CI(1) CI(1)
ci - check in RCS revisions
ci [options] file ...
ci stores new revisions into RCS files. Each pathname matching an RCS
suffix is taken to be an RCS file. All others are assumed to be working
files containing new revisions. ci deposits the contents of each working
file into the corresponding RCS file. If only a working file is given,
ci tries to find the corresponding RCS file in an RCS subdirectory and
then in the working file's directory. For more details, see FILE NAMING
below.
For ci to work, the caller's login must be on the access list, except if
the access list is empty or the caller is the superuser or the owner of
the file. To append a new revision to an existing branch, the tip
revision on that branch must be locked by the caller. Otherwise, only a
new branch can be created. This restriction is not enforced for the
owner of the file if non-strict locking is used (see rcs(1)). A lock
held by someone else may be broken with the rcs command.
Unless the -f option is given, ci checks whether the revision to be
deposited differs from the preceding one. If not, instead of creating a
new revision ci reverts to the preceding one. To revert, ordinary ci
removes the working file and any lock; ci -l keeps and ci -u removes any
lock, and then they both generate a new working file much as if co -l or
co -u had been applied to the preceding revision. When reverting, any -n
and -s options apply to the preceding revision.
For each revision deposited, ci prompts for a log message. The log
message should summarize the change and must be terminated by end-of-file
or by a line containing . by itself. If several files are checked in ci
asks whether to reuse the previous log message. If the standard input is
not a terminal, ci suppresses the prompt and uses the same log message
for all files. See also -m.
If the RCS file does not exist, ci creates it and deposits the contents
of the working file as the initial revision (default number: 1.1). The
access list is initialized to empty. Instead of the log message, ci
requests descriptive text (see -t below).
The number rev of the deposited revision can be given by any of the
options -f, -i, -I, -j, -k, -l, -M, -q, -r, or -u. rev may be symbolic,
numeric, or mixed. Symbolic names in rev must already be defined; see
the -n and -N options for assigning names during checkin. If rev is $,
ci determines the revision number from keyword values in the working
file.
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If rev begins with a period, then the default branch (normally the trunk)
is prepended to it. If rev is a branch number followed by a period, then
the latest revision on that branch is used.
If rev is a revision number, it must be higher than the latest one on the
branch to which rev belongs, or must start a new branch.
If rev is a branch rather than a revision number, the new revision is
appended to that branch. The level number is obtained by incrementing
the tip revision number of that branch. If rev indicates a non-existing
branch, that branch is created with the initial revision numbered rev.1.
If rev is omitted, ci tries to derive the new revision number from the
caller's last lock. If the caller has locked the tip revision of a
branch, the new revision is appended to that branch. The new revision
number is obtained by incrementing the tip revision number. If the
caller locked a non-tip revision, a new branch is started at that
revision by incrementing the highest branch number at that revision. The
default initial branch and level numbers are 1.
If rev is omitted and the caller has no lock, but owns the file and
locking is not set to strict, then the revision is appended to the
default branch (normally the trunk; see the -b option of rcs(1)).
Exception: On the trunk, revisions can be appended to the end, but not
inserted.
-r[rev]
checks in revision rev, releases the corresponding lock, and removes
the working file. This is the default.
The bare -r option (without any revision) has an unusual meaning in
ci. With other RCS commands, a bare -r option specifies the most
recent revision on the default branch, but with ci, a bare -r option
also releases a lock and removes the working file, and is used to
override any default -l or -u options established by shell aliases
or scripts.
-l[rev]
works like -r, except it performs an additional co -l for the
deposited revision. Thus, the deposited revision is immediately
checked out again and locked. This is useful for saving a revision
although one wants to continue editing it after the checkin.
-u[rev]
works like -l, except that the deposited revision is not locked.
This lets one read the working file immediately after checkin.
The -l, bare -r, and -u options are mutually exclusive and silently
override each other. For example, ci -u -r is equivalent to ci -r
because bare -r overrides -u.
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-f[rev]
forces a deposit; the new revision is deposited even it is not
different from the preceding one.
