Provided by: cvs_1.12.13+real-15ubuntu0.1_amd64 bug

NAME

       cvs - Concurrent Versions System

SYNOPSIS

       cvs [ cvs_options ]
              cvs_command [ command_options ] [ command_args ]

NOTE

       This  manpage  is a summary of some of the features of cvs.  It is auto-generated from an appendix of the
       CVS manual.  For more in-depth documentation, please consult the Cederqvist manual (via the cvs(GNU) link
       in the MirBSD online (HTML) manual pages, the info CVS command or otherwise, as described in the SEE ALSO
       section of this manpage).  Cross-references in this man page refer to nodes in the same.

CVS commands

   Guide to CVS commands
       This appendix describes the overall structure of cvs commands, and  describes  some  commands  in  detail
       (others  are  described  elsewhere; for a quick reference to cvs commands, see node 'Invoking CVS' in the
       CVS manual).

Structure

   Overall structure of CVS commands
       The overall format of all cvs commands is:

         cvs [ cvs_options ] cvs_command [ command_options ] [ command_args ]

       cvs

         The name of the cvs program.

       cvs_options

         Some options that affect all sub-commands of cvs.  These are described below.

       cvs_command

         One of several different sub-commands.  Some of the commands have aliases that  can  be  used  instead;
         those  aliases are noted in the reference manual for that command.  There are only two situations where
         you may omit cvs_command: cvs -H elicits a list of available commands,  and  cvs  -v  displays  version
         information on cvs itself.

       command_options

         Options that are specific for the command.

       command_args

         Arguments to the commands.

         There  is  unfortunately  some  confusion  between  cvs_options  and  command_options.  When given as a
         cvs_option, some options only affect some of the commands.  When given as a command_option it may  have
         a  different  meaning,  and  be  accepted  by  more  commands.   In  other words, do not take the above
         categorization too seriously.  Look at the documentation instead.

Exit status

   CVS's exit status
       cvs can indicate to the calling environment whether it succeeded or failed by setting  its  exit  status.
       The  exact way of testing the exit status will vary from one operating system to another.  For example in
       a unix shell script the $? variable will be 0 if the last command returned a successful exit  status,  or
       greater than 0 if the exit status indicated failure.

       If  cvs  is  successful, it returns a successful status; if there is an error, it prints an error message
       and returns a failure status.  The one exception to this is the cvs  diff  command.   It  will  return  a
       successful  status  if it found no differences, or a failure status if there were differences or if there
       was an error.  Because this behavior provides no good way to detect errors, in the future it is  possible
       that cvs diff will be changed to behave like the other cvs commands.

~/.cvsrc

   Default options and the ~/.cvsrc file
       There  are  some command_options that are used so often that you might have set up an alias or some other
       means to make sure you always specify that option.  One example (the one that drove the implementation of
       the  .cvsrc support, actually) is that many people find the default output of the diff command to be very
       hard to read, and that either context diffs or unidiffs are much easier to understand.

       The ~/.cvsrc file is a way that you can add default  options  to  cvs_commands  within  cvs,  instead  of
       relying on aliases or other shell scripts.

       The  format  of  the  ~/.cvsrc file is simple.  The file is searched for a line that begins with the same
       name as the cvs_command being executed.  If a match is found, then the remainder of the line is split  up
       (at  whitespace  characters)  into separate options and added to the command arguments before any options
       from the command line.

       If a command has two names (e.g., checkout and co), the official name, not necessarily the  one  used  on
       the  command  line,  will  be  used  to match against the file.  So if this is the contents of the user's
       ~/.cvsrc file:

         log -N
         diff -uN
         rdiff -u
         update -Pd
         checkout -P
         release -d

       the command cvs checkout foo would have the -P option added to the arguments, as well as cvs co foo.

       With the example file above, the output from cvs diff foobar will be in  unidiff  format.   cvs  diff  -c
       foobar  will  provide  context  diffs,  as  usual.   Getting  "old"  format  diffs would be slightly more
       complicated, because diff doesn't have an option to specify use of the "old" format, so  you  would  need
       cvs -f diff foobar.

       In  place of the command name you can use cvs to specify global options (see node 'Global options' in the
       CVS manual).  For example the following line in .cvsrc

         cvs -z6

       causes cvs to use compression level 6.

Global options

       The available cvs_options (that are given to the left of cvs_command) are:

       --allow-root=rootdir

         May be invoked multiple times to specify one legal cvsroot directory with each invocation.  Also causes
         CVS  to  preparse  the configuration file for each specified root, which can be useful when configuring
         write proxies,  See node 'Password authentication server' in the CVS manual & node 'Write  proxies'  in
         the CVS manual.

       -a

         Authenticate  all  communication  between  the  client  and  the server.  Only has an effect on the cvs
         client.  As of this writing, this is only implemented when using a GSSAPI connection (see node  'GSSAPI
         authenticated'  in  the  CVS  manual).   Authentication  prevents  certain  sorts  of attacks involving
         hijacking the active tcp connection.  Enabling authentication does not enable encryption.

       -b bindir

         In cvs 1.9.18 and older, this specified that  rcs  programs  are  in  the  bindir  directory.   Current
         versions  of  cvs  do  not  run  rcs  programs;  for compatibility this option is accepted, but it does
         nothing.

       -T tempdir

         Use tempdir as the directory where temporary files are located.

         The cvs client and server store temporary files in a temporary directory.  The path to  this  temporary
         directory is set via, in order of precedence:

       •   The argument to the global -T option.

       •   The value set for TmpDir in the config file (server only - see node 'config' in the CVS manual).

       •   The  contents  of  the  $TMPDIR  environment  variable  (%TMPDIR%  on Windows - see node 'Environment
           variables' in the CVS manual).

       •   /tmp

           Temporary directories should always be specified as an absolute pathname.  When running a CVS client,
           -T  affects only the local process; specifying -T for the client has no effect on the server and vice
           versa.

       -d cvs_root_directory

         Use cvs_root_directory as the root directory pathname of the repository.  Overrides the setting of  the
         $CVSROOT environment variable.  See node 'Repository' in the CVS manual.

       -e editor

         Use  editor  to  enter  revision  log information.  Overrides the setting of the $CVSEDITOR and $EDITOR
         environment variables.  For more information, see node 'Committing your changes' in the CVS manual.

       -f

         Do not read the ~/.cvsrc file.  This option is most often used because of the non-orthogonality of  the
         cvs  option  set.   For  example, the cvs log option -N (turn off display of tag names) does not have a
         corresponding option to turn the display on.  So if you have -N in the ~/.cvsrc entry for log, you  may
         need to use -f to show the tag names.

       -g

         Forges group-writable permissions on files in the working copy.  This option is typically used when you
         have multiple users sharing a single checked out source tree, allowing them  to  operate  their  shells
         with a less dangerous umask at the expense of cvs security.  To use this feature, create a directory to
         hold the checked-out source tree, set it to a private group, and set up the directory such  that  files
         created  under it inherit the gid of the directory.  On BSD systems, this occurs automatically. On SYSV
         systems and GNU/Linux, the sgid bit must be set on the directory for this.  The users who are to  share
         the checked out tree must be placed in that group which owns the directory.

         Note  that  the sharing of a single checked-out source tree is very different from giving several users
         access to a common cvs repository.   Access  to  a  common  cvs  repository  already  maintains  shared
         group-write permissions and does not require this option.

         Due  to  the  security  implications,  setting  this  option  globally  in your .cvsrc file is strongly
         discouraged; if you must, ensure all source checkouts are "firewalled" within  a  private  group  or  a
         private mode 0700 directory.

         This option is a MidnightBSD extension merged into MirBSD cvs.

       -H

       --help

         Display  usage  information  about the specified cvs_command (but do not actually execute the command).
         If you don't specify a command name, cvs -H displays overall help for cvs, including a  list  of  other
         help options.

       -R

         Turns  on read-only repository mode.  This allows one to check out from a read-only repository, such as
         within an anoncvs server, or from a cd-rom repository.

         Same effect as if the CVSREADONLYFS environment variable is set. Using -R can also  considerably  speed
         up checkouts over NFS.

       -n

         Do not change any files.  Attempt to execute the cvs_command, but only to issue reports; do not remove,
         update, or merge any existing files, or create any new files.

         Note that cvs will not necessarily produce exactly the same output as without -n.  In  some  cases  the
         output  will  be the same, but in other cases cvs will skip some of the processing that would have been
         required to produce the exact same output.

       -Q

         Cause the command to be really quiet; the command will only generate output for serious problems.

       -q

         Cause the command to be somewhat quiet; informational messages, such as reports  of  recursion  through
         subdirectories, are suppressed.

       -r

         Make new working files read-only.  Same effect as if the $CVSREAD environment variable is set (see node
         'Environment variables' in the CVS manual).  The default is to  make  working  files  writable,  unless
         watches are on (see node 'Watches' in the CVS manual).

       -s variable=value

         Set a user variable (see node 'Variables' in the CVS manual).

       -t

         Trace  program execution; display messages showing the steps of cvs activity.  Particularly useful with
         -n to explore the potential impact of an unfamiliar command.

       -v

       --version

         Display version and copyright information for cvs.

       -w

         Make new working files read-write.  Overrides the setting of the $CVSREAD environment variable.   Files
         are created read-write by default, unless $CVSREAD is set or -r is given.

       -x

         Encrypt all communication between the client and the server.  Only has an effect on the cvs client.  As
         of this  writing,  this  is  only  implemented  when  using  a  GSSAPI  connection  (see  node  'GSSAPI
         authenticated'  in  the  CVS manual) or a Kerberos connection (see node 'Kerberos authenticated' in the
         CVS manual).  Enabling encryption implies that  message  traffic  is  also  authenticated.   Encryption
         support  is  not  available  by  default;  it  must  be  enabled  using  a  special  configure  option,
         --enable-encryption, when you build cvs.

       -z level

         Request compression level for network traffic.  cvs interprets level identically to the  gzip  program.
         Valid  levels  are  1 (high speed, low compression) to 9 (low speed, high compression), or 0 to disable
         compression (the default).  Data sent to the server will be compressed at the requested level  and  the
         client  will  request the server use the same compression level for data returned.  The server will use
         the closest level allowed by the server administrator to compress returned data.  This option only  has
         an effect when passed to the cvs client.

Common options

   Common command options
       This section describes the command_options that are available across several cvs commands.  These options
       are always given to the right of cvs_command. Not all commands support all of these options; each  option
       is  only  supported  for commands where it makes sense.  However, when a command has one of these options
       you can almost always count on the same behavior of the option as  in  other  commands.   (Other  command
       options,  which are listed with the individual commands, may have different behavior from one cvs command
       to the other).

