Annotation of src/usr.bin/rcs/rcs.1, Revision 1.51
1.51 ! jmc 1: .\" $OpenBSD: rcs.1,v 1.50 2007/04/21 08:34:30 jsg Exp $
1.1 deraadt 2: .\"
3: .\" Copyright (c) 2005 Jean-Francois Brousseau <jfb@openbsd.org>
1.22 jmc 4: .\" Copyright (c) 2005 Xavier Santolaria <xsa@openbsd.org>
1.1 deraadt 5: .\" All rights reserved.
6: .\"
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8: .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
9: .\" are met:
10: .\"
11: .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
12: .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
13: .\" 2. The name of the author may not be used to endorse or promote products
14: .\" derived from this software without specific prior written permission.
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17: .\" INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY
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27: .Dd May 16, 2004
28: .Dt RCS 1
29: .Os
30: .Sh NAME
31: .Nm rcs
32: .Nd RCS file management program
33: .Sh SYNOPSIS
34: .Nm
1.47 niallo 35: .Op Fl IiLqTUV
1.14 xsa 36: .Op Fl A Ns Ar oldfile
1.7 niallo 37: .Op Fl a Ns Ar users
38: .Op Fl b Ns Op Ar rev
1.12 xsa 39: .Op Fl c Ns Ar string
1.7 niallo 40: .Op Fl e Ns Op Ar users
1.9 xsa 41: .Op Fl k Ns Ar mode
1.24 ray 42: .Op Fl l Ns Op Ar rev
1.33 jmc 43: .Oo Fl m Ns Ar rev :
1.20 xsa 44: .Ar msg Oc
1.19 xsa 45: .Op Fl o Ns Ar rev
1.43 ray 46: .Op Fl t Ns Ar str
1.24 ray 47: .Op Fl u Ns Op Ar rev
1.15 xsa 48: .Op Fl x Ns Ar suffixes
1.30 jmc 49: .Ar
1.1 deraadt 50: .Sh DESCRIPTION
1.22 jmc 51: Revision Control System (RCS) is a software tool which lets people
52: manage multiple revisions of text that is revised frequently, such as
53: source code or documentation.
54: .Pp
1.1 deraadt 55: The
56: .Nm
57: program is used to create RCS files or manipulate the contents of existing
58: files.
1.22 jmc 59: A set of helper tools is also available:
60: specific revisions of files may be checked in or out, using
61: .Xr ci 1
62: and
63: .Xr co 1 ;
64: differences between revisions viewed or merged, using
65: .Xr rcsdiff 1
66: and
67: .Xr rcsmerge 1 ;
68: and information about RCS files and keyword strings displayed using
69: .Xr rlog 1
70: and
71: .Xr ident 1 .
72: See the respective manual pages for more information
73: about these utilities.
1.1 deraadt 74: .Pp
75: The following options are supported:
76: .Bl -tag -width "-e usersXX"
1.14 xsa 77: .It Fl A Ns Ar oldfile
78: Append the access list of
79: .Ar oldfile
80: to the access list of the RCS files.
1.7 niallo 81: .It Fl a Ns Ar users
1.1 deraadt 82: Add the usernames specified in the comma-separated list
83: .Ar users
84: to the access list of the RCS files.
1.7 niallo 85: .It Fl b Ns Op Ar rev
1.45 jmc 86: Set the default branch (see below) to
1.14 xsa 87: .Ar rev .
1.45 jmc 88: If no argument is specified,
89: the default branch is set to the highest numbered branch.
1.12 xsa 90: .It Fl c Ns Ar string
91: Set comment leader to
92: .Ar string .
1.41 jmc 93: The comment leader specifies the comment character(s) for a file.
94: This option is useful for compatibility with older RCS implementations
95: only.
1.7 niallo 96: .It Fl e Ns Op Ar users
1.1 deraadt 97: Remove the usernames specified in the comma-separated list
98: .Ar users
99: from the access list of the RCS files.
100: If
101: .Ar users
102: is not specified, all users are removed from the access list.
1.20 xsa 103: .It Fl I
104: Interactive mode.
1.1 deraadt 105: .It Fl i
1.10 xsa 106: Create and initialize a new RCS file.
1.11 jmc 107: If the RCS file has no path prefix, try to first create it in the
1.10 xsa 108: .Pa ./RCS
1.11 jmc 109: subdirectory or, if that fails, in the current directory.
1.1 deraadt 110: Files created this way contain no revision.