-k[rev]
searches the working file for keyword values to determine its
revision number, creation date, state, and author (see co(1)), and
assigns these values to the deposited revision, rather than
computing them locally. It also generates a default login message
noting the login of the caller and the actual checkin date. This
option is useful for software distribution. A revision that is sent
to several sites should be checked in with the -k option at these
sites to preserve the original number, date, author, and state. The
extracted keyword values and the default log message may be
overridden with the options -d, -m, -s, -w, and any option that
carries a revision number.
-q[rev]
quiet mode; diagnostic output is not printed. A revision that is
not different from the preceding one is not deposited, unless -f is
given.
-i[rev]
initial checkin; report an error if the RCS file already exists.
This avoids race conditions in certain applications.
-j[rev]
just checkin and do not initialize; report an error if the RCS file
does not already exist.
-I[rev]
interactive mode; the user is prompted and questioned even if the
standard input is not a terminal.
-d[date]
uses date for the checkin date and time. The date is specified in
free format as explained in co(1). This is useful for lying about
the checkin date, and for -k if no date is available. If date is
empty, the working file's time of last modification is used.
-M[rev]
Set the modification time on any new working file to be the date of
the retrieved revision. For example, ci -d -M -u f does not alter
f's modification time, even if f's contents change due to keyword
substitution. Use this option with care; it can confuse make(1).
-mmsg
uses the string msg as the log message for all revisions checked in.
By convention, log messages that start with # are comments and are
ignored by programs like GNU Emacs's vc package. Also, log messages
that start with {clumpname} (followed by white space) are meant to
be clumped together if possible, even if they are associated with
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different files; the {clumpname} label is used only for clumping,
and is not considered to be part of the log message itself.
-nname
assigns the symbolic name name to the number of the checked-in
revision. ci prints an error message if name is already assigned to
another number.
-Nname
same as -n, except that it overrides a previous assignment of name.
-sstate
sets the state of the checked-in revision to the identifier state.
The default state is Exp.
-tfile
writes descriptive text from the contents of the named file into the
RCS file, deleting the existing text. The file may not begin with
-.
-t-string
Write descriptive text from the string into the RCS file, deleting
the existing text.
The -t option, in both its forms, has effect only during an initial
checkin; it is silently ignored otherwise.
During the initial checkin, if -t is not given, ci obtains the text
from standard input, terminated by end-of-file or by a line
containing . by itself. The user is prompted for the text if
interaction is possible; see -I.
For backward compatibility with older versions of RCS, a bare -t
option is ignored.
-T Set the RCS file's modification time to the new revision's time if
the former precedes the latter and there is a new revision; preserve
the RCS file's modification time otherwise. If you have locked a
revision, ci usually updates the RCS file's modification time to the
current time, because the lock is stored in the RCS file and
removing the lock requires changing the RCS file. This can create
an RCS file newer than the working file in one of two ways: first,
ci -M can create a working file with a date before the current time;
second, when reverting to the previous revision the RCS file can
change while the working file remains unchanged. These two cases
can cause excessive recompilation caused by a make(1) dependency of
the working file on the RCS file. The -T option inhibits this
recompilation by lying about the RCS file's date. Use this option
with care; it can suppress recompilation even when a checkin of one
working file should affect another working file associated with the
same RCS file. For example, suppose the RCS file's time is 01:00,
the (changed) working file's time is 02:00, some other copy of the
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working file has a time of 03:00, and the current time is 04:00.
Then ci -d -T sets the RCS file's time to 02:00 instead of the usual
04:00; this causes make(1) to think (incorrectly) that the other
copy is newer than the RCS file.
-wlogin
uses login for the author field of the deposited revision. Useful
for lying about the author, and for -k if no author is available.
-V Print RCS's version number.
-Vn Emulate RCS version n. See co(1) for details.
