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 de‐
29 posited differs from the preceding one. If not, instead of creating a
30 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 re‐
34 verting, 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 op‐
49 tions -f, -i, -I, -j, -k, -l, -M, -q, -r, or -u. rev can be symbolic,
50 numeric, or mixed. Symbolic names in rev must already be defined; see
51 the -n and -N options for assigning names during checkin. If rev is $,
52 ci determines the revision number from keyword values in the working
53 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 pe‐
57 riod, 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 de‐
78 fault 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 de‐
91 fault -l or -u options established by shell aliases or scripts.
92 -l[rev]
94 works like -r, except it performs an additional co -l for the
95 deposited revision. Thus, the deposited revision is immediately
96 checked out again and locked. This is useful for saving a revi‐
97 sion although one wants to continue editing it after the
98 checkin.
99 -u[rev]
101 works like -l, except that the deposited revision is not locked.
102 This lets one read the working file immediately after checkin.
103 The -l, bare -r, and -u options are mutually exclusive and
105 silently override each other. For example, ci -u -r is equiva‐
106 lent to ci -r because bare -r overrides -u.
107 -f[rev]
109 forces a deposit; the new revision is deposited even it is not
110 different from the preceding one.
111 -k[rev]
113 searches the working file for keyword values to determine its
114 revision number, creation date, state, and author (see co(1)),
115 and assigns these values to the deposited revision, rather than
116 computing them locally. It also generates a default login mes‐
117 sage noting the login of the caller and the actual checkin date.
118 This option is useful for software distribution. A revision
119 that is sent to several sites should be checked in with the -k
120 option at these sites to preserve the original number, date, au‐
121 thor, and state. The extracted keyword values and the default
122 log message can be overridden with the options -d, -m, -s, -w,
123 and any option that carries a revision number.
124 -q[rev]
126 quiet mode; diagnostic output is not printed. A revision that
127 is not different from the preceding one is not deposited, unless
128 -f is given.
129 -i[rev]
131 initial checkin; report an error if the RCS file already exists.
132 This avoids race conditions in certain applications.
133 -j[rev]
135 just checkin and do not initialize; report an error if the RCS
136 file does not already exist.
137 -I[rev]
139 interactive mode; the user is prompted and questioned even if
140 the standard input is not a terminal.
141 -d[date]
143 uses date for the checkin date and time. The date is specified
144 in free format as explained in co(1). This is useful for lying
145 about the checkin date, and for -k if no date is available. If
146 date is empty, the working file's time of last modification is
147 used.
148 -M[rev]
150 Set the modification time on any new working file to be the date
151 of the retrieved revision. For example, ci -d -M -u f does not
152 alter f's modification time, even if f's contents change due to
153 keyword substitution. Use this option with care; it can confuse
154 make(1).
155 -m[msg]
157 uses the string msg as the log message for all revisions checked
158 in. If msg is omitted, it defaults to "*** empty log message
159 ***". By convention, log messages that start with # are com‐
160 ments and are ignored by programs like GNU Emacs's vc package.
161 Also, log messages that start with {clumpname} (followed by
162 white space) are meant to be clumped together if possible, even
163 if they are associated with different files; the {clumpname} la‐
164 bel is used only for clumping, and is not considered to be part
165 of the log message itself.
166 -nname assigns the symbolic name name to the number of the checked-in
168 revision. ci prints an error message if name is already as‐
169 signed to another number.
170 -Nname same as -n, except that it overrides a previous assignment of
172 name.
173 -sstate
175 sets the state of the checked-in revision to the identifier
176 state. The default state is Exp.
177 -tfile writes descriptive text from the contents of the named file into
179 the RCS file, deleting the existing text. The file cannot begin
180 with -.
181 -t-string
183 Write descriptive text from the string into the RCS file, delet‐
184 ing the existing text.
185 The -t option, in both its forms, has effect only during an ini‐
187 tial checkin; it is silently ignored otherwise.
188 During the initial checkin, if -t is not given, ci obtains the
190 text from standard input, terminated by end-of-file or by a line
191 containing . by itself. The user is prompted for the text if
192 interaction is possible; see -I.
