1CI(1)                       General Commands Manual                      CI(1)
2
3
4

NAME

6       ci - check in RCS revisions
7

SYNOPSIS

9       ci [options] file ...
10

DESCRIPTION

12       ci stores new revisions into RCS files.  Each file name matching an RCS
13       suffix is taken to be an RCS file.  All others are assumed to be  work‐
14       ing  files  containing new revisions.  ci deposits the contents of each
15       working file into the corresponding RCS file.  If only a  working  file
16       is  given, ci tries to find the corresponding RCS file in an RCS subdi‐
17       rectory and then in the working file's directory.   For  more  details,
18       see FILE NAMING below.
19
20       For  ci  to work, the caller's login must be on the access list, except
21       if the access list is empty or the caller is the superuser or the owner
22       of  the  file.  To append a new revision to an existing branch, the tip
23       revision on that branch must be locked by the caller.  Otherwise,  only
24       a  new branch can be created.  This restriction is not enforced for the
25       owner of the file if non-strict locking is used (see rcs(1)).   A  lock
26       held by someone else can be broken with the rcs command.
27
28       Unless  the  -f  option  is given, ci checks whether the revision to be
29       deposited differs from the preceding one.  If not, instead of  creating
30       a new revision ci reverts to the preceding one.  To revert, ordinary ci
31       removes the working file and any lock; ci -l keeps  and  ci -u  removes
32       any  lock,  and  then  they both generate a new working file much as if
33       co -l or co -u had  been  applied  to  the  preceding  revision.   When
34       reverting, any -n and -s options apply to the preceding revision.
35
36       For  each  revision  deposited,  ci prompts for a log message.  The log
37       message should summarize the change and must be terminated  by  end-of-
38       file or by a line containing . by itself.  If several files are checked
39       in ci asks whether to reuse the previous log message.  If the  standard
40       input is not a terminal, ci suppresses the prompt and uses the same log
41       message for all files.  See also -m.
42
43       If the RCS file does not exist, ci creates it and deposits the contents
44       of the working file as the initial revision (default number: 1.1).  The
45       access list is initialized to empty.  Instead of the  log  message,  ci
46       requests descriptive text (see -t below).
47
48       The  number  rev  of  the deposited revision can be given by any of the
49       options -f, -i, -I, -j, -k, -l, -M, -q, -r, or -u.   rev  can  be  sym‐
50       bolic,  numeric,  or  mixed.   Symbolic  names  in  rev must already be
51       defined; see the -n and -N options for assigning names during  checkin.
52       If  rev  is $, ci determines the revision number from keyword values in
53       the working file.
54
55       If rev begins with a period, then  the  default  branch  (normally  the
56       trunk)  is  prepended  to  it.  If rev is a branch number followed by a
57       period, then the latest revision on that branch is used.
58
59       If rev is a revision number, it must be higher than the latest  one  on
60       the branch to which rev belongs, or must start a new branch.
61
62       If  rev  is a branch rather than a revision number, the new revision is
63       appended to that branch.  The level number is obtained by  incrementing
64       the  tip revision number of that branch.  If rev indicates a non-exist‐
65       ing branch, that branch is created with the initial  revision  numbered
66       rev.1.
67
68       If  rev is omitted, ci tries to derive the new revision number from the
69       caller's last lock.  If the caller has locked the  tip  revision  of  a
70       branch,  the new revision is appended to that branch.  The new revision
71       number is obtained by incrementing the tip  revision  number.   If  the
72       caller locked a non-tip revision, a new branch is started at that revi‐
73       sion by incrementing the highest branch number at that  revision.   The
74       default initial branch and level numbers are 1.
75
76       If  rev  is  omitted  and the caller has no lock, but owns the file and
77       locking is not set to strict, then the  revision  is  appended  to  the
78       default branch (normally the trunk; see the -b option of rcs(1)).
79
80       Exception:  On the trunk, revisions can be appended to the end, but not
81       inserted.
82

