Page 442
| _l[rev] | Lock the revision with number rev. If a branch is given, lock the latest revision on that branch. If rev is omitted, lock the latest revision on the default branch. Locking prevents overlapping changes. If someone else already holds the lock, the lock is broken as with rcs _u. |
| _u[rev] | Unlock the revision with number rev. If a branch is given, unlock the latest revision on that branch. If rev is omitted, remove the latest lock held by the caller. Normally, only the locker of a revision can unlock it. Somebody else unlocking a revision breaks the lock. This causes a mail message to be sent to the original locker. The message contains a commentary solicited from the breaker. The commentary is terminated by end-of-file or by a line containing a period by itself. |
| _L | Set locking to strict. strict locking means that the owner of an RCS file is not exempt from locking for checkin. This option should be used for files that are shared. |
| _U | Set locking to non-strict. non-strict locking means that the owner of a file need not lock a revision for checkin. This option should not be used for files that are shared. Whether default locking is strict is determined by your system administrator, but it is normally strict. |
| _mrev:msg | Replace revision rev's log message with msg. |
| _M | Do not send mail when breaking somebody else's lock. This option is not meant for casual use; it is meant for programs that warn users by other means, and invoke rcs _u only as a low-level lock-breaking operation. |
| _nname[:[rev]] | Associate the symbolic name name with the branch or revision rev. Delete the symbolic name if both : and rev are omitted; otherwise, print an error message if name is already associated with another number. If rev is symbolic, it is expanded before association. A rev consisting of a branch number followed by a period stands for the current latest revision in the branch. A : with an empty rev stands for the current latest revision on the default branch, normally the trunk. For example, rcs _nname: RCS/* associates name with the current latest revision of all the named RCS files; this contrasts with rcs _nname:$ RCS/*, which associates name with the revision numbers extracted from keyword strings in the corresponding working files. |
| _Nname[:[rev]] | Act like _n, except override any previous assignment of name. |
| _orange | Deletes ("outdates") the revisions given by range. A range consisting of a single revision number means that revision. A range consisting of a branch number means the latest revision on that branch. A range of the form rev1:rev2 means revisions rev1 to rev2 on the same branch, :rev means from the beginning of the branch containing rev up to and including rev, and rev: means from revision rev to the end of the branch containing rev. None of the outdated revisions can have branches or locks. |
| _q | Run quietly; do not print diagnostics. |
| _I | Run interactively, even if the standard input is not a terminal. |
| _sstate[:rev] | Set the state attribute of the revision rev to state. If rev is a branch number, assume the latest revision on that branch. If rev is omitted, assume the latest revision on the default branch. Any identifier is acceptable for state. A useful set of states is Exp (for experimental), Stab (for stable), and Rel (for released). By default, ci(1) sets the state of a revision to Exp. |
| _t[file] | Write descriptive text from the contents of the named file into the RCS file, deleting the existing text. The file pathname cannot begin with _. If file is omitted, obtain the text from standard input, terminated by end-of-file or by a line containing a period by itself. Prompt for the text if interaction is possible; see _I. With _i, descriptive text is obtained even if _t is not given. |
| _t_string | Write descriptive text from the string into the RCS file, deleting the existing text. |
| _T | Preserve the modification time on the RCS file unless a revision is removed. This option can suppress extensive recompilation caused by a make(1) dependency of some copy of the working file on the RCS file. Use this option with care; it can suppress recompilation even when it is needed, that is, when a change to the RCS file would mean a change to keyword strings in the working file. |
| _V | Print RCS's version number. |
| _Vn | Emulate RCS version n. See co(1) for details. |
| _xsuffixes | Use suffixes to characterize RCS files. See ci(1) for details. |
| _zzone | Use zone as the default time zone. This option has no effect; it is present for compatibility with other RCS commands. |
Page 443
At least one explicit option must be given, to ensure compatibility with future planned extensions to the rcs command.
COMPATIBILITY
The _brev option generates an RCS file that cannot be parsed by RCS version 3 or earlier.
The _ksubst options (except _kkv) generate an RCS file that cannot be parsed by RCS version 4 or earlier.
Use rcs _Vn to make an RCS file acceptable to RCS version n by discarding information that would confuse version n.
RCS version 5.5 and earlier does not support the _x option, and requires a ,v suffix on an RCS pathname.
FILES
rcs accesses files much as ci(1) does, except that it uses the effective user for all accesses, it does not write the working file or its directory, and it does not even read the working file unless a revision number of $ is specified.
ENVIRONMENT
RCSINITf1[:rev] Options prepended to the argument list, separated by spaces. See ci(1) for details.
DIAGNOSTICS
The RCS pathname and the revisions outdated are written to the diagnostic output. The exit status is zero if and only if all operations were successful.
IDENTIFICATION
Author: Walter F. Tichy.
Manual Page Revision: 5.13; Release Date: 1995/06/05.
Copyright 1982, 1988, 1989 Walter F. Tichy.
Copyright 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995 Paul Eggert.
SEE ALSO
rcsintro(1), co(1), ci(1), ident(1), rcsclean(1), rcsdiff(1), rcsmerge(1), rlog(1), rcsfile(5)
"RCS—A System for Version Control" by Walter F. Tichy,
Software Practice & Experience 15, 7 (July 1985), pages
637-654.
BUGS
A catastrophe (for example, a system crash) can cause RCS to leave behind a semaphore file that causes later invocations of RCS to claim that the RCS file is in use. To fix this, remove the semaphore file. A semaphore file's name typically begins with a comma or ends with an underscore.
The separator for revision ranges in the _o option used to be _ instead of :, but this leads to confusion when symbolic names contain _. For backwards compatibility, rcs _o still supports the old _ separator, but it warns about this obsolete use.
Symbolic names need not refer to existing revisions or branches. For example, the _o option does not remove symbolic names for the outdated revisions; you must use _n to remove the names.
GNU, 5 June 1995
rcsclean—Clean up working files
SYNOPSIS
rcsclean [options][file ...]