1.9 xsa 111: .It Fl k Ns Ar mode
1.44 jmc 112: Specify the keyword substitution mode (see below).
1.1 deraadt 113: .It Fl L
114: Enable strict locking on the RCS files.
1.24 ray 115: .It Fl l Ns Op Ar rev
116: Lock revision
117: .Ar rev
118: on the RCS files.
1.7 niallo 119: .It Fl m Ns Ar rev : Ns Ar msg
1.5 jmc 120: Replace revision
121: .Ar rev Ns 's
122: log message with
123: .Ar msg .
1.19 xsa 124: .It Fl o Ns Ar rev
125: Delete one or more revisions.
126: The specifications of the values or revisions are as follows:
127: .Bl -tag -width Ds
128: .It rev
129: Specific revision.
130: .It rev1:rev2
131: Delete all revisions of a branch between
132: .Ar rev1
133: and
134: .Ar rev2 .
135: .It rev1::rev2
136: Delete all revisions of a branch between
137: .Ar rev1
138: and
139: .Ar rev2
140: without deleting revisions
141: .Ar rev1
142: and
143: .Ar rev2 .
144: .It :rev
145: Delete all revisions of the branch until revision
146: .Ar rev .
147: .It rev:
148: Delete all revisions of the branch from revision
149: .Ar rev
150: until the last revision of the branch.
151: .El
1.13 xsa 152: .It Fl q
153: Be quiet about reporting.
1.16 xsa 154: .It Fl T
1.17 jmc 155: Preserve the modification time of RCS files.
1.43 ray 156: .It Fl t Ns Ar str
1.14 xsa 157: Change the descriptive text.
1.43 ray 158: The argument
1.14 xsa 159: .Ar str
1.43 ray 160: is interpreted as the name of a file containing
161: the descriptive text or,
162: if prefixed with a
163: .Sq - ,
164: the actual descriptive text itself.
1.14 xsa 165: If no argument is used, the descriptive text is taken from standard input
166: terminated by end-of-file or by a line containing the
167: .Sq \&.
168: character by itself.
1.1 deraadt 169: .It Fl U
170: Disable strict locking on the RCS files.
1.24 ray 171: .It Fl u Ns Op Ar rev
172: Unlock revision
173: .Ar rev
174: on the RCS files.
1.1 deraadt 175: .It Fl V
176: Print the program's version string and exit.
1.15 xsa 177: .It Fl x Ns Ar suffixes
178: Specifies the suffixes for RCS files.
179: Suffixes should be separated by the
180: .Sq /
181: character.
1.25 jmc 182: .El
1.46 xsa 183: .Pp
184: .Ex -std rcs
1.44 jmc 185: .Sh BRANCHES AND REVISIONS
186: Files may be selected by
187: .Em revision
188: or, where no revision is specified,
189: the latest revision of the default
190: .Em branch
191: is used.
192: Revisions are specified either by using the
193: .Fl r
194: option or
195: by appending the revision number to any option that supports it.
196: Branches are selected using the
197: .Fl b
198: option.
199: .Pp
200: A file's revision consists of two elements:
201: release number and level number.
202: For example, revision 2.3 of a file denotes release 2, level 3.
203: Levels may also be subdivided into sublevels:
204: this might happen, for example,
205: if a parallel development is forked from a lower level revision.
206: The primary levels and the sublevels belong to separate branches:
207: the primary levels belong to a branch called HEAD,
208: while sublevels belong to branches specified by revision.
209: .Pp
210: .Nm
211: also supports the notion of
212: .Em state .
213: The state is an arbitrary string of characters used to describe a file
214: (or a specific revision of a file).
215: States can be set or changed using the
216: .Fl s
217: option, for RCS tools which support it.
218: The state of a file/revision can be modified without having to check in
219: a new file/revision.
220: The default state is
221: .Sq Exp
222: (Experimental).
223: Examples of states could be
224: .Sq Dev ,
225: .Sq Reviewed ,
226: or
227: .Sq Stab .
228: .Pp
229: In order to make large groups of RCS files more manageable,
230: RCS tools have the ability to select files by their
231: .Em symbolic name .
232: Thus files can be selected by their symbolic name,
233: rather than numerical revision.
234: .Xr ci 1
235: .Fl N
236: and
237: .Fl n
238: are used to set symbolic names for files.
239: .Pp
240: The following methods of file selection are therefore available:
241: revision number, state, and symbolic name.
