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 direc-
tory. 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 revi-
sion 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 preced-
ing 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 descrip-
tive 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
ci determines the revision number from keyword values in
the working file.
If rev begins with a period, then the default branch (nor-
mally 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
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 exclu-
sive and silently override each other. For exam-
ple, 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 com-
puting 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 num-
ber, date, author, and state. The extracted key-
word 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 ques-
tioned even if the standard input is not a termi-
nal.
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 modifica-
tion time, even if f's contents change due to key-
word 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 differ-
ent 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.
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 cur-
rent 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 speci-
fied, they are tried in order when looking for an
RCS file; the first one that works is used for that
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 file-
names, and is empty (i.e. just the empty suffix)
for other hosts.
-zzone specifies the date output format in keyword substi-
tution, 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 with-
out any time zone indication and with slashes sepa-
rating the parts of the date; otherwise, times are
output in ISO 8601 format with time zone indica-
tion. 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 work-
ing pathname is of the form path2/workfile where path1/
and path2/ are (possibly different or empty) paths, work-
file 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.
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.
EXAMPLES
Suppose ,v is an RCS suffix and the current directory con-
tains 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 suf-
fix whose first character could be that of a working file-
name. 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
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 per-
missions 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 for-
mal projects sometimes distinguish between an RCS adminis-
trator, 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 delet-
ing revisions, a set of users can employ setuid privileges
as follows.
o 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.
o 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.
o Choose a pathname B to be a directory of files to be
executed by the users.
o 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:
cp D/c[io] B
chmod go-w,u+s B/c[io]
o Have each user prepend B to their path as follows:
PATH=B:$PATH; export PATH # ordinary shell
set path=(B $path) # C shell
o Have A create each RCS directory R with write access
only to A as follows:
mkdir R
chmod go-w R
o 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
o Have A copy old RCS files (if any) into R, to ensure
that A owns them.
o 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.
o Have A initialize any new RCS files with rcs -i before
initial checkin, adding the -a option if you want to
limit checkin access.
o Give setuid privileges only to ci, co, and rcsclean; do
not give them to rcs or to any other command.
o 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
DIAGNOSTICS
For each revision, ci prints the RCS file, the working
file, and the number of both the deposited and the preced-
ing revision. The exit status is zero if and only if all
operations were successful.
IDENTIFICATION
Author: Walter F. Tichy.
Manual Page Revision: 1.1; Release Date: 1996/03/05.
Copyright (C) 1982, 1988, 1989 Walter F. Tichy.
Copyright (C) 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.
Release 1.1d7 of the Be OS
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