GNU Info
(cvsclient.info)Responses
Responses
=========
Here are the responses:
`Valid-requests REQUEST-LIST \n'
Indicate what requests the server will accept. REQUEST-LIST is a
space separated list of tokens. If the server supports sending
patches, it will include `update-patches' in this list. The
`update-patches' request does not actually do anything.
`Checked-in PATHNAME \n'
Additional data: New Entries line, \n. This means a file PATHNAME
has been successfully operated on (checked in, added, etc.). name
in the Entries line is the same as the last component of PATHNAME.
`New-entry PATHNAME \n'
Additional data: New Entries line, \n. Like `Checked-in', but the
file is not up to date.
`Updated PATHNAME \n'
Additional data: New Entries line, \n, mode, \n, file
transmission. A new copy of the file is enclosed. This is used
for a new revision of an existing file, or for a new file, or for
any other case in which the local (client-side) copy of the file
needs to be updated, and after being updated it will be up to
date. If any directory in pathname does not exist, create it.
This response is not used if `Created' and `Update-existing' are
supported.
`Created PATHNAME \n'
This is just like `Updated' and takes the same additional data, but
is used only if no `Entry', `Modified', or `Unchanged' request has
been sent for the file in question. The distinction between
`Created' and `Update-existing' is so that the client can give an
error message in several cases: (1) there is a file in the working
directory, but not one for which `Entry', `Modified', or
`Unchanged' was sent (for example, a file which was ignored, or a
file for which `Questionable' was sent), (2) there is a file in
the working directory whose name differs from the one mentioned in
`Created' in ways that the client is unable to use to distinguish
files. For example, the client is case-insensitive and the names
differ only in case.
`Update-existing PATHNAME \n'
This is just like `Updated' and takes the same additional data, but
is used only if a `Entry', `Modified', or `Unchanged' request has
been sent for the file in question.
This response, or `Merged', indicates that the server has
determined that it is OK to overwrite the previous contents of the
file specified by PATHNAME. Provided that the client has correctly
sent `Modified' or `Is-modified' requests for a modified file, and
the file was not modified while CVS was running, the server can
ensure that a user's modifications are not lost.
`Merged PATHNAME \n'
This is just like `Updated' and takes the same additional data,
with the one difference that after the new copy of the file is
enclosed, it will still not be up to date. Used for the results
of a merge, with or without conflicts.
It is useful to preserve an copy of what the file looked like
before the merge. This is basically handled by the server; before
sending `Merged' it will send a `Copy-file' response. For
example, if the file is `aa' and it derives from revision 1.3, the
`Copy-file' response will tell the client to copy `aa' to
`.#aa.1.3'. It is up to the client to decide how long to keep this
file around; traditionally clients have left it around forever,
thus letting the user clean it up as desired. But another answer,
such as until the next commit, might be preferable.
`Rcs-diff PATHNAME \n'
This is just like `Updated' and takes the same additional data,
with the one difference that instead of sending a new copy of the
file, the server sends an RCS change text. This change text is
produced by `diff -n' (the GNU diff `-a' option may also be used).
The client must apply this change text to the existing file.
This will only be used when the client has an exact copy of an
earlier revision of a file. This response is only used if the
`update' command is given the `-u' argument.
`Patched PATHNAME \n'
This is just like `Rcs-diff' and takes the same additional data,
except that it sends a standard patch rather than an RCS change
text. The patch is produced by `diff -c' for CVS 1.6 and later
(see POSIX.2 for a description of this format), or `diff -u' for
previous versions of CVS; clients are encouraged to accept either
format. Like `Rcs-diff', this response is only used if the
`update' command is given the `-u' argument.
The `Patched' response is deprecated in favor of the `Rcs-diff'
response. However, older clients (CVS 1.9 and earlier) only
support `Patched'.
`Mode MODE \n'
This MODE applies to the next file mentioned in `Checked-in'.
`Mode' is a file update modifying response as described in Note:
Response intro.
`Mod-time TIME \n'
Set the modification time of the next file sent to TIME.