242: For options which take as argument
243: .Ar rev
244: or
245: .Ar state ,
246: any of these methods may be used.
247: Some examples:
248: .Bd -literal -offset indent
249: $ co -r"myproject" foo.c
250: $ rcs -m1.3:update foo.c
251: $ ci -s"Exp" bar.c
252: .Ed
1.25 jmc 253: .Sh KEYWORD SUBSTITUTION
1.40 jmc 254: As long as source files are edited inside a working directory,
255: their state can be determined using the
1.27 jmc 256: .Xr cvs 1
1.25 jmc 257: .Ic status
258: or
259: .Ic log
260: commands, but as soon as files get exported from
1.40 jmc 261: a local working copy, it becomes harder to identify which
1.25 jmc 262: revisions they are.
263: .Pp
264: .Nm
265: and
266: .Xr cvs 1
1.40 jmc 267: use a mechanism known as
1.25 jmc 268: .Sq keyword substitution
269: to help identify the files.
270: Embedded strings of the form $keyword$ and $keyword:...$ in a file
1.40 jmc 271: are replaced with strings of the form $keyword: value$ whenever
272: a new revision of the file is obtained.
1.25 jmc 273: The possible keywords are as follows:
1.30 jmc 274: .Bl -tag -width "XrevisionXX" -offset "XXX"
1.25 jmc 275: .It $\&Author$
276: The name of the user who checked in the revision.
277: .It $\&Date$
278: The date and hour (UTC) the revision was checked in.
279: .It $\&Header$
280: Standard header containing the full pathname of the RCS
281: file, the revision number, the date (UTC), the author and the state.
282: .It $\&Id$
283: The same content as $\&Header$ but without the path
284: of the RCS file.
285: .It $\&Log$
286: The log message supplied during commit, preceded by a header
287: containing the RCS filename, the revision number, the
288: author, and the date (UTC).
289: .It $\&Name$
290: The tag name used to check out the file.
291: .It $\&RCSfile$
292: The name of the RCS file, but without a path.
293: .It $\&Revision$
294: The revision number assigned to the revision.
295: .It $\&Source$
296: The full pathname of the RCS file.
297: .It $\&State$
298: The state assigned to the revision.
299: .El
300: .Pp
301: Keyword substitution has its disadvantages: sometimes the
302: literal text string $\&Author$ is wanted inside a file without
303: .Nm
1.27 jmc 304: or
305: .Xr cvs 1
1.51 ! jmc 306: interpreting it as a keyword and expanding it.
1.25 jmc 307: The
1.26 jmc 308: .Fl k Ns Ar o
1.25 jmc 309: option can be used to turn off keyword substitution entirely though.
310: There is unfortunately no way to selectively turn off keyword substitution.
311: .Pp
312: Each file and working directory copy of a file have a stored
313: default substitution mode.
314: Substitution modes on files are set by the
315: .Fl k Ns Ar mode
316: option.
317: .Pp
318: The possible substitution modes are as follows:
319: .Bl -tag -width Ds -offset 3n
1.26 jmc 320: .It Fl k Ns Ar b
1.25 jmc 321: Like
1.26 jmc 322: .Fl k Ns Ar o ,
1.25 jmc 323: but also avoids the conversion of line endings.
324: This option is used to handle binary files.
1.26 jmc 325: .It Fl k Ns Ar k
1.25 jmc 326: Does not substitute the keywords.
327: Useful with the
1.27 jmc 328: .Xr cvs 1
1.25 jmc 329: .Ic diff
1.28 jmc 330: and
331: .Xr rcsdiff 1
332: commands to avoid displaying the differences between keyword substitutions.
1.26 jmc 333: .It Fl k Ns Ar kv
1.25 jmc 334: The default behaviour.
335: Keywords are normally substituted i.e. $\&Revision$ becomes
336: $\&Revision: 1.1 $.
1.26 jmc 337: .It Fl k Ns Ar kvl
1.25 jmc 338: Like
1.26 jmc 339: .Fl k Ns Ar kv ,
1.25 jmc 340: except that the locker's name is displayed along with the version
341: if the given revision is currently locked.
342: This option is normally not useful as
343: .Nm
1.27 jmc 344: and
345: .Xr cvs 1
346: do not use file locking by default.
1.26 jmc 347: .It Fl k Ns Ar o
1.25 jmc 348: No substitutions are done.