193 For backward compatibility with older versions of RCS, a bare -t
195 option is ignored.
196 -T Set the RCS file's modification time to the new revision's time
198 if the former precedes the latter and there is a new revision;
199 preserve the RCS file's modification time otherwise. If you
200 have locked a revision, ci usually updates the RCS file's modi‐
201 fication time to the current time, because the lock is stored in
202 the RCS file and removing the lock requires changing the RCS
203 file. This can create an RCS file newer than the working file
204 in one of two ways: first, ci -M can create a working file with
205 a date before the current time; second, when reverting to the
206 previous revision the RCS file can change while the working file
207 remains unchanged. These two cases can cause excessive recompi‐
208 lation caused by a make(1) dependency of the working file on the
209 RCS file. The -T option inhibits this recompilation by lying
210 about the RCS file's date. Use this option with care; it can
211 suppress recompilation even when a checkin of one working file
212 should affect another working file associated with the same RCS
213 file. For example, suppose the RCS file's time is 01:00, the
214 (changed) working file's time is 02:00, some other copy of the
215 working file has a time of 03:00, and the current time is 04:00.
216 Then ci -d -T sets the RCS file's time to 02:00 instead of the
217 usual 04:00; this causes make(1) to think (incorrectly) that the
218 other copy is newer than the RCS file.
219 -wlogin
221 uses login for the author field of the deposited revision. Use‐
222 ful for lying about the author, and for -k if no author is
223 available.
224 -V Print RCS's version number.
226 -Vn Emulate RCS version n. See co(1) for details.
228 -xsuffixes
230 specifies the suffixes for RCS files. A nonempty suffix matches
231 any file name ending in the suffix. An empty suffix matches any
232 file name of the form RCS/frag or frag1/RCS/frag2. The -x op‐
233 tion can specify a list of suffixes separated by /. For exam‐
234 ple, -x,v/ specifies two suffixes: ,v and the empty suffix. If
235 two or more suffixes are specified, they are tried in order when
236 looking for an RCS file; the first one that works is used for
237 that file. If no RCS file is found but an RCS file can be cre‐
238 ated, the suffixes are tried in order to determine the new RCS
239 file's name. The default for suffixes is installation-depen‐
240 dent; normally it is ,v/ for hosts like Unix that permit commas
241 in file names, and is empty (i.e. just the empty suffix) for
242 other hosts.
243 -zzone specifies the date output format in keyword substitution, and
245 specifies the default time zone for date in the -ddate option.
246 The zone should be empty, a numeric UTC offset, or the special
247 string LT for local time. The default is an empty zone, which
248 uses the traditional RCS format of UTC without any time zone in‐
249 dication and with slashes separating the parts of the date; oth‐
250 erwise, times are output in ISO 8601 format with time zone indi‐
251 cation. For example, if local time is January 11, 1990, 8pm Pa‐
252 cific Standard Time, eight hours west of UTC, then the time is
253 output as follows:
254 option time output
256 -z 1990/01/12 04:00:00 (default)
257 -zLT 1990-01-11 20:00:00-08
258 -z+05:30 1990-01-12 09:30:00+05:30
259 The -z option does not affect dates stored in RCS files, which
261 are always UTC.
262
264 Pairs of RCS files and working files can be specified in three ways
265 (see also the example section).
266 1) Both the RCS file and the working file are given. The RCS file name
268 is of the form frag1/workfileX and the working file name is of the form
269 frag2/workfile where frag1/ and frag2/ are (possibly different or
270 empty) file names, workfile is a file name, and X is an RCS suffix. If
271 X is empty, frag1/ must start with RCS/ or must contain /RCS/.
272 2) Only the RCS file is given. Then the working file is created in the
274 current directory and its name is derived from the RCS file name by re‐
275 moving frag1/ and the suffix X.
276 3) Only the working file is given. Then ci considers each RCS suffix X
278 in turn, looking for an RCS file of the form frag2/RCS/workfileX or (if
279 the former is not found and X is nonempty) frag2/workfileX.