       Note: the history command is an exception; it  supports  many  options  that  conflict  even  with  these
       standard options.

       -D date_spec

         Use  the  most  recent  revision  no  later  than  date_spec.   date_spec  is a single argument, a date
         description specifying a date in the past.

         The specification is sticky when you use it to make a private copy of a source file; that is, when  you
         get  a  working  file using -D, cvs records the date you specified, so that further updates in the same
         directory will use the same date (for more information on sticky tags/dates, see node 'Sticky tags'  in
         the CVS manual).

         -D  is  available  with  the  annotate, checkout, diff, export, history, ls, rdiff, rls, rtag, tag, and
         update commands.  (The history command uses this option in a slightly different way; see node  'history
         options' in the CVS manual).

         For  a  complete  description of the date formats accepted by cvs, see node 'Date input formats' in the
         CVS manual.

         Remember to quote the argument to the -D flag so that your shell doesn't interpret spaces  as  argument
         separators.  A command using the -D flag can look like this:

           $ cvs diff -D "1 hour ago" cvs.texinfo

       -f

         When  you  specify  a  particular  date  or tag to cvs commands, they normally ignore files that do not
         contain the tag (or did not exist prior to the date) that you specified.  Use the -f option if you want
         files retrieved even when there is no match for the tag or date.  (The most recent revision of the file
         will be used).

         Note that even with -f, a tag that you specify must exist (that is, in  some  file,  not  necessary  in
         every file).  This is so that cvs will continue to give an error if you mistype a tag name.

         -f is available with these commands: annotate, checkout, export, rdiff, rtag, and update.

         WARNING:   The  commit  and  remove commands also have a -f option, but it has a different behavior for
         those commands.  See node 'commit options' in the CVS manual, and node  'Removing  files'  in  the  CVS
         manual.

       -k kflag

         Override the default processing of RCS keywords other than -kb.  See node 'Keyword substitution' in the
         CVS manual, for the meaning of  kflag.   Used  with  the  checkout  and  update  commands,  your  kflag
         specification  is  sticky;  that  is,  when  you use this option with a checkout or update command, cvs
         associates your selected kflag with any files it operates on, and continues  to  use  that  kflag  with
         future commands on the same files until you specify otherwise.

         The -k option is available with the add, checkout, diff, export, import, rdiff, and update commands.

         WARNING:  Prior to CVS version 1.12.2, the -k flag overrode the -kb indication for a binary file.  This
         could sometimes corrupt binary files.  See node 'Merging and keywords' in the CVS manual, for more.

       -l

         Local; run only in current working directory, rather than recursing through subdirectories.

         Available with the following commands: annotate, checkout, commit, diff, edit,  editors,  export,  log,
         rdiff, remove, rtag, status, tag, unedit, update, watch, and watchers.

       -m message

         Use message as log information, instead of invoking an editor.

         Available with the following commands: add, commit and import.

       -n

         Do  not  run  any  tag  program.   (A program can be specified to run in the modules database (see node
         'modules' in the CVS manual); this option bypasses it).

         Note: this is not the same as the cvs -n program option, which you can specify to the  left  of  a  cvs
         command!

         Available with the checkout, commit, export, and rtag commands.

       -P

         Prune empty directories.  See node 'Removing directories' in the CVS manual.

       -p

         Pipe  the  files  retrieved  from  the  repository  to standard output, rather than writing them in the
         current directory.  Available with the checkout and update commands.

       -R

         Process directories recursively.  This is the default for all cvs commands, with the exception of ls  &
         rls.

         Available  with  the  following  commands: annotate, checkout, commit, diff, edit, editors, export, ls,
         rdiff, remove, rls, rtag, status, tag, unedit, update, watch, and watchers.

       -r tag

       -r tag[:date]

         Use the revision specified by the tag argument (and the date argument for the commands which accept it)
         instead  of the default head revision.  As well as arbitrary tags defined with the tag or rtag command,
         two special tags are always available: HEAD  refers  to  the  most  recent  version  available  in  the
         repository  (also known as the tip of the MAIN branch, also known as trunk; the name of a branch refers
         to its tip; this version of cvs introduces .bhead, but only for the diff command, for  the  same),  and
         BASE refers to the revision you last checked out into the current working directory.

         The  tag  specification  is sticky when you use this with checkout or update to make your own copy of a
         file: cvs remembers the tag and continues to use it  on  future  update  commands,  until  you  specify
         otherwise (for more information on sticky tags/dates, see node 'Sticky tags' in the CVS manual).

         The  tag can be either a symbolic or numeric tag, as described in node 'Tags' in the CVS manual, or the
         name of a branch, as described in node 'Branching and merging' in the CVS manual.  When tag is the name
         of  a  branch,  some commands accept the optional date argument to specify the revision as of the given
         date on the branch.  When a command expects a specific revision, the name of a branch is interpreted as
         the most recent revision on that branch.

         As  a MirOS cvs extension, specifying BASE as the date portion of the argument yields the base revision
         of the branch specified by the tag portion of the argument, i.e. the revision on the parent branch  the
         tag  branch  split  off, or, where both branches were the same.  This option has not received very much
         testing, beware!

         Specifying the -q global option along with the -r command option  is  often  useful,  to  suppress  the
         warning messages when the rcs file does not contain the specified tag.

         Note:  this  is  not  the same as the overall cvs -r option, which you can specify to the left of a cvs
         command!

         -r tag is available with the commit and history commands.

         -r tag[:date] is available with the annotate, checkout, diff, export, rdiff, rtag, and update commands.

       -W

         Specify file names that should be filtered.  You can use this option repeatedly.  The  spec  can  be  a
         file  name  pattern of the same type that you can specify in the .cvswrappers file.  Available with the
         following commands: import, and update.

admin

   Administration
       • Requires: repository, working directory.

       • Changes: repository.

       • Synonym: rcs

         This is the cvs interface to assorted  administrative  facilities.   Some  of  them  have  questionable
         usefulness  for  cvs but exist for historical purposes.  Some of the questionable options are likely to
         disappear in the future.  This command does work recursively, so extreme care should be used.

         On unix, if there is a group named cvsadmin, only members of that group can  run  cvs  admin  commands,
         except  for those specified using the UserAdminOptions configuration option in the CVSROOT/config file.
         Options specified using UserAdminOptions can be run by any user.  See node 'config' in the  CVS  manual
         for more on UserAdminOptions.

         The  cvsadmin  group  should  exist on the server, or any system running the non-client/server cvs.  To
         disallow cvs admin for all users, create a group with no users in it.  On NT, the cvsadmin feature does
         not exist and all users can run cvs admin.

admin options

       Some  of these options have questionable usefulness for cvs but exist for historical purposes.  Some even
       make it impossible to use cvs until you undo the effect!

       -Aoldfile

         Might not work together with cvs.  Append the access list of oldfile to the  access  list  of  the  rcs
         file.

       -alogins

         Might  not work together with cvs.  Append the login names appearing in the comma-separated list logins
         to the access list of the rcs file.

       -b[rev]

         Set the default branch to rev.  In cvs, you normally do not manipulate default  branches;  sticky  tags
         (see node 'Sticky tags' in the CVS manual) are a better way to decide which branch you want to work on.
         There is one reason to run cvs admin -b: to revert to the vendor's version when using  vendor  branches
         (see  node  'Reverting  local  changes'  in  the CVS manual).  There can be no space between -b and its
         argument.

       -cstring

         Sets the comment leader to string.  The comment leader is not used by current versions of  cvs  or  rcs
         5.7.   Therefore, you can almost surely not worry about it.  See node 'Keyword substitution' in the CVS
         manual.

       -e[logins]

         Might not work together with cvs.  Erase the login names appearing in the comma-separated  list  logins
         from  the  access list of the RCS file.  If logins is omitted, erase the entire access list.  There can
         be no space between -e and its argument.

       -I

         Run interactively, even if the standard input is not a terminal.  This option does not  work  with  the
         client/server cvs and is likely to disappear in a future release of cvs.

       -i

         Useless  with  cvs.   This creates and initializes a new rcs file, without depositing a revision.  With
         cvs, add files with the cvs add command (see node 'Adding files' in the CVS manual).

       -ksubst

         Set the default keyword substitution to subst.  See node 'Keyword  substitution'  in  the  CVS  manual.
         Giving an explicit -k option to cvs update, cvs export, or cvs checkout overrides this default.

       -l[rev]

         Lock  the revision with number rev.  If a branch is given, lock the latest revision on that branch.  If
         rev is omitted, lock the latest revision on the default branch.  There can be no space between  -l  and
         its argument.

         This  can  be used in conjunction with the rcslock.pl script in the contrib directory of the cvs source
         distribution to provide reserved checkouts (where only one user can be editing a given file at a time).
         See  the  comments  in that file for details (and see the README file in that directory for disclaimers
         about the unsupported nature of contrib).  According to comments in that  file,  locking  must  set  to
         strict (which is the default).

       -L

         Set  locking  to strict.  Strict locking means that the owner of an RCS file is not exempt from locking
         for checkin.  For use with cvs, strict locking must be set; see the  discussion  under  the  -l  option
         above.

       -mrev:msg

         Replace the log message of revision rev with msg.

       -Nname[:[rev]]

         Act  like  -n,  except override any previous assignment of name.  For use with magic branches, see node
         'Magic branch numbers' in the CVS manual.

       -nname[:[rev]]

         Associate the symbolic name name with the branch or revision rev.  It is normally better to use cvs tag
         or cvs rtag instead.  Delete the symbolic name if both : and rev are omitted; otherwise, print an error
         message if name is already associated with another number.  If rev is symbolic, it is  expanded  before
         association.   A  rev  consisting  of  a  branch  number  followed by a . stands for the current latest
         revision in the branch.  A : with an empty rev stands for the current latest revision  on  the  default
         branch,  normally  the  trunk.   For example, cvs admin -nname: associates name with the current latest
         revision of all the RCS files; this contrasts with cvs admin -nname:$ which associates  name  with  the
         revision numbers extracted from keyword strings in the corresponding working files.

       -orange

         Deletes (outdates) the revisions given by range.

         Note  that  this command can be quite dangerous unless you know exactly what you are doing (for example
         see the warnings below about how the rev1:rev2 syntax is confusing).

         If you are short on disc this option might help you.  But think twice before using it—there is  no  way
         short  of restoring the latest backup to undo this command!  If you delete different revisions than you
         planned, either due to carelessness or (heaven forbid) a cvs bug, there is no  opportunity  to  correct
         the  error  before the revisions are deleted.  It probably would be a good idea to experiment on a copy
         of the repository first.