OPTIONS

84       -rrev  Check in revision rev.
85
86       -r     The bare -r option (without any revision) has an unusual meaning
87              in  ci.  With other RCS commands, a bare -r option specifies the
88              most recent revision on the default branch, but with ci, a  bare
89              -r option reestablishes the default behavior of releasing a lock
90              and removing the working file,  and  is  used  to  override  any
91              default  -l  or  -u  options  established  by  shell  aliases or
92              scripts.
93
94       -l[rev]
95              works like -r, except it performs an additional  co -l  for  the
96              deposited revision.  Thus, the deposited revision is immediately
97              checked out again and locked.  This is useful for saving a revi‐
98              sion  although  one  wants  to  continue  editing  it  after the
99              checkin.
100
101       -u[rev]
102              works like -l, except that the deposited revision is not locked.
103              This lets one read the working file immediately after checkin.
104
105              The  -l,  bare  -r,  and  -u  options are mutually exclusive and
106              silently override each other.  For example, ci -u -r is  equiva‐
107              lent to ci -r because bare -r overrides -u.
108
109       -f[rev]
110              forces  a  deposit; the new revision is deposited even it is not
111              different from the preceding one.
112
113       -k[rev]
114              searches the working file for keyword values  to  determine  its
115              revision  number,  creation date, state, and author (see co(1)),
116              and assigns these values to the deposited revision, rather  than
117              computing  them locally.  It also generates a default login mes‐
118              sage noting the login of the caller and the actual checkin date.
119              This  option  is  useful  for software distribution.  A revision
120              that is sent to several sites should be checked in with  the  -k
121              option  at  these  sites  to preserve the original number, date,
122              author, and state.  The extracted keyword values and the default
123              log  message  can be overridden with the options -d, -m, -s, -w,
124              and any option that carries a revision number.
125
126       -q[rev]
127              quiet mode; diagnostic output is not printed.  A  revision  that
128              is not different from the preceding one is not deposited, unless
129              -f is given.
130
131       -i[rev]
132              initial checkin; report an error if the RCS file already exists.
133              This avoids race conditions in certain applications.
134
135       -j[rev]
136              just  checkin  and do not initialize; report an error if the RCS
137              file does not already exist.
138
139       -I[rev]
140              interactive mode; the user is prompted and  questioned  even  if
141              the standard input is not a terminal.
142
143       -d[date]
144              uses  date for the checkin date and time.  The date is specified
145              in free format as explained in co(1).  This is useful for  lying
146              about  the checkin date, and for -k if no date is available.  If
147              date is empty, the working file's time of last  modification  is
148              used.
149
150       -M[rev]
151              Set the modification time on any new working file to be the date
152              of the retrieved revision.  For example, ci -d -M -u f does  not
153              alter  f's modification time, even if f's contents change due to
154              keyword substitution.  Use this option with care; it can confuse
155              make(1).
156
157       -m[msg]
158              uses the string msg as the log message for all revisions checked
159              in.  If msg is omitted, it defaults to "***  empty  log  message
160              ***".   By  convention,  log messages that start with # are com‐
161              ments and are ignored by programs like GNU Emacs's  vc  package.
162              Also,  log  messages  that  start  with {clumpname} (followed by
163              white space) are meant to be clumped together if possible,  even
164              if  they  are  associated  with different files; the {clumpname}
165              label is used only for clumping, and is  not  considered  to  be
166              part of the log message itself.
167
168       -nname assigns  the  symbolic name name to the number of the checked-in
169              revision.  ci  prints  an  error  message  if  name  is  already
170              assigned to another number.
171
172       -Nname same  as  -n,  except that it overrides a previous assignment of
173              name.
174
175       -sstate
176              sets the state of the  checked-in  revision  to  the  identifier
177              state.  The default state is Exp.
178
179       -tfile writes descriptive text from the contents of the named file into
180              the RCS file, deleting the existing text.  The file cannot begin
181              with -.
182
183       -t-string
184              Write descriptive text from the string into the RCS file, delet‐
185              ing the existing text.
186
187              The -t option, in both its forms, has effect only during an ini‐
188              tial checkin; it is silently ignored otherwise.
189
190              During  the  initial checkin, if -t is not given, ci obtains the
191              text from standard input, terminated by end-of-file or by a line
192              containing  . by  itself.   The user is prompted for the text if
193              interaction is possible; see -I.
194
195              For backward compatibility with older versions of RCS, a bare -t
196              option is ignored.
197
198       -T     Set  the RCS file's modification time to the new revision's time
199              if the former precedes the latter and there is a  new  revision;
200              preserve  the  RCS  file's  modification time otherwise.  If you
201              have locked a revision, ci usually updates the RCS file's  modi‐
202              fication time to the current time, because the lock is stored in
203              the RCS file and removing the lock  requires  changing  the  RCS
204              file.   This  can create an RCS file newer than the working file
205              in one of two ways: first, ci -M can create a working file  with
206              a  date  before  the current time; second, when reverting to the
207              previous revision the RCS file can change while the working file
208              remains unchanged.  These two cases can cause excessive recompi‐
209              lation caused by a make(1) dependency of the working file on the
210              RCS  file.   The  -T option inhibits this recompilation by lying
211              about the RCS file's date.  Use this option with  care;  it  can
212              suppress  recompilation  even when a checkin of one working file
213              should affect another working file associated with the same  RCS
214              file.   For  example,  suppose the RCS file's time is 01:00, the
215              (changed) working file's time is 02:00, some other copy  of  the
216              working file has a time of 03:00, and the current time is 04:00.
217              Then ci -d -T sets the RCS file's time to 02:00 instead  of  the
218              usual 04:00; this causes make(1) to think (incorrectly) that the
219              other copy is newer than the RCS file.
220
221       -wlogin
222              uses login for the author field of the deposited revision.  Use‐
223              ful  for  lying  about  the  author,  and for -k if no author is
224              available.
225
226       -V     Print RCS's version number.
227
228       -Vn    Emulate RCS version n.  See co(1) for details.
229
230       -xsuffixes
231              specifies the suffixes for RCS files.  A nonempty suffix matches
232              any file name ending in the suffix.  An empty suffix matches any
233              file name of the  form  RCS/frag  or  frag1/RCS/frag2.   The  -x
234              option can specify a list of suffixes separated by /.  For exam‐
235              ple, -x,v/ specifies two suffixes: ,v and the empty suffix.   If
236              two or more suffixes are specified, they are tried in order when
237              looking for an RCS file; the first one that works  is  used  for
238              that  file.  If no RCS file is found but an RCS file can be cre‐
239              ated, the suffixes are tried in order to determine the  new  RCS
240              file's  name.   The  default for suffixes is installation-depen‐
241              dent; normally it is ,v/ for hosts like Unix that permit  commas
242              in  file  names,  and  is empty (i.e. just the empty suffix) for
243              other hosts.
244
245       -zzone specifies the date output format in  keyword  substitution,  and
246              specifies  the  default time zone for date in the -ddate option.
247              The zone should be empty, a numeric UTC offset, or  the  special
248              string  LT  for local time.  The default is an empty zone, which
249              uses the traditional RCS format of UTC  without  any  time  zone
250              indication  and  with  slashes separating the parts of the date;
251              otherwise, times are output in ISO 8601 format  with  time  zone
252              indication.  For example, if local time is January 11, 1990, 8pm
253              Pacific Standard Time, eight hours west of UTC, then the time is
254              output as follows:
255
256                     option    time output
257                     -z        1990/01/12 04:00:00        (default)
258                     -zLT      1990-01-11 20:00:00-08
259                     -z+05:30  1990-01-12 09:30:00+05:30
260
261              The  -z  option does not affect dates stored in RCS files, which
262              are always UTC.
263

