ci(1) DG/UX R4.11 ci(1)
NAME
ci - check in RCS revisions
SYNOPSIS
ci [options] file ...
DESCRIPTION
ci stores new revisions into RCS files. Each pathname matching an
RCS suffix is taken to be an RCS file. All others are assumed to be
working files containing new revisions. ci deposits the contents of
each working file into the corresponding RCS file. If only a working
file is given, ci tries to find the corresponding RCS file in an RCS
subdirectory and then in the working file's directory. For more
details, see FILE NAMING below.
For ci to work, the caller's login must be on the access list, except
if the access list is empty or the caller is the [file/object] owner
or is able to override any access controls. On a traditional DG/UX
system, you must have an effective UID of 0 (root) to override access
controls. On a system with with DG/UX information security, one or
more specific capabilities must be enabled in your effective
capability set. To append a new revision to an existing branch, the
tip revision on that branch must be locked by the caller. Otherwise,
only a new branch can be created. This restriction is not enforced
for the owner of the file if non-strict locking is used (see rcs(1)).
A lock held by someone else may be broken with the rcs command.
Unless the -f option is given, ci checks whether the revision to be
deposited differs from the preceding one. If not, instead of
creating a new revision ci reverts to the preceding one. To revert,
ordinary ci removes the working file and any lock; ci -l keeps and
ci -u removes any lock, and then they both generate a new working
file much as if co -l or co -u had been applied to the preceding
revision. When reverting, any -n and -s options apply to the
preceding revision.
For each revision deposited, ci prompts for a log message. The log
message should summarize the change and must be terminated by end-of-
file or by a line containing . by itself. If several files are
checked in ci asks whether to reuse the previous log message. If the
standard input is not a terminal, ci suppresses the prompt and uses
the same log message for all files. See also -m.
If the RCS file does not exist, ci creates it and deposits the
contents of the working file as the initial revision (default number:
1.1). The access list is initialized to empty. Instead of the log
message, ci requests descriptive text (see -t below).
The number rev of the deposited revision can be given by any of the
options -f, -I, -k, -l, -M, -q, -r, or -u, rev may be symbolic,
numeric, or mixed. If rev is $, ci determines the revision number
from keyword values in the working file.
If rev is a revision number, it must be higher than the latest one on
the branch to which rev belongs, or must start a new branch.
If rev is a branch rather than a revision number, the new revision is
appended to that branch. The level number is obtained by
incrementing the tip revision number of that branch. If rev
indicates a non-existing branch, that branch is created with the
initial revision numbered rev.1.
If rev is omitted, ci tries to derive the new revision number from
the caller's last lock. If the caller has locked the tip revision of
a branch, the new revision is appended to that branch. The new
revision number is obtained by incrementing the tip revision number.
If the caller locked a non-tip revision, a new branch is started at
that revision by incrementing the highest branch number at that
revision. The default initial branch and level numbers are 1.
If rev is omitted and the caller has no lock, but owns the file and
locking is not set to strict, then the revision is appended to the
default branch (normally the trunk; see the -b option of rcs(1)).
Exception: On the trunk, revisions can be appended to the end, but
not inserted.
OPTIONS
-r[rev]
checks in a revision, releases the corresponding lock, and
removes the working file. This is the default.
The -r option has an unusual meaning in ci. In other RCS
commands, -r merely specifies a revision number, but in ci it
also releases a lock and removes the working file. See -u for
a tricky example.
-l[rev]
works like -r, except it performs an additional co -l for the
deposited revision. Thus, the deposited revision is
immediately checked out again and locked. This is useful for
saving a revision although one wants to continue editing it
after the checkin.
-u [rev]
works like -l, except that the deposited revision is not
locked. This lets one read the working file immediately after
checkin.
The -l, -r, and -u options are mutually exclusive and silently
override each other. For example, ci -u -r is equivalent to
ci -r because -r overrides -u.
-f[rev]
forces a deposit; the new revision is deposited even it is not
different from the preceding one.
-k[rev]
searches the working file for keyword values to determine its
revision number, creation date, state, and author (see co(1)),
and assigns these values to the deposited revision, rather
than computing them locally. It also generates a default
login message noting the login of the caller and the actual
checkin date. This option is useful for software
distribution. A revision that is sent to several sites should
be checked in with the -k option at these sites to preserve
the original number, date, author, and state. The extracted
keyword values and the default log message may be overridden
with the options -d, -m, -s, -w, and any option that carries a
revision number.
-q[rev]
quiet mode; diagnostic output is not printed. A revision that
is not different from the preceding one is not deposited,
unless -f is given.
-I[rev]
interactive mode; the user is prompted and questioned even if
the standard input is not a terminal.
