HP-UX Reference (11i v1 05/09) - 5 Miscellaneous Topics (vol 9)
r
rcsintro(5) rcsintro(5)
path2 are (possibly different or empty) paths and workfile is a filename.
• 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".
• Only the working file is given. Then the name of the RCS file is derived from the name of the
working file by removing path2/ and appending the suffix ",v".
If the RCS filename is omitted or specified without a path, RCS commands look for the RCS file in the
directory ./RCS (or the directory it points to if it is a directory link), then in the current working directory.
RCS Directory Links
RCS supports directory links. If a regular file named RCS exists in the current working directory, RCS
interprets the first line as a path name to the directory where RCS files are stored. RCS can follow a chain
of up to ten directory links to reach the RCS directory.
Automatic Identification
RCS can put special strings for identification into your source and object code. To obtain such
identification, place the marker:
$Header$
into your text, for instance inside a comment. RCS replaces this marker with a string of the form:
$Header: filename revision_number date time author state$
With such a marker on the first page of each module, you can always see with which revision you are work-
ing. RCS keeps the markers up-to-date automatically. To propagate the markers into your object code,
simply put them into literal character strings. In C, this is done as follows:
static char rcsid[] = $Header$ ;
The command
ident extracts such markers from any file, even object code and dumps. Thus,
ident
lets you find out which revisions of which modules were used in a given program.
You may also find it useful to put the marker $Log$ into your text, inside a comment. This marker accu-
mulates the log messages that are requested during check in. Thus, you can maintain the complete history
of your file directly inside it. There are several additional identification markers. See co(1) for details.
WARNINGS
Names of RCS files are generated by appending ,v to the end of the working file name. If the resulting
RCS file name is too long for the file system on which the RCS file should reside, the RCS command ter-
minates with an error message.
RCS is designed to be used with TEXT files only. Attempting to use RCS with non-text (binary) files will
result in data corruption.
AUTHOR
rcsintro was developed by Walter F. Tichy, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907.
Revision Number: 3.0; Release Date: 83/05/11.
Copyright 1982 by Walter F. Tichy.
SEE ALSO
ci(1), co(1), ident(1), merge(1), rcs(1), rcsdiff(1), rcsmerge(1), rlog(1), rcsfile(4).
Walter F. Tichy, "Design, Implementation, and Evaluation of a Revision Control System," in Proceedings of
the 6th International Conference on Software Engineering, IEEE, Tokyo, Sept. 1982.
Section 5−−298 Hewlett-Packard Company − 3 − HP-UX 11i Version 1: September 2005