MirBSD manpage: rcs(1)


RCS(1)              UNIX Programmer's Manual               RCS(1)

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 con-
     trol 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 oth-
     ers 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 depo-
          sit 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

GNU                        1995/06/05                           1

RCS(1)              UNIX Programmer's Manual               RCS(1)

          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 some-
          one 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 sol-
          icited 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 deter-
          mined 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.

GNU                        1995/06/05                           2

RCS(1)              UNIX Programmer's Manual               RCS(1)

     -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 con-
          trasts 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 revi-
          sion 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-

GNU                        1995/06/05                           3

RCS(1)              UNIX Programmer's Manual               RCS(1)

          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 compa-
     tibility 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.

GNU                        1995/06/05                           4

RCS(1)              UNIX Programmer's Manual               RCS(1)

ENVIRONMENT

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

     RCSLOCALID
          Local keyword to substitute. See co(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 (C) 1982, 1988, 1989 Walter F. Tichy.
     Copyright (C) 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 sym-
     bolic names for the outdated revisions; you must use -n to
     remove the names.

GNU                        1995/06/05                           5

Generated on 2022-12-24 01:00:14 by $MirOS: src/scripts/roff2htm,v 1.113 2022/12/21 23:14:31 tg Exp $ — This product includes material provided by mirabilos.

These manual pages and other documentation are copyrighted by their respective writers; their sources are available at the project’s CVSweb, AnonCVS and other mirrors. The rest is Copyright © 2002–2022 MirBSD.

This manual page’s HTML representation is supposed to be valid XHTML/1.1; if not, please send a bug report — diffs preferred.

Kontakt / Impressum & Datenschutzerklärung