-xsuffixes
specifies the suffixes for RCS files. A nonempty suffix matches any
pathname ending in the suffix. An empty suffix matches any pathname
of the form RCS/path or path1/RCS/path2. The -x option can specify
a list of suffixes separated by /. For example, -x,v/ specifies two
suffixes: ,v and the empty suffix. If two or more suffixes are
specified, they are tried in order when looking for an RCS file; the
first one that works is used for that file. If no RCS file is found
but an RCS file can be created, the suffixes are tried in order to
determine the new RCS file's name. The default for suffixes is
installation-dependent; normally it is ,v/ for hosts like Unix that
permit commas in filenames, and is empty (i.e. just the empty
suffix) for other hosts.
-zzone
specifies the date output format in keyword substitution, and
specifies the default time zone for date in the -ddate option. The
zone should be empty, a numeric UTC offset, or the special string LT
for local time. The default is an empty zone, which uses the
traditional RCS format of UTC without any time zone indication and
with slashes separating the parts of the date; otherwise, times are
output in ISO 8601 format with time zone indication. For example,
if local time is January 11, 1990, 8pm Pacific Standard Time, eight
hours west of UTC, then the time is output as follows:
option time output
-z 1990/01/12 04:00:00 (default)
-zLT 1990-01-11 20:00:00-08
-z+05:30 1990-01-12 09:30:00+05:30
The -z option does not affect dates stored in RCS files, which are
always UTC.
Pairs of RCS files and working files may be specified in three ways (see
also the example section).
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1) Both the RCS file and the working file are given. The RCS pathname is
of the form path1/workfileX and the working pathname is of the form
path2/workfile where path1/ and path2/ are (possibly different or empty)
paths, workfile is a filename, and X is an RCS suffix. If X is empty,
path1/ must start with RCS/ or must contain /RCS/.
2) Only the RCS file is given. Then the working file is created in the
current directory and its name is derived from the name of the RCS file
by removing path1/ and the suffix X.
3) Only the working file is given. Then ci considers each RCS suffix X
in turn, looking for an RCS file of the form path2/RCS/workfileX or (if
the former is not found and X is nonempty) path2/workfileX.
If the RCS file is specified without a path in 1) and 2), ci looks for
the RCS file first in the directory ./RCS and then in the current
directory.
ci reports an error if an attempt to open an RCS file fails for an
unusual reason, even if the RCS file's pathname is just one of several
possibilities. For example, to suppress use of RCS commands in a
directory d, create a regular file named d/RCS so that casual attempts to
use RCS commands in d fail because d/RCS is not a directory.
Suppose ,v is an RCS suffix and the current directory contains a
subdirectory RCS with an RCS file io.c,v. Then each of the following
commands check in a copy of io.c into RCS/io.c,v as the latest revision,
removing io.c.
ci io.c; ci RCS/io.c,v; ci io.c,v;
ci io.c RCS/io.c,v; ci io.c io.c,v;
ci RCS/io.c,v io.c; ci io.c,v io.c;
Suppose instead that the empty suffix is an RCS suffix and the current
directory contains a subdirectory RCS with an RCS file io.c. The each of
the following commands checks in a new revision.
ci io.c; ci RCS/io.c;
ci io.c RCS/io.c;
ci RCS/io.c io.c;
An RCS file created by ci inherits the read and execute permissions from
the working file. If the RCS file exists already, ci preserves its read
and execute permissions. ci always turns off all write permissions of
RCS files.
Several temporary files may be created in the directory containing the
working file, and also in the temporary directory (see TMPDIR under
ENVIRONMENT). A semaphore file or files are created in the directory
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containing the RCS file. With a nonempty suffix, the semaphore names
begin with the first character of the suffix; therefore, do not specify
an suffix whose first character could be that of a working filename.
With an empty suffix, the semaphore names end with _ so working filenames
should not end in _. ci never changes an RCS or working file. Normally,
ci unlinks the file and creates a new one; but instead of breaking a
chain of one or more symbolic links to an RCS file, it unlinks the
destination file instead. Therefore, ci breaks any hard or symbolic
links to any working file it changes; and hard links to RCS files are
ineffective, but symbolic links to RCS files are preserved. The
effective user must be able to search and write the directory containing
the RCS file. Normally, the real user must be able to read the RCS and
working files and to search and write the directory containing the
working file; however, some older hosts cannot easily switch between real
and effective users, so on these hosts the effective user is used for all
accesses. The effective user is the same as the real user unless your
copies of ci and co have setuid privileges. As described in the next
section, these privileges yield extra security if the effective user owns
all RCS files and directories, and if only the effective user can write
RCS directories. Users can control access to RCS files by setting the
permissions of the directory containing the files; only users with write
access to the directory can use RCS commands to change its RCS files.