         Specify range in one of the following ways:

         rev1::rev2

           Collapse all revisions between rev1 and rev2, so that cvs only stores the differences associated with
           going  from  rev1  to  rev2, not intermediate steps.  For example, after -o 1.3::1.5 one can retrieve
           revision 1.3, revision 1.5, or the differences to get from 1.3 to 1.5, but not the revision  1.4,  or
           the  differences  between  1.3  and 1.4.  Other examples: -o 1.3::1.4 and -o 1.3::1.3 have no effect,
           because there are no intermediate revisions to remove.

         ::rev

           Collapse revisions between  the  beginning  of  the  branch  containing  rev  and  rev  itself.   The
           branchpoint  and  rev  are left intact.  For example, -o ::1.3.2.6 deletes revision 1.3.2.1, revision
           1.3.2.5, and everything in between, but leaves 1.3 and 1.3.2.6 intact.

         rev::

           Collapse revisions between rev and the end of the branch containing rev.  Revision rev is left intact
           but the head revision is deleted.

         rev

           Delete the revision rev.  For example, -o 1.3 is equivalent to -o 1.2::1.4.

         rev1:rev2

           Delete  the  revisions  from  rev1  to  rev2, inclusive, on the same branch.  One will not be able to
           retrieve rev1 or rev2 or any of the revisions  in  between.   For  example,  the  command  cvs  admin
           -oR_1_01:R_1_02  .  is  rarely  useful.   It  means to delete revisions up to, and including, the tag
           R_1_02.  But beware!  If there are files that have not changed between R_1_02  and  R_1_03  the  file
           will  have  the  same  numerical revision number assigned to the tags R_1_02 and R_1_03.  So not only
           will it be impossible to retrieve R_1_02; R_1_03 will also have to be restored from  the  tapes!   In
           most cases you want to specify rev1::rev2 instead.

         :rev

           Delete revisions from the beginning of the branch containing rev up to and including rev.

         rev:

           Delete revisions from revision rev, including rev itself, to the end of the branch containing rev.

           None of the revisions to be deleted may have branches or locks.

           If  any of the revisions to be deleted have symbolic names, and one specifies one of the :: syntaxes,
           then cvs will give an error and not delete any revisions.  If you really  want  to  delete  both  the
           symbolic names and the revisions, first delete the symbolic names with cvs tag -d, then run cvs admin
           -o.  If one specifies the non-:: syntaxes, then cvs will delete the revisions but leave the  symbolic
           names  pointing to nonexistent revisions.  This behavior is preserved for compatibility with previous
           versions of cvs, but because it isn't very useful, in the future it may change  to  be  like  the  ::
           case.

           Due to the way cvs handles branches rev cannot be specified symbolically if it is a branch.  See node
           'Magic branch numbers' in the CVS manual, for an explanation.

           Make sure that no-one has checked out a copy of the revision you outdate.  Strange things will happen
           if  he  starts  to edit it and tries to check it back in.  For this reason, this option is not a good
           way to take back a bogus commit; commit a new revision undoing the bogus  change  instead  (see  node
           'Merging two revisions' in the CVS manual).

       -q

         Run quietly; do not print diagnostics.

       -sstate[:rev]

         Useful  with  cvs.   Set  the state attribute of the revision rev to state.  If rev is a branch number,
         assume the latest revision on that branch.  If rev is  omitted,  assume  the  latest  revision  on  the
         default  branch.   Any  identifier  is  acceptable  for  state.   A  useful  set  of states is Exp (for
         experimental), Stab (for stable), and Rel (for released).  By default, the state of a new  revision  is
         set  to Exp when it is created.  The state is visible in the output from cvs log (see node 'log' in the
         CVS manual), and in the $Log$ and $State$ keywords (see node 'Keyword substitution' in the CVS manual).
         Note  that cvs uses the dead state for its own purposes (see node 'Attic' in the CVS manual); to take a
         file to or from the dead state use commands like cvs remove and cvs add (see node 'Adding and removing'
         in the CVS manual), not cvs admin -s.

       -t[file]

         Useful  with  cvs.   Write  descriptive  text  from  the  contents of the named file into the RCS file,
         deleting the existing text.  The file pathname may not begin with -.  The descriptive text can be  seen
         in  the  output  from cvs log (see node 'log' in the CVS manual).  There can be no space between -t and
         its argument.

         If file is omitted, obtain the text from standard  input,  terminated  by  end-of-file  or  by  a  line
         containing . by itself.  Prompt for the text if interaction is possible; see -I.

       -t-string

         Similar  to  -tfile.  Write  descriptive  text from the string into the rcs file, deleting the existing
         text.  There can be no space between -t and its argument.

       -U

         Set locking to non-strict.  Non-strict locking means that the owner of a file need not lock a  revision
         for  checkin.   For  use  with  cvs, strict locking must be set; see the discussion under the -l option
         above.

       -u[rev]

         See the option -l above, for a discussion of using this option with  cvs.   Unlock  the  revision  with
         number  rev.   If  a  branch  is  given, unlock the latest revision on that branch.  If rev is omitted,
         remove the latest lock held by the caller.  Normally, only the locker of  a  revision  may  unlock  it;
         somebody  else  unlocking  a  revision  breaks  the lock.  This causes the original locker to be sent a
         commit notification (see node 'Getting Notified' in the CVS manual).  There can be no space between  -u
         and its argument.

       -Vn

         In  previous  versions  of cvs, this option meant to write an rcs file which would be acceptable to rcs
         version n, but it is now obsolete and specifying it will produce an error.

       -xsuffixes

         In previous versions of cvs, this was documented as a way of specifying the names  of  the  rcs  files.
         However,  cvs  has  always  required that the rcs files used by cvs end in ,v, so this option has never
         done anything useful.

annotate

   What revision modified each line of a file?
       • Synopsis: annotate [options] files...

       • Requires: repository.

       • Changes: nothing.

         For each file in files, print the head revision of the trunk, together with  information  on  the  last
         modification  for  each  line.  If backwards annotation is requested, show the first modification after
         the specified revision.  (Backwards annotation currently appears to be broken.)

annotate options

       These standard options are supported by annotate (see node 'Common options' in  the  CVS  manual,  for  a
       complete description of them):

       -b

         Backwards, show when a line was removed.  Currently appears to be broken.

       -l

         Local directory only, no recursion.

       -R

         Process directories recursively.

       -f

         Use head revision if tag/date not found.

       -F

         Annotate binary files.

       -r tag[:date]

         Annotate  file  as  of  specified  revision/tag or, when date is specified and tag is a branch tag, the
         version from the branch tag as it existed on date.  See node 'Common options' in the CVS manual.

       -D date

         Annotate file as of specified date.

annotate example

       For example:

         $ cvs annotate ssfile
         Annotations for ssfile
         ***************
         1.1          (mary     27-Mar-96): ssfile line 1
         1.2          (joe      28-Mar-96): ssfile line 2

       The file ssfile currently contains two lines.  The ssfile line 1 line was checked in by mary on March 27.
       Then, on March 28, joe added a line ssfile line 2, without modifying the ssfile line 1 line.  This report
       doesn't tell you anything about lines which have been deleted or replaced; you need to use cvs  diff  for
       that (see node 'diff' in the CVS manual).

       The  options  to  cvs  annotate  are  listed in node 'Invoking CVS' in the CVS manual, and can be used to
       select the files and revisions to annotate.  The options are described in more detail there and  in  node
       'Common options' in the CVS manual.

checkout

   Check out sources for editing
       • Synopsis: checkout [options] modules...

       • Requires: repository.

       • Changes: working directory.

       • Synonyms: co, get

         Create  or  update a working directory containing copies of the source files specified by modules.  You
         must execute checkout before using most of the other cvs commands, since most of them operate  on  your
         working directory.

         The  modules are either symbolic names for some collection of source directories and files, or paths to
         directories or files in the repository.  The symbolic names are defined in the modules file.  See  node
         'modules' in the CVS manual.

         Depending  on  the  modules  you specify, checkout may recursively create directories and populate them
         with the appropriate source files.  You can then edit these source files at  any  time  (regardless  of
         whether  other software developers are editing their own copies of the sources); update them to include
         new changes applied by others to the source repository; or commit your work as a  permanent  change  to
         the source repository.

         Note  that  checkout is used to create directories.  The top-level directory created is always added to
         the directory where checkout is invoked, and usually has the same name as the specified module.  In the
         case  of  a module alias, the created sub-directory may have a different name, but you can be sure that
         it will be a sub-directory, and that checkout will show the relative path leading to each file as it is
         extracted into your private work area (unless you specify the -Q global option).

         The  files  created  by  checkout are created read-write, unless the -r option to cvs (see node 'Global
         options' in the CVS manual) is specified, the CVSREAD  environment  variable  is  specified  (see  node
         'Environment  variables'  in the CVS manual), or a watch is in effect for that file (see node 'Watches'
         in the CVS manual).

         Note that running checkout on a directory that was already built by a prior checkout is also permitted.
         This  is  similar  to  specifying the -d option to the update command in the sense that new directories
         that have been created in the repository will appear in your work  area.   However,  checkout  takes  a
         module  name  whereas update takes a directory name.  Also to use checkout this way it must be run from
         the top level directory (where you originally ran checkout from), so before you run checkout to  update
         an existing directory, don't forget to change your directory to the top level directory.

         For the output produced by the checkout command see node 'update output' in the CVS manual.

checkout options

       These  standard  options  are  supported  by checkout (see node 'Common options' in the CVS manual, for a
       complete description of them):

       -D date

         Use the most recent revision no later than date.  This option is sticky,  and  implies  -P.   See  node
         'Sticky tags' in the CVS manual, for more information on sticky tags/dates.

       -f

         Only  useful  with  the  -D  or  -r  flags.  If no matching revision is found, retrieve the most recent
         revision (instead of ignoring the file).

       -k kflag

         Process keywords according to kflag.  See node 'Keyword substitution' in the CVS manual.   This  option
         is  sticky;  future updates of this file in this working directory will use the same kflag.  The status
         command can be viewed to see the sticky options.  See node 'Invoking CVS' in the CVS manual,  for  more
         information on the status command.

       -l

         Local; run only in current working directory.

       -n

         Do  not  run  any  checkout  program  (as  specified  with  the -o option in the modules file; see node
         'modules' in the CVS manual).

       -P

         Prune empty directories.  See node 'Moving directories' in the CVS manual.

       -p

         Pipe files to the standard output.

       -R

         Checkout directories recursively.  This option is on by default.

       -r tag[:date]

         Checkout the revision specified by tag or, when date is specified and tag is a branch tag, the  version
         from  the  branch  tag as it existed on date.  This option is sticky, and implies -P.  See node 'Sticky
         tags' in the CVS manual, for more information on sticky tags/dates.  Also, see node 'Common options' in
         the CVS manual.

