Version Management with CVS

Copyright (C) 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
Portions Copyright (C) 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 Derek R. Price, Copyright (C) 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 Ximbiot http://ximbiot.com, Copyright (C) 1992, 1993, 1999 Signum Support AB, and Copyright (C) others. Modifications for publication Copyright (C) 2006 Network Theory Ltd

Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies.

Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided also that the entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a permission notice identical to this one.

Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this manual into another language, under the above conditions for modified versions, except that this permission notice may be stated in a translation approved by the Free Software Foundation.

• 1 Overview
  • 1.1 What is CVS?
  • 1.2 What is CVS not?
  • 1.3 A sample session
    • 1.3.1 Getting the source
    • 1.3.2 Committing your changes
    • 1.3.3 Cleaning up
    • 1.3.4 Viewing differences
• 2 The Repository
  • 2.1 Telling CVS where your repository is
  • 2.2 How data is stored in the repository
    • 2.2.1 Where files are stored within the repository
  • 2.3 Creating a repository
  • 2.4 Remote repositories
    • 2.4.1 Connecting with rsh and ssh
    • 2.4.2 Other access methods
• 3 Starting a project with CVS
  • 3.1 Setting up the files
    • 3.1.1 Creating a directory tree from a number of files
    • 3.1.2 Creating files from other version control systems
    • 3.1.3 Creating a directory tree from scratch
  • 3.2 Defining the module
• 4 Revisions
  • 4.1 Revision numbers
  • 4.2 Versions, revisions and releases
  • 4.3 Assigning revisions
  • 4.4 Tags--Symbolic revisions
  • 4.5 Specifying what to tag from the working directory
  • 4.6 Specifying what to tag by date or revision
  • 4.7 Deleting, moving, and renaming tags
  • 4.8 Tagging and adding and removing files
  • 4.9 Sticky tags
• 5 Branching and merging
  • 5.1 What branches are good for
  • 5.2 Creating a branch
  • 5.3 Accessing branches
  • 5.4 Branches and revisions
  • 5.5 Magic branch numbers
  • 5.6 Merging an entire branch
  • 5.7 Merging from a branch several times
  • 5.8 Merging differences between any two revisions
  • 5.9 Merging can add or remove files
  • 5.10 Merging and keywords
• 6 Recursive behavior
• 7 Adding, removing, and renaming files and directories
  • 7.1 Adding files to a directory
  • 7.2 Removing files
  • 7.3 Removing directories
  • 7.4 Moving and renaming files
    • 7.4.1 The normal way to rename
    • 7.4.2 Moving the history file
    • 7.4.3 Copying the history file
  • 7.5 Moving and renaming directories
• 8 History browsing
  • 8.1 Log messages
  • 8.2 The history database
  • 8.3 User-defined logging
• 9 Handling binary files
  • 9.1 The issues with binary files
  • 9.2 How to store binary files
• 10 Multiple developers
  • 10.1 File status
  • 10.2 Bringing a file up to date
  • 10.3 Conflicts example
  • 10.4 Informing others about commits
  • 10.5 Several developers simultaneously attempting to run CVS
  • 10.6 Mechanisms to track who is editing files
    • 10.6.1 Telling CVS to watch certain files
    • 10.6.2 Telling CVS to notify you
    • 10.6.3 How to edit a file which is being watched
    • 10.6.4 Information about who is watching and editing
    • 10.6.5 Using watches with old versions of CVS
  • 10.7 Choosing between reserved or unreserved checkouts
• 11 Revision management
  • 11.1 When to commit?
• 12 Keyword substitution
  • 12.1 Keyword List
  • 12.2 Using keywords
  • 12.3 Avoiding substitution
  • 12.4 Substitution modes
  • 12.5 Problems with the $Log$ keyword.
• 13 Tracking third-party sources
  • 13.1 Importing for the first time
  • 13.2 Updating with the import command
  • 13.3 Reverting to the latest vendor release
  • 13.4 How to handle binary files with cvs import
