
Updated: 1995/06/05
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NAME

rcs – change RCS file attributes
 

SYNOPSIS

rcs

options file …

 

DESCRIPTION

rcs

creates new RCS files or changes attributes of existing ones.
An RCS file contains multiple revisions of text,
an access list, a change log,
descriptive text,
and some control attributes.
For
rcs

to work, the caller’s login name must be on the access list,
except if the access list is empty, the caller is the owner of the file
or the superuser, or
the
–i

option is present.

Pathnames matching an RCS suffix denote RCS files;
all others denote working files.
Names are paired as explained in
ci(1).

Revision numbers use the syntax described in
ci(1).

 

OPTIONS

–i

Create and initialize a new RCS file, but do not deposit any revision.
If the RCS file has no path prefix, try to place it
first into the subdirectory
./RCS,

and then into the current directory.
If the RCS file
already exists, print an error message.

–alogins

Append the login names appearing in the comma–separated list
logins

to the access list of the RCS file.

–Aoldfile

Append the access list of
oldfile

to the access list of the RCS file.

–e[logins]

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.

–b[rev]

Set the default branch to
rev.

If
rev

is omitted, the default
branch is reset to the (dynamically) highest branch on the trunk.

–cstring

Set the comment leader to
string.

An initial
ci,

or an
rcs –i

without
–c,

guesses the comment leader from the suffix of the working filename.

This option is obsolescent, since RCS normally uses the preceding
$Log$

line’s prefix when inserting log lines during checkout (see
co(1)).

However, older versions of RCS use the comment leader instead of the
$Log$

line’s prefix, so
if you plan to access a file with both old and new versions of RCS,
make sure its comment leader matches its
$Log$

line prefix.

–ksubst

Set the default keyword substitution to
subst.

The effect of keyword substitution is described in
co(1).

Giving an explicit
–k

option to
co,

rcsdiff,

and
rcsmerge

overrides this default.
Beware
rcs –kv,

because
–kv

is incompatible with
co –l.

Use
rcs –kkv

to restore the normal default keyword substitution.

–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.
Locking prevents overlapping changes.
If someone else already holds the lock, the lock is broken as with
rcs –u

(see below).

–u[rev]

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 can unlock it.
Somebody else unlocking a revision breaks the lock.
This causes a mail message to be sent to the original locker.
The message contains a commentary solicited from the breaker.
The commentary is terminated by end–of–file or by a line containing
. by

itself.

–L

Set locking to
strict.

Strict locking means that the owner
of an RCS file is not exempt from locking for checkin.
This option should be used for files that are shared.

–U

Set locking to non–strict. Non–strict locking means that the owner of
a file need not lock a revision for checkin.
This option should
not

be used for files that are shared.
Whether default locking is strict is determined by your system administrator,
but it is normally strict.

–mrev:msg

Replace revision
rev’s

log message with
msg.

–M

Do not send mail when breaking somebody else’s lock.
This option is not meant for casual use;
it is meant for programs that warn users by other means, and invoke
rcs –u

only as a low–level lock–breaking operation.

–nname[:[rev]]

Associate the symbolic name
name

with the branch or
revision
rev.

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,
rcs –nname: RCS/*

associates
name

with the current latest revision of all the named RCS files;
this contrasts with
rcs –nname:$ RCS/*

which associates
name

with the revision numbers extracted from keyword strings
in the corresponding working files.

–Nname[:[rev]]

Act like
–n,

except override any previous assignment of
name.

–orange

deletes (“outdates”) the revisions given by
range.

A range consisting of a single revision number means that revision.
A range consisting of a branch number means the latest revision on that
branch.
A range of the form
rev1:rev2

means
revisions
rev1

to
rev2

on the same branch,
:rev

means from the beginning of the branch containing
rev

up to and including
rev,

and
rev:

means
from revision
rev

to the end of the branch containing
rev.

None of the outdated revisions can have branches or locks.

–q

Run quietly; do not print diagnostics.

–I

Run interactively, even if the standard input is not a terminal.

–sstate[:rev]

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,
ci(1)

sets the state of a revision to
Exp.

–t[file]

Write descriptive text from the contents of the named
file

into the RCS file, deleting the existing text.
The
file

pathname cannot begin with
–.

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.

With
–i,

descriptive text is obtained
even if
–t

is not given.

–t–string

Write descriptive text from the
string

into the RCS file, deleting the existing text.

–T

Preserve the modification time on the RCS file
unless a revision is removed.
This option can suppress extensive recompilation caused by a
make(1)

dependency of some copy of the working file on the RCS file.
Use this option with care; it can suppress recompilation even when it is needed,
i.e. when a change to the RCS file
would mean a change to keyword strings in the working file.

–V

Print RCS’s version number.

–Vn

Emulate RCS version
n.

See
co(1)

for details.

–xsuffixes

Use
suffixes

to characterize RCS files.
See
ci(1)

for details.

–zzone

Use
zone

as the default time zone.
This option has no effect;
it is present for compatibility with other RCS commands.

At least one explicit option must be given,
to ensure compatibility with future planned extensions
to the
rcs

command.
 

COMPATIBILITY

The
–brev

option generates an RCS file that cannot be parsed by RCS version 3 or earlier.

The
–ksubst

options (except
–kkv)

generate an RCS file that cannot be parsed by RCS version 4 or earlier.

Use
rcs –Vn

to make an RCS file acceptable to RCS version
n

by discarding information that would confuse version
n.

RCS version 5.5 and earlier does not support the
–x

option, and requires a
,v

suffix on an RCS pathname.
 

FILES

rcs

accesses files much as
ci(1)

does,
except that it uses the effective user for all accesses,
it does not write the working file or its directory,
and it does not even read the working file unless a revision number of
$

is specified.
 

ENVIRONMENT

RCSINIT

options prepended to the argument list, separated by spaces.
See
ci(1)

for details.

 

DIAGNOSTICS

The RCS pathname and the revisions outdated are written to
the diagnostic output.
The exit status is zero if and only if all operations were successful.
 

IDENTIFICATION

Author: Walter F. Tichy.

Manual Page Revision: 5.13; Release Date: 1995/06/05.

Copyright © 1982, 1988, 1989 Walter F. Tichy.

Copyright © 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995 Paul Eggert.
 

SEE ALSO

rcsintro(1), co(1), ci(1), ident(1), rcsclean(1), rcsdiff(1),
rcsmerge(1), rlog(1), rcsfile(5)

Walter F. Tichy,
RCS––A System for Version Control,
Software––Practice & Experience

15,

7 (July 1985), 637–654.
 

BUGS

A catastrophe (e.g. a system crash) can cause RCS to leave behind
a semaphore file that causes later invocations of RCS to claim
that the RCS file is in use.
To fix this, remove the semaphore file.
A semaphore file’s name typically begins with
,

or ends with
_.

The separator for revision ranges in the
–o

option used to be
–

instead of
:,

but this leads to confusion when symbolic names contain
–.

For backwards compatibility
rcs –o

still supports the old
–

separator, but it warns about this obsolete use.

Symbolic names need not refer to existing revisions or branches.
For example, the
–o

option does not remove symbolic names for the outdated revisions; you must use
–n

to remove the names.

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Index

NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

OPTIONS

COMPATIBILITY

FILES

ENVIRONMENT

DIAGNOSTICS

IDENTIFICATION

SEE ALSO

BUGS

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