280 If the RCS file is specified without a file name in 1) and 2), ci looks
282 for the RCS file first in the directory ./RCS and then in the current
283 directory.
284 ci reports an error if an attempt to open an RCS file fails for an un‐
286 usual reason, even if the RCS file's name is just one of several possi‐
287 bilities. For example, to suppress use of RCS commands in a directory
288 d, create a regular file named d/RCS so that casual attempts to use RCS
289 commands in d fail because d/RCS is not a directory.
290
292 Suppose ,v is an RCS suffix and the current directory contains a subdi‐
293 rectory RCS with an RCS file io.c,v. Then each of the following com‐
294 mands check in a copy of io.c into RCS/io.c,v as the latest revision,
295 removing io.c.
296 ci io.c; ci RCS/io.c,v; ci io.c,v;
298 ci io.c RCS/io.c,v; ci io.c io.c,v;
299 ci RCS/io.c,v io.c; ci io.c,v io.c;
300 Suppose instead that the empty suffix is an RCS suffix and the current
302 directory contains a subdirectory RCS with an RCS file io.c. The each
303 of the following commands checks in a new revision.
304 ci io.c; ci RCS/io.c;
306 ci io.c RCS/io.c;
307 ci RCS/io.c io.c;
308
310 An RCS file created by ci inherits the read and execute permissions
311 from the working file. If the RCS file exists already, ci preserves
312 its read and execute permissions. ci always turns off all write per‐
313 missions of RCS files.
314
316 Temporary files are created in the directory containing the working
317 file, and also in the temporary directory (see TMPDIR under ENVIRON‐
318 MENT). A semaphore file or files are created in the directory contain‐
319 ing the RCS file. With a nonempty suffix, the semaphore names begin
320 with the first character of the suffix; therefore, do not specify an
321 suffix whose first character could be that of a working file name.
322 With an empty suffix, the semaphore names end with _ so working file
323 names should not end in _.
324 ci never changes an RCS file or working file. Normally, ci unlinks the
326 file and creates a new one; but instead of breaking a chain of one or
327 more symbolic links to an RCS file, it unlinks the destination file in‐
328 stead. Therefore, ci breaks any hard or symbolic links to any working
329 file it changes; and hard links to RCS files are ineffective, but sym‐
330 bolic links to RCS files are preserved.
331 The effective user must be able to search and write the directory con‐
333 taining the RCS file. Normally, the real user must be able to read the
334 RCS and working files and to search and write the directory containing
335 the working file; however, some older hosts cannot easily switch be‐
336 tween real and effective users, so on these hosts the effective user is
337 used for all accesses. The effective user is the same as the real user
338 unless your copies of ci and co have setuid privileges. As described
339 in the next section, these privileges yield extra security if the ef‐
340 fective user owns all RCS files and directories, and if only the effec‐
341 tive user can write RCS directories.
342 Users can control access to RCS files by setting the permissions of the
344 directory containing the files; only users with write access to the di‐
345 rectory can use RCS commands to change its RCS files. For example, in
346 hosts that allow a user to belong to several groups, one can make a
347 group's RCS directories writable to that group only. This approach
348 suffices for informal projects, but it means that any group member can
349 arbitrarily change the group's RCS files, and can even remove them en‐
350 tirely. Hence more formal projects sometimes distinguish between an
351 RCS administrator, who can change the RCS files at will, and other
352 project members, who can check in new revisions but cannot otherwise
353 change the RCS files.
354
356 To prevent anybody but their RCS administrator from deleting revisions,
357 a set of users can employ setuid privileges as follows.
358 • Check that the host supports RCS setuid use. Consult a trustworthy
360 expert if there are any doubts. It is best if the seteuid system
361 call works as described in Posix 1003.1a Draft 5, because RCS can
362 switch back and forth easily between real and effective users, even
363 if the real user is root. If not, the second best is if the setuid
364 system call supports saved setuid (the {_POSIX_SAVED_IDS} behavior of
365 Posix 1003.1-1990); this fails only if the real or effective user is
366 root. If RCS detects any failure in setuid, it quits immediately.