FILE NAMING

265       Pairs of RCS files and working files can be  specified  in  three  ways
266       (see also the example section).
267
268       1) Both the RCS file and the working file are given.  The RCS file name
269       is of the form frag1/workfileX and the working file name is of the form
270       frag2/workfile  where  frag1/  and  frag2/  are  (possibly different or
271       empty) file names, workfile is a file name, and X is an RCS suffix.  If
272       X is empty, frag1/ must start with RCS/ or must contain /RCS/.
273
274       2) Only the RCS file is given.  Then the working file is created in the
275       current directory and its name is derived from the  RCS  file  name  by
276       removing frag1/ and the suffix X.
277
278       3) Only the working file is given.  Then ci considers each RCS suffix X
279       in turn, looking for an RCS file of the form frag2/RCS/workfileX or (if
280       the former is not found and X is nonempty) frag2/workfileX.
281
282       If the RCS file is specified without a file name in 1) and 2), ci looks
283       for the RCS file first in the directory ./RCS and then in  the  current
284       directory.
285
286       ci  reports  an  error  if  an attempt to open an RCS file fails for an
287       unusual reason, even if the RCS file's name is just one of several pos‐
288       sibilities.   For  example, to suppress use of RCS commands in a direc‐
289       tory d, create a regular file named d/RCS so that  casual  attempts  to
290       use RCS commands in d fail because d/RCS is not a directory.
291