         In addition to those, you can use these special command options with checkout:

       -A

         Reset  any  sticky  tags,  dates,  or  -k  options.  See node 'Sticky tags' in the CVS manual, for more
         information on sticky tags/dates.

       -c

         Copy the module file, sorted, to the standard output, instead of creating or  modifying  any  files  or
         directories in your working directory.

       -d dir

         Create  a  directory  called  dir for the working files, instead of using the module name.  In general,
         using this flag is equivalent to using mkdir dir; cd dir followed by the checkout command  without  the
         -d flag.

         There  is  an  important  exception, however.  It is very convenient when checking out a single item to
         have the output appear in a directory that doesn't contain empty  intermediate  directories.   In  this
         case only, cvs tries to ``shorten'' pathnames to avoid those empty directories.

         For example, given a module foo that contains the file bar.c, the command cvs co -d dir foo will create
         directory dir and place bar.c inside.  Similarly, given a module bar which has subdirectory baz wherein
         there  is  a  file quux.c, the command cvs co -d dir bar/baz will create directory dir and place quux.c
         inside.

         Using the -N flag will defeat this behavior.  Given the same module definitions above, cvs co -N -d dir
         foo  will create directories dir/foo and place bar.c inside, while cvs co -N -d dir bar/baz will create
         directories dir/bar/baz and place quux.c inside.

       -j tag

         With two -j options, merge changes from the revision specified with the first -j option to the revision
         specified with the second j option, into the working directory.

         With  one  -j  option,  merge  changes from the ancestor revision to the revision specified with the -j
         option, into the working directory.  The ancestor revision is the common ancestor of the revision which
         the working directory is based on, and the revision specified in the -j option.

         In  addition, each -j option can contain an optional date specification which, when used with branches,
         can limit the chosen revision to one within a specific date.  An optional date is specified by adding a
         colon (:) to the tag: -jSymbolic_Tag:Date_Specifier.

         See node 'Branching and merging' in the CVS manual.

       -N

         Only  useful  together  with  -d  dir.  With this option, cvs will not ``shorten'' module paths in your
         working directory when you check out a single module.  See the -d flag for examples and a discussion.

       -s

         Like -c, but include the status of all modules, and sort it by the status string.  See  node  'modules'
         in  the CVS manual, for info about the -s option that is used inside the modules file to set the module
         status.

checkout examples

       Get a copy of the module tc:

         $ cvs checkout tc

       Get a copy of the module tc as it looked one day ago:

         $ cvs checkout -D yesterday tc

commit

   Check files into the repository
       • Synopsis: commit [-lnRf] [-m 'log_message' | -F file] [-r revision] [files...]

       • Requires: working directory, repository.

       • Changes: repository.

       • Synonym: ci

         Use commit when you want to incorporate  changes  from  your  working  source  files  into  the  source
         repository.

         If you don't specify particular files to commit, all of the files in your working current directory are
         examined.  commit is careful to change in the repository only those files that you have really changed.
         By  default (or if you explicitly specify the -R option), files in subdirectories are also examined and
         committed if they have changed; you can use the -l option to limit  commit  to  the  current  directory
         only.

         commit  verifies  that  the  selected  files  are  up  to date with the current revisions in the source
         repository; it will notify you, and exit without committing, if any of the specified files must be made
         current  first  with  update  (see  node  'update' in the CVS manual).  commit does not call the update
         command for you, but rather leaves that for you to do when the time is right.

         When all is well, an editor is invoked to allow you to enter a log message that will be written to  one
         or  more  logging  programs  (see  node  'modules' in the CVS manual, and see node 'loginfo' in the CVS
         manual) and placed in the rcs file inside the repository.  This log message can be retrieved  with  the
         log  command;  see  node  'log' in the CVS manual.  You can specify the log message on the command line
         with the -m message option, and thus avoid the editor invocation, or use the -F file option to  specify
         that the argument file contains the log message.

         At  commit,  a  unique commitid is placed in the rcs file inside the repository. All files committed at
         once get the same commitid, a string consisting only of hexadecimal digits (usually 16 in GNU  cvs,  19
         in  MirBSD  and  MirDebian  GNU cvs).  FSF GNU cvs 1.11, MirOS GNU cvs 1.11, and OpenBSD OpenCVS do not
         support commitids yet.  The commitid can be retrieved with the log and status command; see  node  'log'
         in the CVS manual and node 'File status' in the CVS manual.

commit options

       These  standard  options  are  supported  by  commit  (see node 'Common options' in the CVS manual, for a
       complete description of them):

       -l

         Local; run only in current working directory.

       -R

         Commit directories recursively.  This is on by default.

       -r revision

         Commit to revision.  revision must be either a branch, or a revision on the main trunk that  is  higher
         than  any  existing  revision  number  (see  node 'Assigning revisions' in the CVS manual).  You cannot
         commit to a specific revision on a branch.

         commit also supports these options:

       -c

         Refuse to commit files unless the user has registered a valid edit on the file via cvs edit.   This  is
         most  useful  when  commit -c and edit -c have been placed in all .cvsrc files.  A commit can be forced
         anyways by either regestering an edit retroactively via cvs edit (no changes to the file will be  lost)
         or  using  the  -f  option to commit.  Support for commit -c requires both client and a server versions
         1.12.10 or greater.

       -F file

         Read the log message from file, instead of invoking an editor.

       -f

         Note that this is not the standard behavior of the -f option as defined in node 'Common options' in the
         CVS manual.

         Force cvs to commit a new revision even if you haven't made any changes to the file.  As of cvs version
         1.12.10, it also causes the -c option to be ignored.  If the current revision of file is 1.7, then  the
         following two commands are equivalent:

           $ cvs commit -f file
           $ cvs commit -r 1.8 file

         The  -f option disables recursion (i.e., it implies -l).  To force cvs to commit a new revision for all
         files in all subdirectories, you must use -f -R.

       -m message

         Use message as the log message, instead of invoking an editor.

commit examples

   Committing to a branch
       You can commit to a branch revision (one that has an even number of dots) with the -r option.  To  create
       a branch revision, use the -b option of the rtag or tag commands (see node 'Branching and merging' in the
       CVS manual).  Then, either checkout or update can be used to base  your  sources  on  the  newly  created
       branch.   From  that point on, all commit changes made within these working sources will be automatically
       added to a branch revision, thereby not disturbing main-line development in any way.  For example, if you
       had  to  create  a  patch to the 1.2 version of the product, even though the 2.0 version is already under
       development, you might do:

         $ cvs rtag -b -r FCS1_2 FCS1_2_Patch product_module
         $ cvs checkout -r FCS1_2_Patch product_module
         $ cd product_module
         [[ hack away ]]
         $ cvs commit

       This works automatically since the -r option is sticky.

   Creating the branch after editing
       Say you have been working on some  extremely  experimental  software,  based  on  whatever  revision  you
       happened  to  checkout  last week.  If others in your group would like to work on this software with you,
       but without disturbing main-line development, you could commit your change to a new branch.   Others  can
       then  checkout  your  experimental  stuff  and  utilize the full benefit of cvs conflict resolution.  The
       scenario might look like:

         [[ hacked sources are present ]]
         $ cvs tag -b EXPR1
         $ cvs update -r EXPR1
         $ cvs commit

       The update command will make the -r EXPR1 option sticky on all files.  Note  that  your  changes  to  the
       files  will  never be removed by the update command.  The commit will automatically commit to the correct
       branch, because the -r is sticky.  You could also do like this:

         [[ hacked sources are present ]]
         $ cvs tag -b EXPR1
         $ cvs commit -r EXPR1

       but then, only those files that were changed by you will have the -r EXPR1  sticky  flag.   If  you  hack
       away,  and  commit  without  specifying the -r EXPR1 flag, some files may accidentally end up on the main
       trunk.

       To work with you on the experimental change, others would simply do

         $ cvs checkout -r EXPR1 whatever_module

diff

   Show differences between revisions
       • Synopsis: diff [-lR] [-k kflag] [format_options] [(-r rev1[:date1] | -D date1) [-r  rev2[:date2]  |  -D
         date2]] [files...]

       • Requires: working directory, repository.

       • Changes: nothing.

         The  diff  command  is  used to compare different revisions of files.  The default action is to compare
         your working files with the revisions they were based on, and report any differences that are found.

         If any file names are given, only those files are compared.  If any directories are  given,  all  files
         under them will be compared.

         The  exit  status for diff is different than for other cvs commands; for details see node 'Exit status'
         in the CVS manual.

diff options

       These standard options are supported by diff (see node 'Common options' in the CVS manual, for a complete
       description of them):

       -D date

         Use the most recent revision no later than date.  See -r for how this affects the comparison.

       -k kflag

         Process keywords according to kflag.  See node 'Keyword substitution' in the CVS manual.

       -l

         Local; run only in current working directory.

       -R

         Examine directories recursively.  This option is on by default.

       -r tag[:date]

         Compare  with revision specified by tag or, when date is specified and tag is a branch tag, the version
         from the branch tag as it existed on date.  Zero, one or two -r options can be  present.   With  no  -r
         option,  the  working  file  will  be  compared  with  the revision it was based on.  With one -r, that
         revision will be compared to your current working file.  With two -r options those two  revisions  will
         be compared (and your working file will not affect the outcome in any way).

         One or both -r options can be replaced by a -D date option, described above.

         The  following  options  specify  the format of the output.  They have the same meaning as in GNU diff.
         Most options have two equivalent names, one of which is a single letter preceded by -, and the other of
         which is a long name preceded by --.

       -lines

         Show  lines (an integer) lines of context.  This option does not specify an output format by itself; it
         has no effect unless it is combined with -c or -u.  This option is  obsolete.   For  proper  operation,
         patch typically needs at least two lines of context.

       -a

         Treat all files as text and compare them line-by-line, even if they do not seem to be text.

       -b

         Ignore  trailing  white space and consider all other sequences of one or more white space characters to
         be equivalent.

       -B

         Ignore changes that just insert or delete blank lines.

       --binary

         Read and write data in binary mode.

       --brief

         Report only whether the files differ, not the details of the differences.

       -c

         Use the context output format.

       -C lines

       --context[=lines]

         Use the context output format, showing lines (an integer) lines of context, or three if  lines  is  not
         given.  For proper operation, patch typically needs at least two lines of context.

       --changed-group-format=format

         Use  format  to  output a line group containing differing lines from both files in if-then-else format.
         See node 'Line group formats' in the CVS manual.

       -d

         Change the algorithm to perhaps find a smaller set of changes.  This makes diff slower (sometimes  much
         slower).