367 • Choose a user A to serve as RCS administrator for the set of users.
369 Only A can invoke the rcs command on the users' RCS files. A should
370 not be root or any other user with special powers. Mutually suspi‐
371 cious sets of users should use different administrators.
372 • Choose a file name B to be a directory of files to be executed by the
374 users.
375 • Have A set up B to contain copies of ci and co that are setuid to A
377 by copying the commands from their standard installation directory D
378 as follows:
379 mkdir B
381 cp D/c[io] B
382 chmod go-w,u+s B/c[io]
383 • Have each user prepend B to their command search path as follows:
385 PATH=B:$PATH; export PATH # ordinary shell
387 set path=(B $path) # C shell
388 • Have A create each RCS directory R with write access only to A as
390 follows:
391 mkdir R
393 chmod go-w R
394 • If you want to let only certain users read the RCS files, put the
396 users into a group G, and have A further protect the RCS directory as
397 follows:
398 chgrp G R
400 chmod g-w,o-rwx R
401 • Have A copy old RCS files (if any) into R, to ensure that A owns
403 them.
404 • An RCS file's access list limits who can check in and lock revisions.
406 The default access list is empty, which grants checkin access to any‐
407 one who can read the RCS file. If you want limit checkin access,
408 have A invoke rcs -a on the file; see rcs(1). In particular,
409 rcs -e -aA limits access to just A.
410 • Have A initialize any new RCS files with rcs -i before initial
412 checkin, adding the -a option if you want to limit checkin access.
413 • Give setuid privileges only to ci, co, and rcsclean; do not give them
415 to rcs or to any other command.
416 • Do not use other setuid commands to invoke RCS commands; setuid is
418 trickier than you think!
419
421 RCSINIT
422 Options prepended to the argument list, separated by spaces. A
423 backslash escapes spaces within an option. The RCSINIT options
424 are prepended to the argument lists of most RCS commands. Use‐
425 ful RCSINIT options include -q, -V, -x, and -z.
426 RCS_MEM_LIMIT
428 Normally, for speed, commands either memory map or copy into
429 memory the RCS file if its size is less than the memory-limit,
430 currently defaulting to ``unlimited''. Otherwise (or if the
431 initially-tried speedy ways fail), the commands fall back to us‐
432 ing standard i/o routines. You can adjust the memory limit by
433 setting RCS_MEM_LIMIT to a numeric value lim (measured in kilo‐
434 bytes). An empty value is silently ignored. As a side effect,
435 specifying RCS_MEM_LIMIT inhibits fall-back to slower routines.
436 TMPDIR Name of the temporary directory. If not set, the environment
438 variables TMP and TEMP are inspected instead and the first value
439 found is taken; if none of them are set, a host-dependent de‐
440 fault is used, typically /tmp.
441
443 For each revision, ci prints the RCS file, the working file, and the
444 number of both the deposited and the preceding revision. The exit sta‐
445 tus is zero if and only if all operations were successful.
446
448 Author: Walter F. Tichy.
449 Manual Page Revision: 5.10.1; Release Date: 2022-11-07.
450 Copyright © 2010-2022 Thien-Thi Nguyen.
451 Copyright © 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995 Paul Eggert.
452 Copyright © 1982, 1988, 1989 Walter F. Tichy.
453
455 co(1), emacs(1), ident(1), make(1), rcs(1), rcsclean(1), rcsdiff(1),
456 rcsmerge(1), rlog(1), setuid(2), rcsfile(5).
457 Walter F. Tichy, RCS--A System for Version Control, Software--Practice
459 & Experience 15, 7 (July 1985), 637-654.
460 The full documentation for RCS is maintained as a Texinfo manual. If
462 the info(1) and RCS programs are properly installed at your site, the
463 command
464 info rcs
466 should give you access to the complete manual. Additionally, the RCS
468 homepage:
469 http://www.gnu.org/software/rcs/
471 has news and links to the latest release, development site, etc.
473GNU RCS 5.10.1 2022-11-07 CI(1)