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.
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:
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:
mkdirBcpD/c[io]Bchmod go-w,u+sB/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:
mkdirRchmod go-wR
*
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:
chgrpG Rchmod g-w,o-rwxR
*
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.