-d[date]
uses date for the checkin date and time. The date is
specified in free format as explained in co(1). This is
useful for lying about the checkin date, and for -k if no date
is available. If date is empty, the working file's time of
last modification is used.
-M [rev]
Set the modification time on any new working file to be the
date of the retrieved revision. For example, ci -d -M -u" " f
does not alter f's modification time, even if f's contents
change due to keyword substitution. Use this option with
care; it can confuse make(1).
-mmsg uses the string msg as the log message for all revisions
checked in.
-nname assigns the symbolic name name to the number of the checked-in
revision. ci prints an error message if name is already
assigned to another number.
-Nname same as -n, except that it overrides a previous assignment of
name.
-sstate
sets the state of the checked-in revision to the identifier
state. The default state is Exp.
-tfile writes descriptive text from the contents of the named file
into the RCS file, deleting the existing text. The file may
not begin with - .
-t-string
Write descriptive text from the string into the RCS file,
deleting the existing text.
The -t option, in both its forms, has effect only during an
initial checkin; it is silently ignored otherwise.
During the initial checkin, if -t is not given, ci obtains the
text from standard input, terminated by end-of-file or by a
line containing . by itself. The user is prompted for the
text if interaction is possible; see -I.
For backward compatibility with older versions of RCS, a bare
-t option is ignored.
-wlogin
uses login for the author field of the deposited revision.
Useful for lying about the author, and for -k if no author is
available.
-Vn Emulate RCS version n. See co(1) for details.
-xsuffixes
specifies the suffixes for RCS files. A nonempty suffix
matches any pathname ending in the suffix. An empty suffix
matches any pathname of the form RCS/file or path/RCS/file.
The -x option can specify a list of suffixes separated by /.
For example, -x,v/ specifies two suffixes: ,v and the empty
suffix. If two or more suffixes are specified, they are tried
in order when looking for an RCS file; the first one that
works is used for that file. If no RCS file is found but an
RCS file can be created, the suffixes are tried in order to
determine the new RCS file's name. The default for suffixes
is installation-dependent; normally it is ,v/ for hosts like
Unix that permit commas in file names, and is empty (i.e. just
the empty suffix) for other hosts.
File Naming
Pairs of RCS files and working files may be specified in three ways
(see also the example section).
1) Both the RCS file and the working file are given. The RCS
pathname is of the form path1/workfileX and the working pathname is
of the form path2/workfile where path1/ and path2/ are (possibly
different or empty) paths, workfile is a filename, and X is an RCS
suffix. If X is empty, path1/ must be RCS/ or must end in /RCS/.
2) Only the RCS file is given. Then the working file is created in
the current directory and its name is derived from the name of the
RCS file by removing path1/ and the suffix X.
3) Only the working file is given. Then ci considers each RCS suffix
X. in turn, looking for an RCS file of the form path2/RCS/workfileX
or (if the former is not found and X. is nonempty) path2/workfileX.
If the RCS file is specified without a path in 1) and 2), ci looks
for the RCS file first in the directory ./RCS and then in the current
directory.
ci reports an error if an attempt to open an RCS file fails for an
unusual reason, even if the RCS file's pathname is just one of
several possibilities. For example, to suppress use of RCS commands
in a directory d, create a regular file named d/RCS so that casual
attempts to use RCS commands in d fail because d/RCS is not a
directory.
EXAMPLES
Suppose ,v is an RCS suffix and the current directory contains a
subdirectory RCS with an RCS file io.c,v. Then each of the following
commands check in a copy of io.c into RCS/io.c,v as the latest
revision, removing io.c.
ci io.c; ci RCS/io.c,v; ci io.c,v;
ci io.c RCS/io.c,v; ci io.c io.c,v;
ci RCS/io.c,v io.c; ci io.c,v io.c;
Suppose instead that the empty suffix is an RCS suffix and the
current directory contains a subdirectory RCS with an RCS file io.c.
The each of the following commands checks in a new revision.
ci io.c; ci RCS/io.c;
ci io.c RCS/io.c;
ci RCS/io.c io.c;
File Modes
An RCS file created by ci inherits the read and execute permissions
from the working file. If the RCS file exists already, ci preserves
its read and execute permissions. ci always turns off all write
permissions of RCS files.
FILES
Several temporary files may be created in the directory containing
the working file, and also in the temporary directory (see TMPDIR
under ENVIRONMENT). A semaphore file or files are created in the
directory containing the RCS file. With a nonempty suffix, the
semaphore names begin with the first character of the suffix;
therefore, do not specify an suffix whose first character could be
that of a working filename. With an empty suffix, the semaphore
names end with so working filenames should not end in .
ci never changes an RCS or working file. Normally, ci unlinks the
file and creates a new one; but instead of breaking a chain of one or
more symbolic links to an RCS file, it unlinks the destination file
instead. Therefore, ci breaks any hard or symbolic links to any
working file it changes; and hard links to RCS files are ineffective,
but symbolic links to RCS files are preserved.
