Provided by: cvsps_2.1-8build2_amd64 bug

NAME

       CVSps - create patchset information from CVS

SYNOPSIS

       cvsps  [-h]  [-x]  [-u]  [-z  <fuzz>]  [-g]  [-s <patchset>] [-a <author>] [-f <file>] [-d
       <date1> [-d <date2>]] [-l <text>] [-b <branch>] [-r <tag>  [-r  <tag>]]  [-p  <directory>]
       [-v]   [-t]  [--norc]  [--summary-first]  [--test-log  <filename>]  [--bkcvs]  [--no-rlog]
       [--diff-opts <option string>] [--cvs-direct]  [--debuglvl  <bitmask>]  [-Z  <compression>]
       [--root <cvsroot>] [-q] [-A] [<repository>]

DESCRIPTION

       CVSps  is  a  program  for  generating  'patchset'  information  from a CVS repository.  A
       patchset in this case is defined as a set of changes made to a collection  of  files,  and
       all committed at the same time (using a single 'cvs commit' command).  This information is
       valuable to seeing the big picture of the evolution of a cvs project.   While  cvs  tracks
       revision   information,  it  is  often  difficult  to  see  what  changes  were  committed
       'atomically' to the repository.

OPTIONS

       -h     display usage summary

       -x     ignore (and rebuild) ~/.cvsps/cvsps.cache file

       -u     update ~/.cvsps/cvsps.cache file

       -z <fuzz>
              set the timestamp fuzz factor for identifying patch sets

       -g     generate diffs of the selected patch sets

       -s <patchset>[-[<patchset>]][,<patchset>...]
              generate a diff for a given patchsets and patchset ranges

       -a <author>
              restrict output to patchsets created by author

       -f <file>
              restrict output to patchsets involving file

       -d <date1> -d <date2>
              if just one date  specified,  show  revisions  newer  than  date1.   If  two  dates
              specified, show revisions between two dates.

       -l <regex>
              restrict output to patchsets matching regex in log message

       -b <branch>
              restrict  output to patchsets affecting history of branch.  If you want to restrict
              to the main branch, use a branch of 'HEAD'.

       -r <tag1> -r <tag2>
              if just one tag specified, show revisions since tag1. If two tags  specified,  show
              revisions between the two tags.

       -p <dir>
              output individual patchsets as files in <dir> as <dir>/<patchset>.patch

       -v     show very verbose parsing messages

       -t     show some brief memory usage statistics

       --norc when invoking cvs, ignore the .cvsrc file

       --summary-first
              when  multiple patchset diffs are being generated, put the patchset summary for all
              patchsets at the beginning of the output.

       --test-log <captured cvs log file>
              for testing changes, you can  capture  cvs  log  output,  then  test  against  this
              captured file instead of hammering some poor CVS server

       --bkcvs
              (see  note  below)  for  use  in  parsing  the BK->CVS tree log formats only.  This
              enables some hacks which are not generally applicable.

       --no-rlog
              disable the use of rlog internally.  Note: rlog is  required  for  stable  PatchSet
              numbering.  Use with care.

       --diff-opts <option string>
              send a custom set of options to diff, for example to increase the number of context
              lines, or change the diff format.

       --cvs-direct (--no-cvs-direct)
              enable (disable) built-in  cvs  client  code.  This  enables  the  'pipelining'  of
              multiple  requests  over  a single client, reducing the overhead of handshaking and
              authentication to one per PatchSet instead of one per file.

       --debuglvl <bitmask>
              enable various debug output channels.

       -Z <compression>
              A value 1-9  which  specifies  amount  of  compression.   A  value  of  0  disables
              compression.

       --root <cvsroot>
              Override  the  setting  of  CVSROOT  (overrides working dir. and environment).  For
              --cvs-direct only.

       -q     Be quiet about warnings.  -A Show ancestor branch when a new branch is found.

       <repository>
              Operate on the specified repository (overrides working dir.)

NOTE ON TAG HANDLING

       Tags are fundamentally 'file at a time' in cvs, but like everything else, it would be nice
       to  imagine  that they are 'repository at a time.'  The approach cvsps takes is that a tag
       is assigned to a patchset.  The meaning  of  this  is  that  after  this  patchset,  every
       revision  of  every  file is after the tag (and conversely, before this patchset, at least
       one file is still before the tag).  However, there  are  two  kinds  of  inconsistent  (or
       'funky') tags that can be created, even when following best practices for cvs.

