NAME

       rcsclean - clean up working files

SYNOPSIS

       rcsclean [options] [ file ... ]

DESCRIPTION

       rcsclean removes files that are not being worked on.  rcsclean -u also unlocks and removes
       files that are being worked on but have not changed.

       For  each  file  given,  rcsclean  compares  the  working  file  and  a  revision  in  the
       corresponding  RCS  file.  If it finds a difference, it does nothing.  Otherwise, it first
       unlocks the revision if the -u option is given, and then removes the working  file  unless
       the  working  file  is  writable  and  the  revision  is  locked.   It logs its actions by
       outputting the corresponding rcs -u and rm -f commands on the standard output.

       Files are paired as explained in ci(1).  If no file is given, all  working  files  in  the
       current  directory  are  cleaned.   Filenames matching an RCS suffix denote RCS files; all
       others denote working files.

       The number of the revision to which the working file is compared may be attached to any of
       the  options -n, -q, -r, or -u.  If no revision number is specified, then if the -u option
       is given and the caller has one revision locked, rcsclean uses  that  revision;  otherwise
       rcsclean uses the latest revision on the default branch, normally the root.

       rcsclean  is useful for clean targets in makefiles.  See also rcsdiff(1), which prints out
       the differences, and ci(1), which normally reverts to the previous revision if a file  was
       not changed.

OPTIONS

       -ksubst
              Use  subst  style keyword substitution when retrieving the revision for comparison.
              See co(1) for details.

       -n[rev]
              Do not actually remove any files or unlock any revisions.  Using this  option  will
              tell you what rcsclean would do without actually doing it.

       -q[rev]
              Do not log the actions taken on standard output.

       -r[rev]
              This option has no effect other than specifying the revision for comparison.

       -T     Preserve the modification time on the RCS file even if the RCS file changes because
              a lock is removed.  This option can suppress extensive recompilation  caused  by  a
              make(1)  dependency  of  some  other 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  the  lock removal would mean a change to keyword strings in the other working
              file.

       -u[rev]
              Unlock the revision if it is locked and no difference is found.

       -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 time zone for keyword substitution; see co(1) for details.

EXAMPLES

              rcsclean  *.c  *.h

       removes all working files ending in .c or .h that were not changed since their checkout.

              rcsclean

       removes all working files in the current directory  that  were  not  changed  since  their
       checkout.

FILES

       rcsclean accesses files much as ci(1) does.

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, -x, and -z.

       RCS_MEM_LIMIT
              Normally, for speed, commands either memory map or copy into memory the RCS file if
              its size is less than the  memory-limit,  currently  defaulting  to  ``unlimited''.
              Otherwise  (or  if the initially-tried speedy ways fail), the commands fall back to
              using  standard  i/o  routines.   You  can  adjust  the  memory  limit  by  setting
              RCS_MEM_LIMIT  to  a  numeric value lim (measured in kilobytes).  An empty value is
              silently ignored.  As a side effect, specifying RCS_MEM_LIMIT inhibits fall-back to
              slower routines.

       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

       The  exit  status  is zero if and only if all operations were successful.  Missing working
       files and RCS files are silently ignored.

IDENTIFICATION

       Author: Walter F. Tichy.
       Manual Page Revision: 5.10.1; Release Date: 2022-02-19.
       Copyright © 2010-2022 Thien-Thi Nguyen.
       Copyright © 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993 Paul Eggert.
       Copyright © 1982, 1988, 1989 Walter F. Tichy.

SEE ALSO

       ci(1), co(1), ident(1), rcs(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.

       The  full documentation for RCS is maintained as a Texinfo manual.  If the info(1) and RCS
       programs are properly installed at your site, the command

              info rcs

       should give you access to the complete manual.  Additionally, the RCS homepage:

              http://www.gnu.org/software/rcs/

       has news and links to the latest release, development site, etc.

BUGS

       At least one file must be given in older Unix versions that  do  not  provide  the  needed
       directory scanning operations.