       -e

       --ed

         Make output that is a valid ed script.

       --expand-tabs

         Expand tabs to spaces in the output, to preserve the alignment of tabs in the input files.

       -f

         Make output that looks vaguely like an ed script but has changes in the order they appear in the file.

       -F regexp

         In  context and unified format, for each hunk of differences, show some of the last preceding line that
         matches regexp.

       --forward-ed

         Make output that looks vaguely like an ed script but has changes in the order they appear in the file.

       -H

         Use heuristics to speed handling of large files that have numerous scattered small changes.

       --horizon-lines=lines

         Do not discard the last lines lines of the common prefix and  the  first  lines  lines  of  the  common
         suffix.

       -i

         Ignore changes in case; consider upper- and lower-case letters equivalent.

       -I regexp

         Ignore changes that just insert or delete lines that match regexp.

       --ifdef=name

         Make merged if-then-else output using name.

       --ignore-all-space

         Ignore white space when comparing lines.

       --ignore-blank-lines

         Ignore changes that just insert or delete blank lines.

       --ignore-case

         Ignore changes in case; consider upper- and lower-case to be the same.

       --ignore-matching-lines=regexp

         Ignore changes that just insert or delete lines that match regexp.

       --ignore-space-change

         Ignore  trailing  white space and consider all other sequences of one or more white space characters to
         be equivalent.

       --initial-tab

         Output a tab rather than a space before the text of a line in normal or context  format.   This  causes
         the alignment of tabs in the line to look normal.

       -L label

         Use label instead of the file name in the context format and unified format headers.

       --label=label

         Use label instead of the file name in the context format and unified format headers.

       --left-column

         Print only the left column of two common lines in side by side format.

       --line-format=format

         Use  format  to  output  all  input  lines  in if-then-else format.  See node 'Line formats' in the CVS
         manual.

       --minimal

         Change the algorithm to perhaps find a smaller set of changes.  This makes diff slower (sometimes  much
         slower).

       -n

         Output RCS-format diffs; like -f except that each command specifies the number of lines affected.

       -N

       --new-file

         In directory comparison, if a file is found in only one directory, treat it as present but empty in the
         other directory.

       --new-group-format=format

         Use format to output a group of lines taken from just the second file in if-then-else format.  See node
         'Line group formats' in the CVS manual.

       --new-line-format=format

         Use  format  to  output  a line taken from just the second file in if-then-else format.  See node 'Line
         formats' in the CVS manual.

       --old-group-format=format

         Use format to output a group of lines taken from just the first file in if-then-else format.  See  node
         'Line group formats' in the CVS manual.

       --old-line-format=format

         Use  format  to  output  a  line taken from just the first file in if-then-else format.  See node 'Line
         formats' in the CVS manual.

       -p

         Show which C function each change is in.

       --rcs

         Output RCS-format diffs; like -f except that each command specifies the number of lines affected.

       --report-identical-files

       -s

         Report when two files are the same.

       --show-c-function

         Show which C function each change is in.

       --show-function-line=regexp

         In context and unified format, for each hunk of differences, show some of the last preceding line  that
         matches regexp.

       --side-by-side

         Use the side by side output format.

       --speed-large-files

         Use heuristics to speed handling of large files that have numerous scattered small changes.

       --suppress-common-lines

         Do not print common lines in side by side format.

       -t

         Expand tabs to spaces in the output, to preserve the alignment of tabs in the input files.

       -T

         Output  a  tab  rather than a space before the text of a line in normal or context format.  This causes
         the alignment of tabs in the line to look normal.

       --text

         Treat all files as text and compare them line-by-line, even if they do not appear to be text.

       -u

         Use the unified output format.

       --unchanged-group-format=format

         Use format to output a group of common lines taken from both files in if-then-else  format.   See  node
         'Line group formats' in the CVS manual.

       --unchanged-line-format=format

         Use  format  to  output a line common to both files in if-then-else format.  See node 'Line formats' in
         the CVS manual.

       -U lines

       --unified[=lines]

         Use the unified output format, showing lines (an integer) lines of context, or three if  lines  is  not
         given.  For proper operation, patch typically needs at least two lines of context.

       -w

         Ignore white space when comparing lines.

       -W columns

       --width=columns

         Use an output width of columns in side by side format.

       -y

         Use the side by side output format.

Line group formats

       Line  group formats let you specify formats suitable for many applications that allow if-then-else input,
       including programming languages and text formatting languages.  A line group format specifies the  output
       format for a contiguous group of similar lines.

       For  example,  the  following  command  compares  the  TeX file myfile with the original version from the
       repository, and outputs a merged file in which old regions are surrounded by  \begin{em}-\end{em}  lines,
       and new regions are surrounded by \begin{bf}-\end{bf} lines.

         cvs diff \

            --old-group-format='\begin{em}
         %<\end{em}
         ' \

            --new-group-format='\begin{bf}
         %>\end{bf}
         ' \

            myfile

       The  following  command  is  equivalent to the above example, but it is a little more verbose, because it
       spells out the default line group formats.

         cvs diff \

            --old-group-format='\begin{em}
         %<\end{em}
         ' \

            --new-group-format='\begin{bf}
         %>\end{bf}
         ' \

            --unchanged-group-format='%=' \

            --changed-group-format='\begin{em}
         %<\end{em}
         \begin{bf}
         %>\end{bf}
         ' \

            myfile

       Here is a more advanced example, which outputs a diff listing with headers containing line numbers  in  a
       ``plain English'' style.

         cvs diff \

            --unchanged-group-format='' \

            --old-group-format='-------- %dn line%(n=1?:s) deleted at %df:
         %<' \

            --new-group-format='-------- %dN line%(N=1?:s) added after %de:
         %>' \

            --changed-group-format='-------- %dn line%(n=1?:s) changed at %df:
         %<-------- to:
         %>' \

            myfile

       To  specify  a  line  group format, use one of the options listed below.  You can specify up to four line
       group formats, one for each kind of line group.  You should quote format, because it  typically  contains
       shell metacharacters.

       --old-group-format=format

         These line groups are hunks containing only lines from the first file.  The default old group format is
         the same as the changed group format if it is specified; otherwise it is a format that outputs the line
         group as-is.

       --new-group-format=format

         These  line  groups are hunks containing only lines from the second file.  The default new group format
         is same as the changed group format if it is specified; otherwise it is a format that outputs the  line
         group as-is.

       --changed-group-format=format

         These  line groups are hunks containing lines from both files.  The default changed group format is the
         concatenation of the old and new group formats.

       --unchanged-group-format=format

         These line groups contain lines common to both files.  The default unchanged group format is  a  format
         that outputs the line group as-is.

         In  a line group format, ordinary characters represent themselves; conversion specifications start with
         % and have one of the following forms.

       %<

         stands for the lines from the first file, including the  trailing  newline.   Each  line  is  formatted
         according to the old line format (see node 'Line formats' in the CVS manual).

       %>

         stands  for  the  lines  from  the second file, including the trailing newline.  Each line is formatted
         according to the new line format.

       %=

         stands for the lines common to both files, including the trailing  newline.   Each  line  is  formatted
         according to the unchanged line format.

       %%

         stands for %.

       %c'C'

         where  C is a single character, stands for C.  C may not be a backslash or an apostrophe.  For example,
         %c':' stands for a colon, even inside the then-part of an if-then-else  format,  which  a  colon  would
         normally terminate.

       %c'\O'

         where  O  is  a  string  of  1,  2, or 3 octal digits, stands for the character with octal code O.  For
         example, %c'\0' stands for a null character.

       Fn

         where F is a printf conversion specification and n is one of the  following  letters,  stands  for  n's
         value formatted with F.

         e

           The line number of the line just before the group in the old file.

         f

           The line number of the first line in the group in the old file; equals e + 1.

         l

           The line number of the last line in the group in the old file.

         m

           The line number of the line just after the group in the old file; equals l + 1.

         n

           The number of lines in the group in the old file; equals l - f + 1.

         E, F, L, M, N

           Likewise, for lines in the new file.

           The  printf  conversion specification can be %d, %o, %x, or %X, specifying decimal, octal, lower case
           hexadecimal, or upper case hexadecimal output respectively.  After the % the  following  options  can
           appear in sequence: a - specifying left-justification; an integer specifying the minimum field width;
           and a period followed by an optional integer specifying the minimum number of digits.   For  example,
           %5dN  prints  the number of new lines in the group in a field of width 5 characters, using the printf
           format "%5d".

       (A=B?T:E)

         If A equals B then T else E.  A and B are each either a decimal constant or a single letter interpreted
         as  above.   This format spec is equivalent to T if A's value equals B's; otherwise it is equivalent to
         E.

         For example, %(N=0?no:%dN) line%(N=1?:s) is equivalent to no lines if N (the number  of  lines  in  the
         group in the new file) is 0, to 1 line if N is 1, and to %dN lines otherwise.

Line formats

       Line  formats  control  how  each  line  taken  from  an  input file is output as part of a line group in
       if-then-else format.

       For example, the following command outputs text with a one-column change indicator to  the  left  of  the
       text.   The  first  column of output is - for deleted lines, | for added lines, and a space for unchanged
       lines.  The formats contain newline characters where newlines are desired on output.

         cvs diff \

            --old-line-format='-%l
         ' \

            --new-line-format='|%l
         ' \

            --unchanged-line-format=' %l
         ' \

            myfile

       To specify a line format, use one of the following options.  You should  quote  format,  since  it  often
       contains shell metacharacters.

       --old-line-format=format

         formats lines just from the first file.

       --new-line-format=format

         formats lines just from the second file.

       --unchanged-line-format=format

         formats lines common to both files.

       --line-format=format

         formats all lines; in effect, it sets all three above options simultaneously.

         In  a line format, ordinary characters represent themselves; conversion specifications start with % and
         have one of the following forms.

       %l

         stands for the contents of the line, not counting its trailing newline (if any).  This  format  ignores
         whether the line is incomplete.

       %L

         stands for the contents of the line, including its trailing newline (if any).  If a line is incomplete,
         this format preserves its incompleteness.

       %%

         stands for %.

       %c'C'

         where C is a single character, stands for C.  C may not be a backslash or an apostrophe.  For  example,
         %c':' stands for a colon.

       %c'\O'

         where  O  is  a  string  of  1,  2, or 3 octal digits, stands for the character with octal code O.  For
         example, %c'\0' stands for a null character.

       Fn

         where F is a printf conversion specification, stands  for  the  line  number  formatted  with  F.   For
         example, %.5dn prints the line number using the printf format "%.5d".  See node 'Line group formats' in
         the CVS manual, for more about printf conversion specifications.

         The default line format is %l followed by a newline character.