EXAMPLES

293       Suppose ,v is an RCS suffix and the current directory contains a subdi‐
294       rectory RCS with an RCS file io.c,v.  Then each of the  following  com‐
295       mands  check  in a copy of io.c into RCS/io.c,v as the latest revision,
296       removing io.c.
297
298              ci  io.c;    ci  RCS/io.c,v;   ci  io.c,v;
299              ci  io.c  RCS/io.c,v;    ci  io.c  io.c,v;
300              ci  RCS/io.c,v  io.c;    ci  io.c,v  io.c;
301
302       Suppose instead that the empty suffix is an RCS suffix and the  current
303       directory  contains a subdirectory RCS with an RCS file io.c.  The each
304       of the following commands checks in a new revision.
305
306              ci  io.c;    ci  RCS/io.c;
307              ci  io.c  RCS/io.c;
308              ci  RCS/io.c  io.c;
309

FILE MODES

311       An RCS file created by ci inherits the  read  and  execute  permissions
312       from  the  working  file.  If the RCS file exists already, ci preserves
313       its read and execute permissions.  ci always turns off all  write  per‐
314       missions of RCS files.
315

FILES

317       Temporary  files  are  created  in the directory containing the working
318       file, and also in the temporary directory (see  TMPDIR  under  ENVIRON‐
319       MENT).  A semaphore file or files are created in the directory contain‐
320       ing the RCS file.  With a nonempty suffix, the  semaphore  names  begin
321       with  the  first  character of the suffix; therefore, do not specify an
322       suffix whose first character could be that  of  a  working  file  name.
323       With  an  empty  suffix, the semaphore names end with _ so working file
324       names should not end in _.
325
326       ci never changes an RCS file or working file.  Normally, ci unlinks the
327       file  and  creates a new one; but instead of breaking a chain of one or
328       more symbolic links to an RCS file, it  unlinks  the  destination  file
329       instead.   Therefore, ci breaks any hard or symbolic links to any work‐
330       ing file it changes; and hard links to RCS files are  ineffective,  but
331       symbolic links to RCS files are preserved.
332
333       The  effective user must be able to search and write the directory con‐
334       taining the RCS file.  Normally, the real user must be able to read the
335       RCS  and working files and to search and write the directory containing
336       the working file;  however,  some  older  hosts  cannot  easily  switch
337       between  real and effective users, so on these hosts the effective user
338       is used for all accesses.  The effective user is the same as  the  real
339       user  unless  your  copies  of  ci  and  co have setuid privileges.  As
340       described in the next section, these privileges yield extra security if
341       the  effective user owns all RCS files and directories, and if only the
342       effective user can write RCS directories.
343
344       Users can control access to RCS files by setting the permissions of the
345       directory  containing  the  files;  only users with write access to the
346       directory can use RCS commands to change its RCS files.   For  example,
347       in  hosts that allow a user to belong to several groups, one can make a
348       group's RCS directories writable to that  group  only.   This  approach
349       suffices  for informal projects, but it means that any group member can
350       arbitrarily change the group's RCS files,  and  can  even  remove  them
351       entirely.   Hence more formal projects sometimes distinguish between an
352       RCS administrator, who can change the RCS  files  at  will,  and  other
353       project  members,  who  can check in new revisions but cannot otherwise
354       change the RCS files.
355