`Mod-time' is a file update modifying response as described in
Note: Response intro. The TIME is in the format specified by
RFC822 as modified by RFC1123. The server may specify any
timezone it chooses; clients will want to convert that to their
own timezone as appropriate. An example of this format is:
26 May 1997 13:01:40 -0400
There is no requirement that the client and server clocks be
synchronized. The server just sends its recommendation for a
timestamp (based on its own clock, presumably), and the client
should just believe it (this means that the time might be in the
future, for example).
If the server does not send `Mod-time' for a given file, the client
should pick a modification time in the usual way (usually, just
let the operating system set the modification time to the time
that the CVS command is running).
`Checksum CHECKSUM\n'
The CHECKSUM applies to the next file sent (that is, `Checksum' is
a file update modifying response as described in Note: Response
intro). In the case of `Patched', the checksum applies to the
file after being patched, not to the patch itself. The client
should compute the checksum itself, after receiving the file or
patch, and signal an error if the checksums do not match. The
checksum is the 128 bit MD5 checksum represented as 32 hex digits
(MD5 is described in RFC1321). This response is optional, and is
only used if the client supports it (as judged by the
`Valid-responses' request).
`Copy-file PATHNAME \n'
Additional data: NEWNAME \n. Copy file PATHNAME to NEWNAME in the
same directory where it already is. This does not affect
`CVS/Entries'.
This can optionally be implemented as a rename instead of a copy.
The only use for it which currently has been identified is prior
to a `Merged' response as described under `Merged'. Clients can
probably assume that is how it is being used, if they want to worry
about things like how long to keep the NEWNAME file around.
`Removed PATHNAME \n'
The file has been removed from the repository (this is the case
where cvs prints `file foobar.c is no longer pertinent').
`Remove-entry PATHNAME \n'
The file needs its entry removed from `CVS/Entries', but the file
itself is already gone (this happens in response to a `ci' request
which involves committing the removal of a file).
`Set-static-directory PATHNAME \n'
This instructs the client to set the `Entries.Static' flag, which
it should then send back to the server in a `Static-directory'
request whenever the directory is operated on. PATHNAME ends in a
slash; its purpose is to specify a directory, not a file within a
directory.
`Clear-static-directory PATHNAME \n'
Like `Set-static-directory', but clear, not set, the flag.
`Set-sticky PATHNAME \n'
Additional data: TAGSPEC \n. Tell the client to set a sticky tag
or date, which should be supplied with the `Sticky' request for
future operations. PATHNAME ends in a slash; its purpose is to
specify a directory, not a file within a directory. The client
should store TAGSPEC and pass it back to the server as-is, to
allow for future expansion. The first character of TAGSPEC is `T'
for a tag, `D' for a date, or something else for future expansion.
The remainder of TAGSPEC contains the actual tag or date.
`Clear-sticky PATHNAME \n'
Clear any sticky tag or date set by `Set-sticky'.
`Template PATHNAME \n'
Additional data: file transmission (note: compressed file
transmissions are not supported). PATHNAME ends in a slash; its
purpose is to specify a directory, not a file within a directory.
Tell the client to store the file transmission as the template log
message, and then use that template in the future when prompting
the user for a log message.
`Set-checkin-prog DIR \n'
Additional data: PROG \n. Tell the client to set a checkin
program, which should be supplied with the `Checkin-prog' request
for future operations.
`Set-update-prog DIR \n'
Additional data: PROG \n. Tell the client to set an update
program, which should be supplied with the `Update-prog' request
for future operations.
`Notified PATHNAME \n'
Indicate to the client that the notification for PATHNAME has been
done. There should be one such response for every `Notify'
request; if there are several `Notify' requests for a single file,
the requests should be processed in order; the first `Notified'
response pertains to the first `Notify' request, etc.
`Module-expansion PATHNAME \n'
Return a file or directory which is included in a particular
module. PATHNAME is relative to cvsroot, unlike most pathnames in
responses. PATHNAME should be used to look and see whether some
or all of the module exists on the client side; it is not
necessarily suitable for passing as an argument to a `co' request
(for example, if the modules file contains the `-d' option, it
will be the directory specified with `-d', not the name of the
module).