         If the input contains tab characters and it is important that they line up on output, you should ensure
         that  %l  or  %L  in  a  line  format  is  just after a tab stop (e.g. by preceding %l or %L with a tab
         character), or you should use the -t or --expand-tabs option.

         Taken together, the line and line group formats let you specify many different formats.   For  example,
         the  following  command  uses a format similar to diff's normal format.  You can tailor this command to
         get fine control over diff's output.

         cvs diff \

            --old-line-format='< %l
         ' \

            --new-line-format='> %l
         ' \

            --old-group-format='%df%(f=l?:,%dl)d%dE
         %<' \

            --new-group-format='%dea%dF%(F=L?:,%dL)
         %>' \

            --changed-group-format='%df%(f=l?:,%dl)c%dF%(F=L?:,%dL)
         %<—
         %>' \

            --unchanged-group-format='' \

            myfile

diff examples

       The following line produces a Unidiff (-u flag) between revision 1.14 and 1.19 of backend.c.  Due to  the
       -kk  flag  no  keywords  are  substituted,  so  differences  that only depend on keyword substitution are
       ignored.

         $ cvs diff -kk -u -r 1.14 -r 1.19 backend.c

       Suppose the experimental branch EXPR1 was based on a set of files tagged RELEASE_1_0.  To  see  what  has
       happened on that branch, the following can be used:

         $ cvs diff -r RELEASE_1_0 -r EXPR1

       A command like this can be used to produce a context diff between two releases:

         $ cvs diff -c -r RELEASE_1_0 -r RELEASE_1_1 > diffs

       If  you  are maintaining ChangeLogs, a command like the following just before you commit your changes may
       help you write the ChangeLog entry.  All local modifications that have not yet  been  committed  will  be
       printed.

         $ cvs diff -u | less

export

   Export sources from CVS, similar to checkout
       • Synopsis: export [-flNnR] (-r rev[:date] | -D date) [-k subst] [-d dir] module...

       • Requires: repository.

       • Changes: current directory.

         This command is a variant of checkout; use it when you want a copy of the source for module without the
         cvs administrative directories.  For example, you might use  export  to  prepare  source  for  shipment
         off-site.   This command requires that you specify a date or tag (with -D or -r), so that you can count
         on reproducing the source you ship to others (and thus it always prunes empty directories).

         One often would like to use -kv with cvs export.  This causes any keywords to be expanded such that  an
         import  done  at  some  other  site  will not lose the keyword revision information.  But be aware that
         doesn't handle an export containing binary files correctly.  Also be aware that after having used  -kv,
         one  can  no longer use the ident command (which is part of the rcs suite—see ident(1)) which looks for
         keyword strings.  If you want to be able to use ident you must not use -kv.

export options

       These standard options are supported by export (see node 'Common  options'  in  the  CVS  manual,  for  a
       complete description of them):

       -D date

         Use the most recent revision no later than date.

       -f

         If no matching revision is found, retrieve the most recent revision (instead of ignoring the file).

       -l

         Local; run only in current working directory.

       -n

         Do not run any checkout program.

       -R

         Export directories recursively.  This is on by default.

       -r tag[:date]

         Export  the  revision  specified by tag or, when date is specified and tag is a branch tag, the version
         from the branch tag as it existed on date.  See node 'Common options' in the CVS manual.

         In addition, these options (that are common to checkout and export) are also supported:

       -d dir

         Create a directory called dir for the working files, instead  of  using  the  module  name.   See  node
         'checkout options' in the CVS manual, for complete details on how cvs handles this flag.

       -k subst

         Set keyword expansion mode (see node 'Substitution modes' in the CVS manual).

       -N

         Only  useful together with -d dir.  See node 'checkout options' in the CVS manual, for complete details
         on how cvs handles this flag.

history

   Show status of files and users
       • Synopsis:     history [-report] [-flags] [-options args] [files...]

       • Requires: the file $CVSROOT/CVSROOT/history

       • Changes: nothing.

         cvs can keep a history log that tracks each use of most cvs commands.  You can use history  to  display
         this information in various formats.

         To  enable  logging, the LogHistory config option must be set to some value other than the empty string
         and the history file specified by the HistoryLogPath option must be writable by all users who  may  run
         the cvs executable (see node 'config' in the CVS manual).

         To enable the history command, logging must be enabled as above and the HistorySearchPath config option
         (see node 'config' in the CVS manual) must be set to specify some number of the  history  logs  created
         thereby and these files must be readable by each user who might run the history command.

         Creating  a  repository via the cvs init command will enable logging of all possible events to a single
         history log file ($CVSROOT/CVSROOT/history) with read and write permissions for  all  users  (see  node
         'Creating a repository' in the CVS manual).

         Note:  history  uses  -f, -l, -n, and -p in ways that conflict with the normal use inside cvs (see node
         'Common options' in the CVS manual).

history options

       Several options (shown above as -report)  control  what kind of report is generated:

       -c

         Report on each time commit was used (i.e., each time the repository was modified).

       -e

         Everything (all record types).  Equivalent to specifying -x with all record types.  Of course, -e  will
         also include record types which are added in a future version of cvs; if you are writing a script which
         can only handle certain record types, you'll want to specify -x.

       -m module

         Report on a particular module.  (You can meaningfully use -m more than once on the command line.)

       -o

         Report on checked-out modules.  This is the default report type.

       -T

         Report on all tags.

       -x type

         Extract a particular set of record types type from the cvs history.  The types are indicated by  single
         letters, which you may specify in combination.

         Certain commands have a single record type:

         F

           release

         O

           checkout

         E

           export

         T

           rtag

           One of five record types may result from an update:

         C

           A merge was necessary but collisions were detected (requiring manual merging).

         G

           A merge was necessary and it succeeded.

         U

           A working file was copied from the repository.

         P

           A working file was patched to match the repository.

         W

           The working copy of a file was deleted during update (because it was gone from the repository).

           One of three record types results from commit:

         A

           A file was added for the first time.

         M

           A file was modified.

         R

           A file was removed.

           The options shown as -flags constrain or expand the report without requiring option arguments:

       -a

         Show data for all users (the default is to show data only for the user executing history).

       -l

         Show last modification only.

       -w

         Show  only  the  records  for  modifications  done  from  the  same  working directory where history is
         executing.

         The options shown as -options args constrain the report based on an argument:

       -b str

         Show data back to a record containing  the  string str  in  either the module name, the file  name,  or
         the repository path.

       -D date

         Show  data  since  date.   This is slightly different from the normal use of -D date, which selects the
         newest revision older than date.

       -f file

         Show data for a particular file (you can specify several -f options on the same command line).  This is
         equivalent to specifying the file on the command line.

       -n module

         Show data for a particular module (you can specify several -n options on the same command line).

       -p repository

         Show  data  for a particular source repository  (you can specify several -p options on the same command
         line).

       -r rev

         Show records referring to revisions since the revision or tag  named  rev  appears  in  individual  rcs
         files.  Each rcs file is searched for the revision or tag.

       -t tag

         Show  records since tag tag was last added to the history file.  This differs from the -r flag above in
         that it reads only the history file, not the rcs files, and is much faster.

       -u name

         Show records for user name.

       -z timezone

         Show times in the selected records using the specified time zone instead of UTC.

import

   Import sources into CVS, using vendor branches
       • Synopsis: import [-options] repository vendortag releasetag...

       • Requires: Repository, source distribution directory.

       • Changes: repository.

         Use import to incorporate an entire source distribution from an outside source (e.g., a source  vendor)
         into  your  source  repository  directory.   You  can  use  this command both for initial creation of a
         repository, and for wholesale updates to the module  from  the  outside  source.   See  node  'Tracking
         sources' in the CVS manual, for a discussion on this subject.

         The  repository argument gives a directory name (or a path to a directory) under the cvs root directory
         for repositories; if the directory did not exist, import creates it.

         When you use import for updates to source that has been modified in your  source  repository  (since  a
         prior  import),  it  will notify you of any files that conflict in the two branches of development; use
         checkout -j to reconcile the differences, as import instructs you to do.

         If cvs decides a file should be ignored (see node 'cvsignore' in the CVS manual), it does not import it
         and  prints  I   followed  by  the filename (see node 'import output' in the CVS manual, for a complete
         description of the output).

         If the file $CVSROOT/CVSROOT/cvswrappers exists, any file whose names match the specifications in  that
         file  will be treated as packages and the appropriate filtering will be performed on the file/directory
         before being imported.  See node 'Wrappers' in the CVS manual.

         The outside source is saved in a first-level branch, by default 1.1.1.   Updates  are  leaves  of  this
         branch;  for example, files from the first imported collection of source will be revision 1.1.1.1, then
         files from the first imported update will be revision 1.1.1.2, and so on.

         At least three arguments are required.  repository is needed to  identify  the  collection  of  source.
         vendortag  is  a  tag  for  the  entire  branch  (e.g., for 1.1.1).  You must also specify at least one
         releasetag to uniquely identify the files at the leaves created each  time  you  execute  import.   The
         releasetag  should  be  new,  not previously existing in the repository file, and uniquely identify the
         imported release,

         Note that import does not change the directory in which you invoke it.  In particular, it does not  set
         up  that  directory  as a cvs working directory; if you want to work with the sources import them first
         and then check them out into a different directory (see node 'Getting the source' in the CVS manual).

import options

       This standard option is supported by import (see node 'Common options' in the CVS manual, for a  complete
       description):

       -m message

         Use message as log information, instead of invoking an editor.

         There are the following additional special options.

       -b branch

         See node 'Multiple vendor branches' in the CVS manual.

       -k subst

         Indicate  the  keyword expansion mode desired.  This setting will apply to all files created during the
         import, but not to any files that previously existed in the repository.  See node 'Substitution  modes'
         in the CVS manual, for a list of valid -k settings.

       -I name

         Specify file names that should be ignored during import.  You can use this option repeatedly.  To avoid
         ignoring any files at all (even those ignored by default), specify `-I !'.

         name can be a file name pattern of the same type that you can specify in the .cvsignore file.  See node
         'cvsignore' in the CVS manual.

       -W spec

         Specify file names that should be filtered during import.  You can use this option repeatedly.

         spec  can  be  a  file name pattern of the same type that you can specify in the .cvswrappers file. See
         node 'Wrappers' in the CVS manual.

       -X

         Modify the algorithm used by cvs when importing new files so that new files do not  immediately  appear
         on the main trunk.

         Specifically,  this  flag  causes  cvs  to mark new files as if they were deleted on the main trunk, by
         taking the following steps for each file in addition to those normally taken on import: creating a  new
         revision  on  the  main  trunk  indicating  that the new file is dead, resetting the new file's default
         branch, and placing the file in the Attic (see node 'Attic' in the CVS manual) directory.

