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(cvs.info)Recursive behavior

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Recursive behavior
******************

   Almost all of the subcommands of CVS work recursively when you
specify a directory as an argument.  For instance, consider this
directory structure:

           `$HOME'
             |
             +--tc
             |   |
                 +--CVS
                 |      (internal CVS files)
                 +--Makefile
                 +--backend.c
                 +--driver.c
                 +--frontend.c
                 +--parser.c
                 +--man
                 |    |
                 |    +--CVS
                 |    |  (internal CVS files)
                 |    +--tc.1
                 |
                 +--testing
                      |
                      +--CVS
                      |  (internal CVS files)
                      +--testpgm.t
                      +--test2.t

If `tc' is the current working directory, the following is true:

   * `cvs update testing' is equivalent to

          cvs update testing/testpgm.t testing/test2.t

   * `cvs update testing man' updates all files in the subdirectories

   * `cvs update .' or just `cvs update' updates all files in the `tc'
     directory

   If no arguments are given to `update' it will update all files in
the current working directory and all its subdirectories.  In other
words, `.' is a default argument to `update'.  This is also true for
most of the CVS subcommands, not only the `update' command.

   The recursive behavior of the CVS subcommands can be turned off with
the `-l' option.  Conversely, the `-R' option can be used to force
recursion if `-l' is specified in `~/.cvsrc' (*note ~/.cvsrc::).

     $ cvs update -l         # Don't update files in subdirectories