`Wrapper-rcsOption PATTERN -k 'OPTION' \n'
Transmit to the client a filename pattern which implies a certain
keyword expansion mode. The PATTERN is a wildcard pattern (for
example, `*.exe'. The OPTION is `b' for binary, and so on. Note
that although the syntax happens to resemble the syntax in certain
CVS configuration files, it is more constrained; there must be
exactly one space between PATTERN and `-k' and exactly one space
between `-k' and `'', and no string is permitted in place of `-k'
(extensions should be done with new responses, not by extending
this one, for graceful handling of `Valid-responses').
`M TEXT \n'
A one-line message for the user. Note that the format of TEXT is
not designed for machine parsing. Although sometimes scripts and
clients will have little choice, the exact text which is output is
subject to vary at the discretion of the server and the example
output given in this document is just that, example output.
Servers are encouraged to use the `MT' response, and future
versions of this document will hopefully standardize more of the
`MT' tags; see Note: Text tags.
`Mbinary \n'
Additional data: file transmission (note: compressed file
transmissions are not supported). This is like `M', except the
contents of the file transmission are binary and should be copied
to standard output without translation to local text file
conventions. To transmit a text file to standard output, servers
should use a series of `M' requests.
`E TEXT \n'
Same as `M' but send to stderr not stdout.
`F \n'
Flush stderr. That is, make it possible for the user to see what
has been written to stderr (it is up to the implementation to
decide exactly how far it should go to ensure this).
`MT TAGNAME DATA \n'
This response provides for tagged text. It is similar to
SGML/HTML/XML in that the data is structured and a naive
application can also make some sense of it without understanding
the structure. The syntax is not SGML-like, however, in order to
fit into the CVS protocol better and (more importantly) to make it
easier to parse, especially in a language like perl or awk.
The TAGNAME can have several forms. If it starts with `a' to `z'
or `A' to `Z', then it represents tagged text. If the
implementation recognizes TAGNAME, then it may interpret DATA in
some particular fashion. If the implementation does not recognize
TAGNAME, then it should simply treat DATA as text to be sent to
the user (similar to an `M' response). There are two tags which
are general purpose. The `text' tag is similar to an unrecognized
tag in that it provides text which will ordinarily be sent to the
user. The `newline' tag is used without DATA and indicates that a
newline will ordinarily be sent to the user (there is no provision
for embedding newlines in the DATA of other tagged text responses).
If TAGNAME starts with `+' it indicates a start tag and if it
starts with `-' it indicates an end tag. The remainder of TAGNAME
should be the same for matching start and end tags, and tags
should be nested (for example one could have tags in the following
order `+bold' `+italic' `text' `-italic' `-bold' but not `+bold'
`+italic' `text' `-bold' `-italic'). A particular start and end
tag may be documented to constrain the tagged text responses which
are valid between them.
Note that if DATA is present there will always be exactly one
space between TAGNAME and DATA; if there is more than one space,
then the spaces beyond the first are part of DATA.
Here is an example of some tagged text responses. Note that there
is a trailing space after `Checking in' and `initial revision:'
and there are two trailing spaces after `<--'. Such trailing
spaces are, of course, part of DATA.
MT +checking-in
MT text Checking in
MT fname gz.tst
MT text ;
MT newline
MT rcsfile /home/kingdon/zwork/cvsroot/foo/gz.tst,v
MT text <--
MT fname gz.tst
MT newline
MT text initial revision:
MT init-rev 1.1
MT newline
MT text done
MT newline
MT -checking-in
If the client does not support the `MT' response, the same
responses might be sent as:
M Checking in gz.tst;
M /home/kingdon/zwork/cvsroot/foo/gz.tst,v <-- gz.tst
M initial revision: 1.1
M done
For a list of specific tags, see Note: Text tags.
`error ERRNO-CODE ` ' TEXT \n'
The command completed with an error. ERRNO-CODE is a symbolic
error code (e.g. `ENOENT'); if the server doesn't support this
feature, or if it's not appropriate for this particular message,
it just omits the errno-code (in that case there are two spaces
after `error'). Text is an error message such as that provided by
strerror(), or any other message the server wants to use. The
TEXT is like the `M' response, in the sense that it is not
particularly intended to be machine-parsed; servers may wish to
print an error message with `MT' responses, and then issue a
`error' response without TEXT (although it should be noted that
`MT' currently has no way of flagging the output as intended for
standard error, the way that the `E' response does).
`ok \n'
The command completed successfully.
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