NAME
ci - check in RCS revisions
SYNOPSIS
ci [
options]
file ...
DESCRIPTION
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
can 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 can 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.
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.
OPTIONS
- -rrev
- Check in revision rev.
- -r
- 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 reestablishes the default behavior of
releasing a lock and removing 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.
- -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 can 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 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
cannot 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 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.
FILE NAMING
Pairs of RCS files and working files can be specified in three ways (see also
the example section).
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.
EXAMPLES
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;
FILE MODES
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.
FILES
Temporary files are 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 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.
SETUID USE
To prevent anybody but their RCS administrator from deleting revisions, a set of
users can employ setuid privileges as follows.
- •
- 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 or effective user is root. If RCS detects any failure in
setuid, it quits immediately.
- •
- Choose a user A to serve as RCS administrator for
the set of users. Only A can 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.
- •
- Choose a pathname B to be a directory of files to be
executed by the users.
- •
- 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]
- •
- Have each user prepend B to their path as
follows:
PATH=B:$PATH; export PATH # ordinary shell
set path=(B $path) # C shell
- •
- Have A create each RCS directory R with write
access only to A as follows:
- •
- 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
- •
- Have A copy old RCS files (if any) into R, to
ensure that A owns them.
- •
- 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.
- •
- Have A initialize any new RCS files with
rcs -i before initial checkin, adding the -a option if
you want to limit checkin access.
- •
- Give setuid privileges only to ci, co, and
rcsclean; do not give them to rcs or to any other
command.
- •
- Do not use other setuid commands to invoke RCS commands;
setuid is trickier than you think!
ENVIRONMENT
- 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.
- TMPDIR
- 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.
DIAGNOSTICS
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.
IDENTIFICATION
Author: Walter F. Tichy.
Manual Page Revision: 5.17; Release Date: 1995/06/16.
Copyright © 1982, 1988, 1989 Walter F. Tichy.
Copyright © 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995 Paul Eggert.
SEE ALSO
co(1), emacs(1), ident(1), make(1), rcs(1), rcsclean(1), rcsdiff(1),
rcsintro(1), rcsmerge(1), rlog(1), setuid(2), rcsfile(5)
Walter F. Tichy, RCS--A System for Version Control,
Software--Practice &
Experience 15, 7 (July 1985), 637-654.