  • 13.5 How to handle keyword substitution with cvs import
  • 13.6 Multiple vendor branches
• 14 How your build system interacts with CVS
• 15 Special Files
• 16 Repository Details
  • 16.1 Backing up a repository
  • 16.2 Moving a repository
  • 16.3 File permissions
  • 16.4 File Permission issues specific to Windows
  • 16.5 The attic
  • 16.6 How files are stored in the CVSROOT directory
  • 16.7 The administrative files
    • 16.7.1 Editing administrative files
  • 16.8 Multiple repositories
• 17 The CVS server
  • 17.1 Direct connection with password authentication
    • 17.1.1 Setting up the server for password authentication
    • 17.1.2 Using the client with password authentication
    • 17.1.3 Security considerations with password authentication
  • 17.2 Direct connection with GSSAPI
  • 17.3 Direct connection with Kerberos
  • 17.4 Connecting with fork
  • 17.5 Read-only repository access
  • 17.6 Temporary directories for the server
  • 17.7 Server requirements
• A Guide to CVS commands
  • A.1 Overall structure of CVS commands
  • A.2 CVS's exit status
  • A.3 Default options and the ~/.cvsrc file
  • A.4 Global options
  • A.5 Common command options
  • A.6 admin--Administration
    • A.6.1 admin options
  • A.7 annotate--What revision modified each line of a file?
    • A.7.1 annotate options
    • A.7.2 annotate example
  • A.8 checkout--Check out sources for editing
    • A.8.1 checkout options
    • A.8.2 checkout examples
  • A.9 commit--Check files into the repository
    • A.9.1 commit options
    • A.9.2 commit examples
      • A.9.2.1 Committing to a branch
      • A.9.2.2 Creating the branch after editing
  • A.10 diff--Show differences between revisions
    • A.10.1 diff options
    • A.10.2 diff examples
  • A.11 export--Export sources from CVS, similar to checkout
    • A.11.1 export options
  • A.12 history--Show status of files and users
    • A.12.1 history options
  • A.13 import--Import sources into CVS, using vendor branches
    • A.13.1 import options
    • A.13.2 import output
    • A.13.3 import examples
  • A.14 log--Print out log information for files
    • A.14.1 log options
    • A.14.2 log examples
  • A.15 rdiff---'patch' format diffs between releases
    • A.15.1 rdiff options
    • A.15.2 rdiff examples
  • A.16 release--Indicate that a Module is no longer in use
    • A.16.1 release options
    • A.16.2 release output
    • A.16.3 release examples
  • A.17 update--Bring work tree in sync with repository
    • A.17.1 update options
    • A.17.2 update output
• B Reference manual for Administrative files
  • B.1 The modules file
    • B.1.1 Alias modules
    • B.1.2 Regular modules
    • B.1.3 Ampersand modules
    • B.1.4 Excluding directories
    • B.1.5 Module options
    • B.1.6 How the modules file "program options" programs are run
  • B.2 The cvswrappers file
  • B.3 The Trigger Scripts
    • B.3.1 The common syntax
    • B.3.2 Security and the Trigger Scripts
  • B.4 The commit support files
    • B.4.1 Commitinfo
    • B.4.2 Verifying log messages
    • B.4.3 Editinfo
      • B.4.3.1 Editinfo example
    • B.4.4 Loginfo
      • B.4.4.1 Loginfo example
      • B.4.4.2 Keeping a checked out copy
  • B.5 Rcsinfo
  • B.6 Taginfo
  • B.7 Ignoring files via cvsignore
  • B.8 The checkoutlist file
  • B.9 The history file
  • B.10 Expansions in administrative files
  • B.11 The CVSROOT/config configuration file
• C All environment variables which affect CVS
• D The CVS directory
  • 17.8 The CVS directory in the working directory
  • 17.9 The CVS directory in the repository
• E CVS locks in the repository
• F Compatibility between CVS Versions
• G Quick reference to CVS commands
• H Diff format options
  • H.1 Line group formats
  • H.2 Line formats
• I Troubleshooting
  • I.1 Partial list of error messages
  • I.2 Trouble making a connection to a CVS server
  • I.3 Other common problems
• J Credits
• K Dealing with bugs in CVS or this manual
• Other books from the publisher
• Index