         Use   of   this   option   can   be   forced   on   a   repository-wide   basis    by    setting    the
         ImportNewFilesToVendorBranchOnly option in CVSROOT/config (see node 'config' in the CVS manual).

import output

       import  keeps  you  informed  of its progress by printing a line for each file, preceded by one character
       indicating the status of the file:

       U file

         The file already exists in the repository and has not been locally modified; a new  revision  has  been
         created (if necessary).

       N file

         The file is a new file which has been added to the repository.

       C file

         The  file  already  exists  in the repository but has been locally modified; you will have to merge the
         changes.

       I file

         The file is being ignored (see node 'cvsignore' in the CVS manual).

       L file

         The file is a symbolic link; cvs import ignores symbolic links.  People periodically suggest that  this
         behavior  should  be  changed,  but  if there is a consensus on what it should be changed to, it is not
         apparent.  (Various options in the modules file can be used to recreate  symbolic  links  on  checkout,
         update, etc.; see node 'modules' in the CVS manual.)

import examples

       See node 'Tracking sources' in the CVS manual, and node 'From files' in the CVS manual.

log

   Print out log information for files
       • Synopsis: log [options] [files...]

       • Requires: repository, working directory.

       • Changes: nothing.

         Display  log information for files.  log used to call the rcs utility rlog.  Although this is no longer
         true in the current sources, this history determines the format of the output and  the  options,  which
         are not quite in the style of the other cvs commands.

         The output includes the location of the rcs file, the head revision (the latest revision on the trunk),
         all symbolic names (tags) and some other things.  For each revision, the revision number, the date, the
         author, the number of lines added/deleted, the commitid and the log message are printed.  All dates are
         displayed in local time at the client. This is typically specified in  the  $TZ  environment  variable,
         which can be set to govern how log displays dates.

         Note:  log uses -R in a way that conflicts with the normal use inside cvs (see node 'Common options' in
         the CVS manual).

log options

       By default, log prints all information that is available.  All other options restrict the  output.   Note
       that  the  revision  selection options (-d, -r, -s, and -w) have no effect, other than possibly causing a
       search for files in Attic directories, when used in conjunction with the options that restrict the output
       to only log header fields (-b, -h, -R, and -t) unless the -S option is also specified.

       -b

         Print information about the revisions on the default branch, normally the highest branch on the trunk.

       -d dates

         Print   information   about   revisions   with   a   checkin  date/time  in  the  range  given  by  the
         semicolon-separated list of dates.  The date formats accepted are those accepted by the  -D  option  to
         many  other  cvs  commands  (see  node 'Common options' in the CVS manual).  Dates can be combined into
         ranges as follows:

         d1<d2

         d2>d1

           Select the revisions that were deposited between d1 and d2.

         <d

         d>

           Select all revisions dated d or earlier.

         d<

         >d

           Select all revisions dated d or later.

         d

           Select the single, latest revision dated d or earlier.

           The > or < characters may be followed by = to indicate an inclusive range rather  than  an  exclusive
           one.

           Note that the separator is a semicolon (;).

       -h

         Print  only  the name of the rcs file, name of the file in the working directory, head, default branch,
         access list, locks, symbolic names, and suffix.

       -l

         Local; run only in current working directory.  (Default is to run recursively).

       -N

         Do not print the list of tags for this file.  This option can be very useful when your site uses a  lot
         of  tags,  so  rather than "more"'ing over 3 pages of tag information, the log information is presented
         without tags at all.

       -R

         Print only the name of the rcs file.

       -rrevisions

         Print information about revisions given in the comma-separated list revisions of revisions and  ranges.
         The following table explains the available range formats:

         rev1:rev2

           Revisions rev1 to rev2 (which must be on the same branch).

         rev1::rev2

           The same, but excluding rev1.

         :rev

         ::rev

           Revisions from the beginning of the branch up to and including rev.

         rev:

           Revisions starting with rev to the end of the branch containing rev.

         rev::

           Revisions starting just after rev to the end of the branch containing rev.

         branch

           An argument that is a branch means all revisions on that branch.

         branch1:branch2

         branch1::branch2

           A range of branches means all revisions on the branches in that range.

         branch.

           The latest revision in branch.

           A  bare  -r  with  no  revisions means the latest revision on the default branch, normally the trunk.
           There can be no space between the -r option and its argument.

       -S

         Suppress the header if no revisions are selected.

       -s states

         Print information about revisions whose  state  attributes  match  one  of  the  states  given  in  the
         comma-separated  list  states.  Individual states may be any text string, though cvs commonly only uses
         two states, Exp and dead.  See node 'admin options' in the CVS manual for more information.

       -t

         Print the same as -h, plus the descriptive text.

       -wlogins

         Print information about revisions checked in by users with login names appearing in the comma-separated
         list  logins.  If logins is omitted, the user's login is assumed.  There can be no space between the -w
         option and its argument.

         log prints the intersection of the revisions selected with the options -d, -s, and -w, intersected with
         the union of the revisions selected by -b and -r.

log examples

       Since  log  shows  dates in local time, you might want to see them in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) or
       some other timezone.  To do this you can set your $TZ environment variable before invoking cvs:

         $ TZ=UTC cvs log foo.c
         $ TZ=EST cvs log bar.c

       (If you are using a csh-style shell, like tcsh, you would need to prefix the examples above with env.)

ls & rls

       • ls [-e | -l] [-RP] [-r tag[:date]] [-D date] [path...]

       • Requires: repository for rls, repository & working directory for ls.

       • Changes: nothing.

       • Synonym: dir & list are synonyms for ls and rdir & rlist are synonyms for rls.

         The ls and rls commands are used to list files and directories in the repository.

         By default ls lists the files and directories that belong in your  working  directory,  what  would  be
         there after an update.

         By  default rls lists the files and directories on the tip of the trunk in the topmost directory of the
         repository.

         Both commands accept an optional list of file and directory names, relative to  the  working  directory
         for ls and the topmost directory of the repository for rls.  Neither is recursive by default.

ls & rls options

       These standard options are supported by ls & rls:

       -d

         Show dead revisions (with tag when specified).

       -e

         Display in CVS/Entries format.  This format is meant to remain easily parsable by automation.

       -l

         Display all details.

       -P

         Don't list contents of empty directories when recursing.

       -R

         List recursively.

       -r tag[:date]

         Show  files  specified  by tag or, when date is specified and tag is a branch tag, the version from the
         branch tag as it existed on date.  See node 'Common options' in the CVS manual.

       -D date

         Show files from date.

rls examples

         $ cvs rls
         cvs rls: Listing module: `.'
         CVSROOT
         first-dir

         $ cvs rls CVSROOT
         cvs rls: Listing module: `CVSROOT'
         checkoutlist
         commitinfo
         config
         cvswrappers
         loginfo
         modules
         notify
         rcsinfo
         taginfo
         verifymsg

rdiff

   'patch' format diffs between releases
       • rdiff [-flags] [-V vn] (-r tag1[:date1] | -D date1) [-r tag2[:date2] | -D date2] modules...

       • Requires: repository.

       • Changes: nothing.

       • Synonym: patch

         Builds a Larry Wall format patch(1) file between two releases, that can be fed directly into the  patch
         program  to bring an old release up-to-date with the new release.  (This is one of the few cvs commands
         that operates directly from the repository, and doesn't require a prior checkout.) The diff  output  is
         sent to the standard output device.

         You  can  specify  (using  the  standard  -r and -D options) any combination of one or two revisions or
         dates.  If only one revision or date is specified, the patch file  reflects  differences  between  that
         revision or date and the current head revisions in the rcs file.

         Note  that  if  the  software  release affected is contained in more than one directory, then it may be
         necessary to specify the -p option to the patch command when patching the old sources, so that patch is
         able to find the files that are located in other directories.

rdiff options

       These  standard  options  are  supported  by  rdiff  (see  node 'Common options' in the CVS manual, for a
       complete description of them):

       -D date

         Use the most recent revision no later than date.

       -f

         If no matching revision is found, retrieve the most recent revision (instead of ignoring the file).

       -k kflag

         Process keywords according to kflag.  See node 'Keyword substitution' in the CVS manual.

       -l

         Local; don't descend subdirectories.

       -R

         Examine directories recursively.  This option is on by default.

       -r tag

         Use the revision specified by tag, or when date is specified and tag is a branch tag, the version  from
         the branch tag as it existed on date.  See node 'Common options' in the CVS manual.

         In addition to the above, these options are available:

       -c

         Use the context diff format.  This is the default format.

       -p

         Show which C function each change is in.

       -s

         Create  a  summary change report instead of a patch.  The summary includes information about files that
         were changed or added between the releases.  It is sent to the standard output device.  This is  useful
         for finding out, for example, which files have changed between two dates or revisions.

       -t

         A  diff of the top two revisions is sent to the standard output device.  This is most useful for seeing
         what the last change to a file was.

       -u

         Use the unidiff format for the context diffs.  Remember that old versions of the  patch  program  can't
         handle the unidiff format, so if you plan to post this patch to the net you should probably not use -u.

       -V vn

         Expand keywords according to the rules current in rcs version vn (the expansion format changed with rcs
         version 5).  Note that this option is no longer accepted.  cvs will always expand keywords the way that
         rcs version 5 does.

rdiff examples

       Suppose  you  receive  mail  from  foo@example.net asking for an update from release 1.2 to 1.4 of the tc
       compiler.  You have no such patches on hand, but with cvs that can easily be fixed with a command such as
       this:

         $ cvs rdiff -c -r FOO1_2 -r FOO1_4 tc | \
         $$ Mail -s 'The patches you asked for' foo@example.net

       Suppose  you  have  made  release  1.3,  and  forked  a  branch  called  R_1_3fix for bug fixes.  R_1_3_1
       corresponds to release 1.3.1, which was made some time ago.  Now, you want to see  how  much  development
       has been done on the branch.  This command can be used:

         $ cvs patch -s -r R_1_3_1 -r R_1_3fix module-name
         cvs rdiff: Diffing module-name
         File ChangeLog,v changed from revision 1.52.2.5 to 1.52.2.6
         File foo.c,v changed from revision 1.52.2.3 to 1.52.2.4
         File bar.h,v changed from revision 1.29.2.1 to 1.2

release

   Indicate that a Module is no longer in use
       • release [-d] directories...

       • Requires: Working directory.

       • Changes: Working directory, history log.

         This  command  is  meant to safely cancel the effect of cvs checkout.  Since cvs doesn't lock files, it
         isn't strictly necessary to use this command.  You can always simply delete your working directory,  if
         you like; but you risk losing changes you may have forgotten, and you leave no trace in the cvs history
         file (see node 'history file' in the CVS manual) that you've abandoned your checkout.