The effective user must be able to search and write the directory
containing the RCS file. Normally, the real user must be able to
read the RCS and working files and to search and write the directory
containing the working file; however, some older hosts cannot easily
switch between real and effective users, so on these hosts the
effective user is used for all accesses. The effective user is the
same as the real user unless your copies of ci and co have setuid
privileges. As described in the next section, these privileges yield
extra security if the effective user owns all RCS files and
directories, and if only the effective user can write RCS
directories.
Users can control access to RCS files by setting the permissions of
the directory containing the files; only users with write access to
the directory can use RCS commands to change its RCS files. For
example, in hosts that allow a user to belong to several groups, one
can make a group's RCS directories writable to that group only. This
approach suffices for informal projects, but it means that any group
member can arbitrarily change the group's RCS files, and can even
remove them entirely. Hence more formal projects sometimes
distinguish between an RCS administrator, who can change the RCS
files at will, and other project members, who can check in new
revisions but cannot otherwise change the RCS files.
SETUID USE
To prevent anybody but their RCS administrator from deleting
revisions, a set of users can employ setuid privileges as follows.
· Check that the host supports RCS setuid use. Consult a trustworthy
expert if there are any doubts. It is best if the seteuid() system
call works as described in Posix 1003.1a Draft 5, because RCS can
switch back and forth easily between real and effective users, even
if the real user is root. If not, the second best is if the
setuid() system call supports saved setuid (the {_POSIX_SAVED_IDS}
behavior of Posix 1003.1-1990); this fails only if the real user is
root. If RCS detects any failure in setuid, it quits immediately.
· Choose a user A to serve as RCS administrator for the set of users.
Only A will be able to invoke the rcs command on the users' RCS
files. A should not be root or any other user with special powers.
Mutually suspicious sets of users should use different
administrators.
· Choose a path name B that will be a directory of files to be
executed by the users.
· Have A set up B to contain copies of ci and co that are setuid to A
by copying the commands from their standard installation directory
D as follows:
mkdir B
cp D/c[io] B
chmod go-w,u+s B/c[io]
· Have each user prepend B to their path as follows:
PATH=B:$PATH; export PATH # ordinary shell
set path=(B $path) # C shell
· Have A create each RCS directory R with write access only to A as
follows:
mkdir R
chmod go-w R
· If you want to let only certain users read the RCS files, put the
users into a group G, and have A further protect the RCS directory
as follows:
chgrp G R
chmod g-w,o-rwx R
· Have A copy old RCS files (if any) into R, to ensure that A owns
them.
· An RCS file's access list limits who can check in and lock
revisions. The default access list is empty, which grants checkin
access to anyone who can read the RCS file. If you want limit
checkin access, have A invoke rcs -a on the file; see rcs(1). In
particular, rcs -e -aA limits access to just A.
· Have A initialize any new RCS files with rcs -i before initial
checkin, adding the -a option if you want to limit checkin access.
· Give setuid privileges only to ci, co, and rcsclean; do not give
them to rcs or to any other command.
· Do not use other setuid commands to invoke RCS commands; setuid is
trickier than you think!
ENVIRONMENT
RCSINIT
options prepended to the argument list, separated by spaces.
A backslash escapes spaces within an option. The RCSINIT
options are prepended to the argument lists of most RCS
commands. Useful RCSINIT options include -q, -V, and -x.
TMPDIR Name of the temporary directory. If not set, the environment
variables TMP and TEMP are inspected instead and the first
value found is taken; if none of them are set, a host-
dependent default is used, typically /tmp.
DIAGNOSTICS
For each revision, ci prints the RCS file, the working file, and the
number of both the deposited and the preceding revision. The exit
status is zero if and only if all operations were successful.
IDENTIFICATION
Author: Walter F. Tichy.
Revision Number: 1995/08/01; Release Date: 16:04:35.
Copyright © 1982, 1988, 1989 by Walter F. Tichy.
Copyright © 1990, 1991 by Paul Eggert.
SEE ALSO
co(1), ident(1), make(1), rcs(1), rcsclean(1), rcsdiff(1),
rcsintro(1), rcsmerge(1), rlog(1), rcsfile(4)
Walter F. Tichy, RCS--A System for Version Control, Software
--Practice & Experience 15, 7 (July 1985), 637-654.
Licensed material--property of copyright holder(s)