For example, in hosts that allow a user to belong to several groups, one
can make a group's RCS directories writable to that group only. This
approach suffices for informal projects, but it means that any group
member can arbitrarily change the group's RCS files, and can even remove
them entirely. Hence more formal projects sometimes distinguish between
an RCS administrator, who can change the RCS files at will, and other
project members, who can check in new revisions but cannot otherwise
change the RCS files.
To prevent anybody but their RCS administrator from deleting revisions, a
set of users can employ setuid privileges as follows.
o Check that the host supports RCS setuid use. Consult a trustworthy
expert if there are any doubts. It is best if the seteuid() system
call works as described in Posix 1003.1a Draft 5, because RCS can
switch back and forth easily between real and effective users, even if
the real user is root. If not, the second best is if the setuid()
system call supports saved setuid (the {_POSIX_SAVED_IDS} behavior of
Posix 1003.1-1990); this fails only if the real user is root. If RCS
detects any failure in setuid, it quits immediately.
o Choose a user A to serve as RCS administrator for the set of users.
Only A will be able to invoke the rcs command on the users' RCS files.
A should not be root or any other user with special powers. Mutually
suspicious sets of users should use different administrators.
o Choose a pathname B that will be a directory of files to be executed by
the users.
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o Have A set up B to contain copies of ci and co that are setuid to A by
copying the commands from their standard installation directory D as
follows:
mkdir B
cp D/c[io] B
chmod go-w,u+s B/c[io]
o Have each user prepend B to their path as follows:
PATH=B:$PATH; export PATH # ordinary shell
set path=(B $path) # C shell
o Have A create each RCS directory R with write access only to A as
follows:
mkdir R
chmod go-w R
o If you want to let only certain users read the RCS files, put the users
into a group G, and have A further protect the RCS directory as
follows:
chgrp G R
chmod g-w,o-rwx R
o Have A copy old RCS files (if any) into R, to ensure that A owns them.
o An RCS file's access list limits who can check in and lock revisions.
The default access list is empty, which grants checkin access to anyone
who can read the RCS file. If you want limit checkin access, have A
invoke rcs -a on the file; see rcs(1). In particular, rcs -e -aA
limits access to just A.
o Have A initialize any new RCS files with rcs -i before initial checkin,
adding the -a option if you want to limit checkin access.
o Give setuid privileges only to ci, co, and rcsclean; do not give them
to rcs or to any other command.
o Do not use other setuid commands to invoke RCS commands; setuid is
trickier than you think!
RCSINIT
options prepended to the argument list, separated by spaces. A
backslash escapes spaces within an option. The RCSINIT options are
prepended to the argument lists of most RCS commands. Useful
RCSINIT options include -q, -V, -x, and -z.
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TMPDIR [Toc] [Back]
Name of the temporary directory. If not set, the environment
variables TMP and TEMP are inspected instead and the first value
found is taken; if none of them are set, a host-dependent default is
used, typically /tmp.
For each revision, ci prints the RCS file, the working file, and the
number of both the deposited and the preceding revision. The exit status
is zero if and only if all operations were successful.
Author: Walter F. Tichy.
Manual Page Revision: 5.7; Release Date: 1998/01/12.
Copyright c 1982, 1988, 1989 by Walter F. Tichy.
Copyright c 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995 Paul Eggert.
co(1), ident(1), make(1), rcs(1), rcsclean(1), rcsdiff(1), rcsintro(1),
rcsmerge(1), rlog(1), rcsfile(4), RCSsource(5).
Walter F. Tichy, RCS--A System for Version Control, Software--Practice &
Experience 15, 7 (July 1985), 637-654.
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