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| _b,—bytes byte-list | Print only the bytes in positions listed in byte-list. Tabs and backspaces are treated like any other character; they take up one byte. |
| _c, —characters character-list | Print only characters in positions listed in character-list. The same as _b for now, but internationalization will change that. Tabs and backspaces are treated like any other character; they take up one character. |
| _f, —fields field-list | Print only the fields listed in field-list. Fields are separated by TAB by default. |
| _d, —delimiter delim | For _f, fields are separated by the first character in delim instead of by TAB. |
| _n | Do not split multibyte characters (no-op for now). |
| _s, —only-delimited | For _f, do not print lines that do not contain the field separator character. |
| —help | Print a usage message and exit with a nonzero status. |
| —version | Print version information on standard output then exit. |
GNU Text Utilities
cvs—Concurrent Versions System
SYNOPSIS
cvs [ cvs_options ] cvs-command [ command_options ][command_args ]
DESCRIPTION
cvs is a front end to the rcs(1) revision control system, which extends the notion of revision control from a collection of files in a single directory to a hierarchical collection of directories consisting of revision controlled files. These directories and files can be combined together to form a software release. cvs provides the functions necessary to manage these software releases and to control the concurrent editing of source files among multiple software developers.
cvs keeps a single copy of the master sources. This copy is called the source repository; it contains all the information to permit extracting previous software releases at any time based on either a symbolic revision tag, or a date in the past.
ESSENTIAL COMMANDS
cvs provides a rich variety of commands (cvs_command in the Synopsis), each of which often has a wealth of options, to satisfy the many needs of source management in distributed environments. However, you don't have to master every detail to do useful work with cvs; in fact, five commands are sufficient to use (and contribute to) the source repository.
| cvs checkout modules... | A necessary preliminary for most cvs work: creates your private copy of the source for modules (named collections of source; you can also use a path relative to the source repository here). You can work with this copy without interfering with others' work. At least one subdirectory level is always created. |
| cvs update | Execute this command from within your private source directory when you wish to update your copies of source files from changes that other developers have made to the source in the repository. |
| cvs add file... | Use this command to enroll new files in cvs records of your working directory. The files will be added to the repository the next time you run cvs commit. Note: You should use the cvs import command to bootstrap new sources into the source repository. cvs add is only used for new files to an already checked-out module. |
| cvs remove file... | Use this command (after erasing any files listed) to declare that you wish to eliminate files from the repository. The removal does not affect others until you run cvs commit. |
| cvs commit file... | Use this command when you wish to "publish" your changes to other developers, by incorporating them in the source repository. |
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OPTIONS
The cvs command line can include cvs_options, which apply to the overall cvs program; a cvs_command, which specifies a particular action on the source repository; and command_options and command_arguments to fully specify what the cvs_command will do.
| WARNING |
You must be careful of precisely where you place options relative to the cvs_command. The same option can mean different things depending on whether it is in the cvs_options position (to the left of a cvs command) or in the command_options position (to the right of a cvs command). |
There are only two situations where you may omit cvs_command: cvs _H or cvs _help elicits a list of available commands, and cvs _v or cvs _version displays version information on cvs itself.
CVS OPTIONS
As of release 1.6, cvs supports GNU style long options as well as short options. Only a few long options are currently supported; these are listed in brackets after the short options whose functions they duplicate.
Use these options to control the overall cvs program:
| _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 a summary of all the commands available. |
| _Q | Causes the command to be really quiet; the command will generate output only for serious problems. |
| _q | Causes the command to be somewhat quiet; informational messages, such as reports of recursion through subdirectories, are suppressed. |
| _b bindir | Use bindir as the directory where RCS programs are located. Overrides the setting of the RCSBIN environment variable. This value should be specified as an absolute pathname. |
| _d CVS_root_directory | Use CVS_root_directory as the root directory pathname of the master RCS source repository. Overrides the setting of the CVS-ROOT environment variable. This value should be specified as an absolute pathname. |
| _e editor | Use editor to enter revision log information. Overrides the setting of the CVSEDITOR and the EDITOR environment variables. |
| _f | Do not read the cvs startup file (~/.cvsrc). |
| _l | Do not log the cvs_command in the command history (but execute it anyway). See the description of the history command for information on command history. |
| _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. |
| _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. |
| -r | Makes new working files read-only. Same effect as if the CVS-READ environment variable is set. |
| _v [_version] | Displays version and copyright information for cvs. |
| _w | Makes new working files read-write (default). Overrides the setting of the CVSREAD environment variable. |
| _z compression_level | When transferring files across the network use gzip with compression level compression_level to compress and decompress data as it is transferred. Requires the presence of the GNU gzip program in the current search path at both ends of the link. |