RCS(1RCS) COMMAND REFERENCE RCS(1RCS) NAME rcs - change RCS file attributes SYNOPSIS rcs [ -Aoldfilename ] [ -L ] [ -Nname[:rev] ] [ -P ] [ -U ] [ -alogins ] [ -cstring ] [ -elogins ] [ -i ] [ -lrev ] [ -nname[:rev] ] [ -orange ] [ -q ] [ -sstate[:rev] ] [ -ttxtfilename ] [ -u[rev] ] .I filename ... 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, your login name must be on the access list. This doesn't apply if the access list is empty, you are the owner of the file or the superuser, or the -i option is present. Files ending in ,v are RCS files; all others are working files. If a working file is given, rcs tries to find the corresponding RCS file first in directory ./RCS and then in the current directory, as explained in co(1rcs). OPTIONS -alogins Appends the login names appearing in the comma-separated list logins to the access list of the RCS file. -cstring Sets the comment leader to string. The comment leader is printed before every log message line generated by the keyword $Log$ during checkout (see co). This is useful for programming languages without multi-line comments. During rcs -i or initial ci, the comment leader is guessed from the suffix of the working file. -e[logins] Erases the login names appearing in the comma-separated list logins from the access list of the RCS file. If logins is omitted, the entire access list is erased. -i Creates and initializes a new RCS file, but does not deposit any revision. If the RCS file has no path prefix, rcs tries to place it first into the subdirectory ./RCS, and then into the current directory. If the RCS file already exists, an error message is printed. You are prompted to enter descriptive text as described in ci(1rcs). -l[rev] Printed 5/12/88 1
RCS(1RCS) COMMAND REFERENCE RCS(1RCS) Locks the revision with number rev. If a branch is given, the latest revision on that branch is locked. If rev is omitted, the latest revision on the trunk is locked. Locking prevents overlapping changes. A lock is removed with ci or rcs -u (see below). -nname[:rev] Associates the symbolic name name with the branch or revision rev. Rcs prints an error message if name is already associated with another number. If rev is omitted, the symbolic name is deleted. -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 may have branches or locks. -q Quiet mode. Diagnostics are not printed. -sstate[:rev] Sets the state attribute of the revision rev to state. If rev is omitted, the latest revision on the trunk is assumed; If rev is a branch number, the latest revision on that branch is assumed. 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 sets the state of a revision to Exp. -t[txtfilename] Writes descriptive text into the RCS file (deletes the existing text). If txtfilename is omitted, rcs prompts you for text supplied from the standard input, terminated with a line containing a single dot (.) or <CTRL-D>. Otherwise, the descriptive text is copied from the file txtfilename. If the -i option is present, descriptive text is requested even if -t is not given. The prompt is suppressed if the standard input is not a terminal. -u[rev] Unlocks the revision with number rev. If a branch is given, the latest revision on that branch is unlocked. If rev is omitted, the latest lock held by the caller is removed. Normally, only the locker of a revision may unlock it. Somebody else unlocking a revision breaks the lock. To break another user's lock, the rev must be Printed 5/12/88 2
RCS(1RCS) COMMAND REFERENCE RCS(1RCS) specified. 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 with a line containing a single dot (.) or <CTRL-D>. -Aoldfilename Appends the access list of oldfilename to the access list of the RCS file. -L Sets 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. -Nname[:rev] Same as -n, except that it overrides a previous assignment of name. -P Causes the access and modification dates of the RCS file to stay the same before and after modification, unless the current revision was outdated. See CAVEATS. -U Sets locking to nonstrict. Nonstrict 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. The default is strict locking, but this may be changed by setting the environment variable RCSLOCK to nonstrict. EXAMPLES The following example unlocks the current revision of the file example.c if it is locked (if it is not locked, a message to that effect is printed): rcs -u example.c FILES The caller of the command must have read/write permission for the directory containing the RCS file and read permission for the RCS file itself. Rcs creates a semaphore file in the same directory as the RCS file to prevent simultaneous update. For changes, rcs always creates a new file. On successful completion, rcs deletes the old one and renames the new one. This strategy makes links to RCS files useless. ,RCSt$$ Temporary storage for data during changes. $$ is the current process id. ,*, The semaphore file. This file prevents other rcs updates to the file. Printed 5/12/88 3
RCS(1RCS) COMMAND REFERENCE RCS(1RCS) DIAGNOSTICS The RCS filename and the revisions outdated are written to the diagnostic output. VARIABLES RCSLOCK If set to nonstrict, all new RCS files will have locking set to nonstrict mode. Otherwise, locking is strict. RETURN VALUE [NO_ERRS] Command completed without error. [USAGE] Incorrect command line syntax. Execution terminated. [NP_ERR] An error occurred that was not a system error. Execution terminated. CAVEATS The maximum number of revisions that can be stored in a single RCS file is 719. When there are more than 700 revisions in a file, a warning message is printed on the terminal (if possible) every time an RCS command works on the file. See the manual page for rcsfile(5rcs) for information on what action to take in this case. The maximum length of a description message (see -i) is 2048 characters. Longer messages are truncated. On older versions of RCS, the maximum number of revisions that can be stored in a single RCS file is 239. No warning is displayed on the terminal if this number is exceeded. The -P option is supplied so that make does not think that a file has been changed just because the administrative information was modified. This causes make to do less work, but it can cause problems if the values of any of the RCS keyword values are used. For example, if a revision logging system is used to store the version numbers of source files into the object code, these numbers may not be correct if the -P option is used. SEE ALSO ci(1rcs), co(1rcs), ident(1rcs), rlog(1rcs), rcsdiff(1rcs), rcsintro(1rcs), rcsmerge(1rcs), and rcsfile(5rcs). Printed 5/12/88 4
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