ci [ options ] file ...

Description

Ci stores new revisions into RCS files. Each file name ending in ',v' 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 the directory ./RCS and then in the current directory. For more details, see the file naming section 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, unless locking is set to strict (see rcs(1L)). A lock held by someone else may be broken with the rcs command.

Normally, ci checks whether the revision to be deposited is different from the preceding one. If it is not different, ci either aborts the deposit (if -q is given) or asks whether to abort (if -q is omitted). A deposit can be forced with the -f option.

For each revision deposited, ci prompts for a log message. The log message should summarize the change and must be terminated with a line containing a single '.' or a control-D. 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.

The number of the deposited revision can be given by any of the options

-r, -f, -k, -l, -u, or -q.

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).

-r[rev] assigns the revision number rev to the checked-in revision, releases the corresponding lock, and deletes the working file. This is the default. Rev may be symbolic, numeric, or mixed.

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 he is the owner of 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(1L)).

Exception: On the trunk, revisions can be appended to the end, but not inserted.

-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 may be overridden with the options -r, -d, -s, -w, and -m.

-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 is useful if one wants to process (e.g., compile) the revision immediately after checkin.

-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.

-ddate uses date for the checkin date and time. Date may be specified in free format as explained in co(1). Useful for lying about the checkin date, and for -k if no date is available.

-mmsg uses the string msg as the log message for all revisions checked in.

-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 is Exp.

-t[txtfile] writes descriptive text into the RCS file (deletes the existing text). If txtfile is omitted, ci prompts the user for text supplied from the standard input, terminated with a line containing a single '.' or control-D. Otherwise, the descriptive text is copied from the file txtfile. During initialization, descriptive text is requested even if -t is not given. The prompt is suppressed if standard input is not a terminal.

-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.

File Naming

Pairs of RCS files and working files may be specified in 3 ways (see also the example section of co(1)).

1) Both the RCS file and the working file are given. The RCS file name is of the form path1/workfile,v and the working file name is of the form path2/workfile, where path1/ and path2/ are (possibly different or empty) paths and workfile is a file name.

2) Only the RCS file is given. Then the working file is assumed to be in the current directory and its name is derived from the name of the RCS file by removing path1/ and the suffix ,v.

3) Only the working file is given. Then ci looks for an RCS file of the form path2/RCS/workfile,v or path2/workfile,v (in this order).

If the RCS file is specified without a path in 1) and 2), then ci looks for the RCS file first in the directory ./RCS and then in the current directory.

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

The caller of the command must have read/write permission for the directories containing the RCS file and the working file, and read permission for the RCS file itself. A number of temporary files are created. A semaphore file is created in the directory containing the RCS file. Ci always creates a new RCS file and unlinks the old one. This strategy makes links to RCS files useless.

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 always refers to the last file checked in, and is 0 if the operation was successful, 1 otherwise.