349: This option is often used with the
1.27 jmc 350: .Xr cvs 1
1.25 jmc 351: .Ic import
352: command to guarantee that files that already contain external keywords
353: do not get modified.
1.26 jmc 354: .It Fl k Ns Ar v
1.25 jmc 355: Substitute the value of keywords instead of keywords themselves
356: e.g. instead of $\&Revision$, only insert 1.1 and not $\&Revision: 1.1 $.
357: This option must be used with care, as it can only be used once.
358: It is often used with the
1.27 jmc 359: .Xr cvs 1
1.25 jmc 360: .Ic export
361: command to freeze the values before releasing software.
1.1 deraadt 362: .El
363: .Sh ENVIRONMENT
364: .Bl -tag -width RCSINIT
365: .It Ev RCSINIT
366: If set, this variable should contain a list of space-delimited options that
367: are prepended to the argument list.
368: .El
1.22 jmc 369: .Sh EXAMPLES
370: One of the most common uses of
371: .Nm
372: is to track changes to a document containing source code.
373: .Pp
374: As an example,
375: we'll look at a user wishing to track source changes to a file
376: .Ar foo.c .
377: .Pp
378: If the
379: .Ar RCS
380: directory does not exist yet, create it as follows and invoke the
381: check-in command:
382: .Bd -literal -offset indent
383: $ mkdir RCS
384: $ ci foo.c
385: .Ed
386: .Pp
387: This command creates an RCS file
388: .Ar foo.c,v
389: in the
390: .Ar RCS
391: directory, stores
392: .Ar foo.c
393: into it as revision 1.1, and deletes
394: .Ar foo.c .
395: .Xr ci 1
396: will prompt for a description of the file to be entered.
397: Whenever a newly created (or updated) file is checked-in,
398: .Xr ci 1
399: will prompt for a log message to be entered which should summarize
400: the changes made to the file.
401: That log message will be added to the RCS file along with the new revision.
402: .Pp
403: The
404: .Xr co 1
405: command can now be used to obtain a copy of the checked-in
406: .Ar foo.c,v
407: file:
408: .Pp
409: .Dl $ co foo.c
410: .Pp
1.36 jmc 411: This command checks the file out in unlocked mode.
1.22 jmc 412: If a user wants to have exclusive access to the file to make changes to it,
413: it needs to be checked out in locked mode using the
414: .Fl l
415: option of the
416: .Xr co 1
417: command.
418: Only one concurrent locked checkout of a revision is permitted.
419: .Pp
420: Once changes have been made to the
421: .Pa foo.c
422: file, and before checking the file in, the
423: .Xr rcsdiff 1
424: command can be used to view changes between the working file
425: and the most recently checked-in revision:
426: .Pp
427: .Dl $ rcsdiff -u foo.c
428: .Pp
429: The
430: .Fl u
431: option produces a unified diff.
432: See
433: .Xr diff 1
434: for more information.
1.1 deraadt 435: .Sh SEE ALSO
436: .Xr ci 1 ,
437: .Xr co 1 ,
1.3 jmc 438: .Xr ident 1 ,
1.1 deraadt 439: .Xr rcsclean 1 ,
440: .Xr rcsdiff 1 ,
1.8 xsa 441: .Xr rcsmerge 1 ,
1.6 xsa 442: .Xr rlog 1
1.50 jsg 443: .Rs
444: .%A Tichy, Walter F.
445: .%T "RCS -- a system for version control"
446: .%J "Software--Practice & Experience"
447: .%V 15:7
448: .%D July, 1985
449: .%P pp. 637-654
450: .Re
1.21 jmc 451: .Sh STANDARDS
1.31 jmc 452: OpenRCS is compatible with
453: Walter Tichy's original RCS implementation.
454: .Pp
1.37 jmc 455: The flags
456: .Op Fl Mz
457: have no effect and are provided
1.21 jmc 458: for compatibility only.
1.32 jmc 459: .Sh HISTORY
460: The OpenRCS project is a BSD-licensed rewrite of the original
461: Revision Control System.
462: OpenRCS is written by Jean-Francois Brousseau, Joris Vink,
463: Niall O'Higgins, and Xavier Santolaria.
1.35 jmc 464: .Pp
1.32 jmc 465: The original RCS code was written in large parts by Walter F. Tichy
466: and Paul Eggert.
1.29 jmc 467: .Sh CAVEATS
468: For historical reasons,
469: the RCS tools do not permit whitespace between options and their arguments.