         Use cvs release to avoid these problems.  This command checks that no uncommitted changes are  present;
         that  you  are  executing  it  from  immediately above a cvs working directory; and that the repository
         recorded for your files is the same as the repository defined in the module database.

         If all these conditions are true, cvs release leaves a record  of  its  execution  (attesting  to  your
         intentionally abandoning your checkout) in the cvs history log.

release options

       The release command supports one command option:

       -d

         Delete  your  working  copy  of the file if the release succeeds.  If this flag is not given your files
         will remain in your working directory.

         WARNING:  The release command deletes all directories and files recursively.  This has the very serious
         side-effect  that any directory that you have created inside your checked-out sources, and not added to
         the repository (using the add command; see node 'Adding files' in the  CVS  manual)  will  be  silently
         deleted—even if it is non-empty!

release output

       Before  release  releases  your  sources  it  will  print  a  one-line  message  for any file that is not
       up-to-date.

       U file

       P file

         There exists a newer revision of this file in the repository, and you have not modified your local copy
         of the file (U and P mean the same thing).

       A file

         The  file  has  been  added  to your private copy of the sources, but has not yet been committed to the
         repository.  If you delete your copy of the sources this file will be lost.

       R file

         The file has been removed from your private copy of the sources, but has not yet been removed from  the
         repository, since you have not yet committed the removal.  See node 'commit' in the CVS manual.

       M file

         The  file  is  modified  in  your  working  directory.  There might also be a newer revision inside the
         repository.

       ? file

         file is in your working directory, but does not correspond to anything in the source repository, and is
         not  in  the  list  of  files  for  cvs  to  ignore (see the description of the -I option, and see node
         'cvsignore' in the CVS manual).  If you remove your working sources, this file will be lost.

release examples

       Release the tc directory, and delete your local working copy of the files.

         $ cd ..         # You must stand immediately above the

                         # sources when you issue cvs release.
         $ cvs release -d tc
         You have [0] altered files in this repository.
         Are you sure you want to release (and delete) directory `tc': y
         $

server & pserver

   Act as a server for a client on stdin/stdout
       • pserver [-c path]

         server [-c path]

       • Requires: repository, client conversation on stdin/stdout

       • Changes: Repository or, indirectly, client working directory.

         The cvs server and pserver commands are used to provide repository access to remote clients and  expect
         a  client  conversation on stdin & stdout.  Typically these commands are launched from inetd or via ssh
         (see node 'Remote repositories' in the CVS manual).

         server expects that the client has already been authenticated somehow, typically via ssh,  and  pserver
         attempts to authenticate the client itself.

         Only one option is available with the server and pserver commands:

       -c path

         Load  configuration  from  path  rather  than  the  default  location $CVSROOT/CVSROOT/config (see node
         'config' in the CVS manual).  path must be /etc/cvs.conf or prefixed  by  /etc/cvs/.   This  option  is
         supported beginning with cvs release 1.12.13.

suck

   Download RCS ,v file raw
       • suck module/path

       • Requires: repository

         Locates the file module/path,v or module/pa/Attic/th,v and downloads it raw as RCS comma-v file.

         Output consists of the real pathname of the comma-v file, relative to the CVS repository, followed by a
         newline and the binary file content immediately thereafter.

update

   Bring work tree in sync with repository
       • update [-ACdflPpR] [-I name] [-j rev [-j rev]] [-k kflag] [-r tag[:date] | -D date] [-W spec] files...

       • Requires: repository, working directory.

       • Changes: working directory.

         After you've run checkout to create your private copy of  source  from  the  common  repository,  other
         developers will continue changing the central source.  From time to time, when it is convenient in your
         development process, you can use the update command from within your  working  directory  to  reconcile
         your  work  with  any  revisions  applied  to the source repository since your last checkout or update.
         Without the -C option, update will also merge any differences between the local copy of files and their
         base revisions into any destination revisions specified with -r, -D, or -A.

update options

       These  standard  options  are  available  with update (see node 'Common options' in the CVS manual, for a
       complete description of them):

       -D date

         Use the most recent revision no later than date.  This option is sticky,  and  implies  -P.   See  node
         'Sticky tags' in the CVS manual, for more information on sticky tags/dates.

       -f

         Only  useful  with  the  -D  or  -r  flags.  If no matching revision is found, retrieve the most recent
         revision (instead of ignoring the file).

       -k kflag

         Process keywords according to kflag.  See node 'Keyword substitution' in the CVS manual.   This  option
         is  sticky;  future updates of this file in this working directory will use the same kflag.  The status
         command can be viewed to see the sticky options.  See node 'Invoking CVS' in the CVS manual,  for  more
         information on the status command.

       -l

         Local; run only in current working directory.  See node 'Recursive behavior' in the CVS manual.

       -P

         Prune empty directories.  See node 'Moving directories' in the CVS manual.

       -p

         Pipe files to the standard output.

       -R

         Update directories recursively (default).  See node 'Recursive behavior' in the CVS manual.

       -r tag[:date]

         Retrieve the revisions specified by tag or, when date is specified and tag is a branch tag, the version
         from the branch tag as it existed on date.  This option is sticky, and implies -P.   See  node  'Sticky
         tags'  in  the CVS manual, for more information on sticky tags/dates. Also see node 'Common options' in
         the CVS manual.

         These special options are also available with update.

       -A

         Reset any sticky tags, dates, or -k options.  See node 'Sticky  tags'  in  the  CVS  manual,  for  more
         information on sticky tags/dates.

       -C

         Overwrite  locally  modified files with clean copies from the repository (the modified file is saved in
         .#file.revision, however).

       -d

         Create any directories that exist in the repository if they're  missing  from  the  working  directory.
         Normally,  update  acts  only  on  directories  and  files  that  were already enrolled in your working
         directory.

         This is useful for updating directories that were created in the repository since the initial checkout;
         but  it  has  an  unfortunate  side  effect.   If  you  deliberately avoided certain directories in the
         repository when you created your working directory (either through use of a module name or  by  listing
         explicitly the files and directories you wanted on the command line), then updating with -d will create
         those directories, which may not be what you want.

       -I name

         Ignore files whose names match name (in your working directory) during the update.  You can specify  -I
         more  than once on the command line to specify several files to ignore.  Use -I ! to avoid ignoring any
         files at all.  See node 'cvsignore' in the CVS manual, for other ways to make cvs ignore some files.

       -Wspec

         Specify file names that should be filtered during update.  You can use this option repeatedly.

         spec can be a file name pattern of the same type that you can specify in  the  .cvswrappers  file.  See
         node 'Wrappers' in the CVS manual.

       -jrevision

         With two -j options, merge changes from the revision specified with the first -j option to the revision
         specified with the second j option, into the working directory.

         With one -j option, merge changes from the ancestor revision to the  revision  specified  with  the  -j
         option, into the working directory.  The ancestor revision is the common ancestor of the revision which
         the working directory is based on, and the revision specified in the -j option.

         Note that using a single -j tagname option rather than -j branchname to merge  changes  from  a  branch
         will  often not remove files which were removed on the branch.  See node 'Merging adds and removals' in
         the CVS manual, for more.

         In addition, each -j option can contain an optional date specification which, when used with  branches,
         can limit the chosen revision to one within a specific date.  An optional date is specified by adding a
         colon (:) to the tag: -jSymbolic_Tag:Date_Specifier.

         See node 'Branching and merging' in the CVS manual.

update output

       update and checkout keep you informed of their progress by printing a line for each file, preceded by one
       character indicating the status of the file:

       U file

         The  file was brought up to date with respect to the repository.  This is done for any file that exists
         in the repository but not in your working directory, and for files that you haven't changed but are not
         the most recent versions available in the repository.

       P file

         Like  U,  but the cvs server sends a patch instead of an entire file.  This accomplishes the same thing
         as U using less bandwidth.

       A file

         The file has been added to your private copy of the sources, and will be added to the source repository
         when you run commit on the file.  This is a reminder to you that the file needs to be committed.

       R file

         The  file  has  been removed from your private copy of the sources, and will be removed from the source
         repository when you run commit on the file.  This is a reminder to  you  that  the  file  needs  to  be
         committed.

       M file

         The file is modified in  your  working  directory.

         M  can  indicate  one of two states for a file you're working on: either there were no modifications to
         the same file in the repository, so that  your  file  remains  as  you  last  saw  it;  or  there  were
         modifications  in  the  repository  as well as in your copy, but they were merged successfully, without
         conflict, in your working directory.

         cvs will print some messages if it merges your work, and a backup copy of  your  working  file  (as  it
         looked before you ran update) will be made.  The exact name of that file is printed while update runs.

       C file

         A  conflict  was  detected  while  trying  to  merge  your changes to file with changes from the source
         repository.  file (the copy in your working directory) is now the result of attempting to merge the two
         revisions;  an  unmodified  copy  of  your  file  is  also  in  your  working  directory, with the name
         .#file.revision where revision is the revision that your  modified  file  started  from.   Resolve  the
         conflict  as  described  in  node  'Conflicts  example'  in  the  CVS  manual.  (Note that some systems
         automatically purge files that begin with .# if they have not been accessed for a  few  days.   If  you
         intend to keep a copy of your original file, it is a very good idea to rename it.)  Under vms, the file
         name starts with __ rather than .#.

       ? file

         file is in your working directory, but does not correspond to anything in the source repository, and is
         not  in  the  list  of  files  for  cvs  to  ignore (see the description of the -I option, and see node
         'cvsignore' in the CVS manual).

AUTHORS

       Dick Grune
              Original author of the cvs shell script version posted to comp.sources.unix in the volume6 release
              of December, 1986.  Credited with much of the cvs conflict resolution algorithms.

       Brian Berliner
              Coder  and  designer  of the cvs program itself in April, 1989, based on the original work done by
              Dick.

       Jeff Polk
              Helped Brian with the design of the cvs module  and  vendor  branch  support  and  author  of  the
              checkin(1) shell script (the ancestor of cvs import).

       Larry Jones, Derek R. Price, and Mark D. Baushke
              Have helped maintain cvs for many years.

       And many others too numerous to mention here.

SEE ALSO

       The  most comprehensive manual for CVS is Version Management with CVS by Per Cederqvist et al.  Depending
       on your system, you may be able to get it with the info CVS command or it may  be  available  as  cvs.pdf
       (Portable Document Format), cvs.ps (PostScript), cvs.texinfo (Texinfo source), or cvs.html.

       For  CVS  updates,  more  information  on documentation, software related to CVS, development of CVS, and
       more, see:

           http://www.nongnu.org/cvs/

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

                                                                                                          CVS(1)