ci (1) - Linux Manuals
ci: check in RCS revisions
NAME
ci - check in RCS revisionsSYNOPSIS
ci [options] file ...DESCRIPTION
ci stores new revisions into RCS files. Each file name 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
.
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.
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.
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
.
For backward compatibility with older versions of RCS, a bare
-t
option is ignored.
The
-z
option does not affect dates stored in RCS files,
which are always UTC.
1) Both the RCS file and the working file are given.
The RCS file name is of the form
frag1/workfileX
and the working file name is of the form
frag2/workfile
where
frag1/
and
frag2/
are (possibly different or empty) file names,
workfile
is a file name, and
X
is an RCS suffix.
If
X
is empty,
frag1/
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 RCS file name
by removing
frag1/
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
frag2/RCS/workfileX
or (if the former is not found and
X
is nonempty)
frag2/workfileX.
If the RCS file is specified without a file name 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 name 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 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
never changes an RCS file 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.
Walter F. Tichy,
RCS--A System for Version Control,
Software--Practice & Experience
15,
7 (July 1985), 637-654.
The full documentation for RCS is maintained as a Texinfo manual.
If the
info(1)
and RCS programs are properly installed at your site, the command
should give you access to the complete manual.
Additionally, the RCS homepage:
has news and links to the latest release, development site, etc.
OPTIONS
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
FILE NAMING
Pairs of RCS files and working files can be specified in three ways
(see also the
example section).
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;
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 file name.
With an empty suffix, the semaphore names end with
_
so working file names should not end in
_.
SETUID USE
To prevent anybody but their RCS administrator from deleting revisions,
a set of users can employ setuid privileges as follows.
mkdir B
cp D/c[io] B
chmod go-w,u+s B/c[io]
PATH=B:$PATH; export PATH # ordinary shell
set path=(B $path) # C shell
mkdir R
chmod go-w R
chgrp G R
chmod g-w,o-rwx R
ENVIRONMENT
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: 5.9.0; Release Date: 2014-06-10.
Copyright © 2010-2013 Thien-Thi Nguyen.
Copyright © 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995 Paul Eggert.
Copyright © 1982, 1988, 1989 Walter F. Tichy.
SEE ALSO
co(1),
emacs(1),
ident(1),
make(1),
rcs(1),
rcsclean(1),
rcsdiff(1),
rcsmerge(1),
rlog(1),
setuid(2),
rcsfile(5).