       The  first  is  what  is called a FUNKY tag.  A funky tag is one where there are patchsets
       which are chronologically (and thus by patchset id) earlier than the tag, but are  tagwise
       after.   These tags will be marked as '**FUNKY**' in the Tag: section of the cvsps output.
       When a funky tag is specified as one of the '-r'  arguments,  there  are  some  number  of
       patchsets  which  need  to  be  considered  out  of sequence.  In this case, the patchsets
       themselves will be labeled FUNKY and will be processed correctly.

       The second is called an INVALID tag.  An invalid tag is a tag where  there  are  patchsets
       which  are  chronologically (and thus by patchset id) earlier than the tag, but which have
       members which are tagwise both before, and after the tag, in the  same  patchset.   If  an
       INVALID  tag is specified as one of the '-r' arguments, cvsps will flag each member of the
       affected patchsets as before or after the tag and the patchset summary will indicate which
       members are which, and diffs will be generated accordingly.

NOTE ON CVS VERSIONS

       Among the different cvs subcommands used by cvsps is the 'rlog' command.  The rlog command
       is used to get revision history of  a  module,  and  it  disregards  the  current  working
       directory.   The important difference between 'rlog' and 'log' (from cvsps perspective) is
       the 'rlog' will include log data for files not in  the  current  working  directory.   The
       impact  of  this is mainly when there are directories which at one time had files, but are
       now empty, and have been pruned from the working  directory  with  the  '-P'  option.   If
       'rlog'  is  not used, these files logs will not be parsed, and the PatchSet numbering will
       be unstable.

       The main problem with 'rlog' is that, until cvs version 1.11.1, 'rlog' was  an  alias  for
       the  'log'  command.   This means, for old versions of cvs, 'rlog' has different semantics
       and usage.  cvsps will attempt to work around this problem by detecting  capable  versions
       of cvs.  If an old version is detected, 'log' will be used instead of 'rlog', and YMMV.

NOTE ON GENERATED DIFFS

       Another  important  note  is  that  cvsps  will  attempt,  whenever  possible,  to use the
       r-commands (rlog, rdiff  and co) instead of the local commands (log,  diff,  and  update).
       This  is  to allow cvsps to function without a completely checked out tree.  Because these
       r-commands are used, the generated diffs will include the module directory in them, and it
       is  recommended  to  apply  them in the working directory with the -p1 option to the patch
       command.  However, if the --diff-opts option is specified (to  change,  for  example,  the
       lines  of  context),  then  rdiff  cannot  be  used,  because it doesn't support arbitrary
       options.  In this case, the patches will be generated without the module directory in  the
       path,  and  -p0  will  be  required  when applying the patch.  When diffs are generated in
       cvs-direct mode (see below), however, they will always be -p1 style patches.

NOTE ON BKCVS

       The --bkcvs option is a special operating mode that should only be used when  parsing  the
       log  files  from  the BK -> CVS exported linux kernel trees.  cvsps uses special semantics
       for recreating the BK ChangeSet metadata that has been embedded in the log files for those
       trees.   The  --bkcvs option should only be specified when the cache file is being created
       or updated (i.e. initial run of cvsps, or when -u and -x options are used).

NOTE ON CVS-DIRECT

       As of version 2.0b6 cvsps has a partial implementation of the cvs client  code  built  in.
       This  reduces  the RTT and/or handshaking overhead from one per patchset member to one per
       patchset.  This dramatically increases the speed of generating diffs over a slow link, and
       improves the consistency of operation.  Currently the --cvs-direct option turns on the use
       of this code, but it very well may be default by the time 2.0 comes out.  The built-in cvs
       code  attempts to be compatible with cvs, but may have problems, which should be reported.
       It honors the CVS_RSH and  CVS_SERVER  environment  variables,  but  does  not  parse  the
       ~/.cvsrc file.

NOTE ON CVSPS RC FILE

       CVSps parses an rc file at startup.  This file should be located in ~/.cvsps/cvspsrc.  The
       file should contain arguments, in the exact syntax as the command line, one per line.   If
       an argument takes a parameter, the parameter should be on the same line as the argument.

NOTE ON DATE FORMATS

       All  dates  are  reported  in  localtime.   This can be overridden (as usual) using the TZ
       environment variable.  Dates as arguments must be in the format 'yyyy/mm/dd hh:mm:ss'; for
       example,

           $ cvsps -d '2004/05/01 00:00:00' -d '2004/07/07 12:00:00'

SEE ALSO

       cvs(1),  ci(1),  co(1), cvs(5), cvsbug(8), diff(1), grep(1), patch(1), rcs(1), rcsdiff(1),
       rcsmerge(1), rlog(1).

REPORTING BUGS

       Report bugs to "David Mansfield <cvsps@dm.cobite.com>"

BUGS

       No known bugs.

                                                                                         cvsps(1)