SETUID USE

357       To prevent anybody but their RCS administrator from deleting revisions,
358       a set of users can employ setuid privileges as follows.
359
360       · Check  that  the host supports RCS setuid use.  Consult a trustworthy
361         expert if there are any doubts.  It is best  if  the  seteuid  system
362         call  works  as  described  in Posix 1003.1a Draft 5, because RCS can
363         switch back and forth easily between real and effective  users,  even
364         if  the  real user is root.  If not, the second best is if the setuid
365         system call supports saved setuid (the {_POSIX_SAVED_IDS} behavior of
366         Posix  1003.1-1990); this fails only if the real or effective user is
367         root.  If RCS detects any failure in setuid, it quits immediately.
368
369       · Choose a user A to serve as RCS administrator for the set  of  users.
370         Only  A can invoke the rcs command on the users' RCS files.  A should
371         not be root or any other user with special powers.   Mutually  suspi‐
372         cious sets of users should use different administrators.
373
374       · Choose a file name B to be a directory of files to be executed by the
375         users.
376
377       · Have A set up B to contain copies of ci and co that are setuid  to  A
378         by  copying the commands from their standard installation directory D
379         as follows:
380
381              mkdir  B
382              cp  D/c[io]  B
383              chmod  go-w,u+s  B/c[io]
384
385       · Have each user prepend B to their command search path as follows:
386
387              PATH=B:$PATH;  export  PATH  # ordinary shell
388              set  path=(B  $path)  # C shell
389
390       · Have A create each RCS directory R with write access  only  to  A  as
391         follows:
392
393              mkdir  R
394              chmod  go-w  R
395
396       · If  you  want  to  let only certain users read the RCS files, put the
397         users into a group G, and have A further protect the RCS directory as
398         follows:
399
400              chgrp  G  R
401              chmod  g-w,o-rwx  R
402
403       · Have  A  copy  old  RCS  files (if any) into R, to ensure that A owns
404         them.
405
406       · An RCS file's access list limits who can check in and lock revisions.
407         The default access list is empty, which grants checkin access to any‐
408         one who can read the RCS file.  If you  want  limit  checkin  access,
409         have  A  invoke  rcs -a  on  the  file;  see  rcs(1).  In particular,
410         rcs -e -aA limits access to just A.
411
412       · Have A initialize any  new  RCS  files  with  rcs -i  before  initial
413         checkin, adding the -a option if you want to limit checkin access.
414
415       · Give setuid privileges only to ci, co, and rcsclean; do not give them
416         to rcs or to any other command.
417
418       · Do not use other setuid commands to invoke RCS  commands;  setuid  is
419         trickier than you think!
420

ENVIRONMENT

422       RCSINIT
423              Options  prepended to the argument list, separated by spaces.  A
424              backslash escapes spaces within an option.  The RCSINIT  options
425              are  prepended to the argument lists of most RCS commands.  Use‐
426              ful RCSINIT options include -q, -V, -x, and -z.
427
428       RCS_MEM_LIMIT
429              An integer lim, measured in kilobytes, specifying the  threshold
430              under which commands will try to use memory-based operations for
431              processing the RCS file.  (For RCS files of size  lim  kilobytes
432              or  greater,  RCS will use the slower standard input/output rou‐
433              tines.)  Default value is 256.
434
435       TMPDIR Name of the temporary directory.  If not  set,  the  environment
436              variables TMP and TEMP are inspected instead and the first value
437              found is taken; if  none  of  them  are  set,  a  host-dependent
438              default is used, typically /tmp.
439

DIAGNOSTICS

441       For  each  revision,  ci prints the RCS file, the working file, and the
442       number of both the deposited and the preceding revision.  The exit sta‐
443       tus is zero if and only if all operations were successful.
444

IDENTIFICATION

446       Author: Walter F. Tichy.
447       Manual Page Revision: 5.9.0; Release Date: 2014-06-10.
448       Copyright © 2010-2013 Thien-Thi Nguyen.
449       Copyright © 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995 Paul Eggert.
450       Copyright © 1982, 1988, 1989 Walter F. Tichy.
451

SEE ALSO

453       co(1),  emacs(1),  ident(1),  make(1), rcs(1), rcsclean(1), rcsdiff(1),
454       rcsmerge(1), rlog(1), setuid(2), rcsfile(5).
455
456       Walter F. Tichy, RCS--A System for Version Control,  Software--Practice
457       & Experience 15, 7 (July 1985), 637-654.
458
459       The  full  documentation for RCS is maintained as a Texinfo manual.  If
460       the info(1) and RCS programs are properly installed at your  site,  the
461       command
462
463              info rcs
464
465       should  give  you access to the complete manual.  Additionally, the RCS
466       homepage:
467
468              http://www.gnu.org/software/rcs/
469
470       has news and links to the latest release, development site, etc.
471
472
473
474GNU RCS 5.9.0                     2014-06-10                             CI(1)
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