1CI(1) General Commands Manual CI(1)
2
6 ci - check in RCS revisions
7
9 ci [options] file ...
10
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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 Exception: On the trunk, revisions can be appended to the end, but not
81 inserted.
82
84 -rrev Check in revision rev.
85 -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 -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 -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 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 -f[rev]
110 forces a deposit; the new revision is deposited even it is not
111 different from the preceding one.
112 -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 -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 -i[rev]
132 initial checkin; report an error if the RCS file already exists.
133 This avoids race conditions in certain applications.
134 -j[rev]
136 just checkin and do not initialize; report an error if the RCS
137 file does not already exist.
138 -I[rev]
140 interactive mode; the user is prompted and questioned even if
141 the standard input is not a terminal.
142 -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 -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 -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 -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 -Nname same as -n, except that it overrides a previous assignment of
173 name.
174 -sstate
176 sets the state of the checked-in revision to the identifier
177 state. The default state is Exp.
178 -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 -t-string
184 Write descriptive text from the string into the RCS file, delet‐
185 ing the existing text.
186 The -t option, in both its forms, has effect only during an ini‐
188 tial checkin; it is silently ignored otherwise.
189 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 For backward compatibility with older versions of RCS, a bare -t
196 option is ignored.
197 -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 -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 -V Print RCS's version number.
227 -Vn Emulate RCS version n. See co(1) for details.
229 -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 -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 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 The -z option does not affect dates stored in RCS files, which
262 are always UTC.
263
265 Pairs of RCS files and working files can be specified in three ways
266 (see also the example section).
267 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 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 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 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 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
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 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 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 ci io.c; ci RCS/io.c;
307 ci io.c RCS/io.c;
308 ci RCS/io.c io.c;
309
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
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 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 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 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
357 To prevent anybody but their RCS administrator from deleting revisions,
358 a set of users can employ setuid privileges as follows.
359 · 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 · 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 · Choose a file name B to be a directory of files to be executed by the
375 users.
376 · 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 mkdir B
382 cp D/c[io] B
383 chmod go-w,u+s B/c[io]
384 · Have each user prepend B to their command search path as follows:
386 PATH=B:$PATH; export PATH # ordinary shell
388 set path=(B $path) # C shell
389 · Have A create each RCS directory R with write access only to A as
391 follows:
392 mkdir R
394 chmod go-w R
395 · 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 chgrp G R
401 chmod g-w,o-rwx R
402 · Have A copy old RCS files (if any) into R, to ensure that A owns
404 them.
405 · 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 · 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 · Give setuid privileges only to ci, co, and rcsclean; do not give them
416 to rcs or to any other command.
417 · Do not use other setuid commands to invoke RCS commands; setuid is
419 trickier than you think!
420
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 RCS_MEM_LIMIT
429 Normally, for speed, commands either memory map or copy into
430 memory the RCS file if its size is less than the memory-limit,
431 currently defaulting to ``unlimited''. Otherwise (or if the
432 initially-tried speedy ways fail), the commands fall back to
433 using standard i/o routines. You can adjust the memory limit by
434 setting RCS_MEM_LIMIT to a numeric value lim (measured in kilo‐
435 bytes). An empty value is silently ignored. As a side effect,
436 specifying RCS_MEM_LIMIT inhibits fall-back to slower routines.
437 TMPDIR Name of the temporary directory. If not set, the environment
439 variables TMP and TEMP are inspected instead and the first value
440 found is taken; if none of them are set, a host-dependent
441 default is used, typically /tmp.
442
444 For each revision, ci prints the RCS file, the working file, and the
445 number of both the deposited and the preceding revision. The exit sta‐
446 tus is zero if and only if all operations were successful.
447
449 Author: Walter F. Tichy.
450 Manual Page Revision: 5.9.4; Release Date: 2019-07-27.
451 Copyright © 2010-2015 Thien-Thi Nguyen.
452 Copyright © 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995 Paul Eggert.
453 Copyright © 1982, 1988, 1989 Walter F. Tichy.
454
456 co(1), emacs(1), ident(1), make(1), rcs(1), rcsclean(1), rcsdiff(1),
457 rcsmerge(1), rlog(1), setuid(2), rcsfile(5).
458 Walter F. Tichy, RCS--A System for Version Control, Software--Practice
460 & Experience 15, 7 (July 1985), 637-654.
461 The full documentation for RCS is maintained as a Texinfo manual. If
463 the info(1) and RCS programs are properly installed at your site, the
464 command
465 info rcs
467 should give you access to the complete manual. Additionally, the RCS
469 homepage:
470 http://www.gnu.org/software/rcs/
472 has news and links to the latest release, development site, etc.
474GNU RCS 5.9.4 2019-07-27 CI(1)