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ci [options] file...
checks in a revision, releases the corresponding lock, and removes the working file. This is the default.
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 may 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 above).
The number rev of the deposited revision can be given by any of the options -f, -I, -k, -l, -M, -q, -r, or -u. rev may be symbolic, numeric, or mixed. If rev is $, ci determines the revision number from keyword values in the working file.
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.
Pairs of RCS files and working files may be specified in three ways (see also the EXAMPLES section). 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 be RCS/ or must end in /RCS/. 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. 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.
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;
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.
Several temporary files may be 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.
To prevent anybody but their RCS administrator from deleting revisions,
a set of users can employ setuid privileges as follows.
Check that the host RCS supports 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 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
will
be able to 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 path name
B
that will
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:
mkdir B
cp D/c[io] B
chmod go-w,u+s B/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:
mkdir R
chmod go-w R
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
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
-a
A
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!
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
commands. Useful
RCSINIT
options
include
-q,
-V, and
-x.
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.
For each revision,
ci
prints the 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.
Author: Walter F. Tichy. Revision Number: 1.1.6.2; Release Date:1993/10/07. Copyright (C) 1982, 1988, 1989 by Walter F. Tichy. Copyright (C) 1990, 1991 by Paul Eggert.
co(1), ident(1), make(1), rcs(1), rcsclean(1), rcsdiff(1), rcsintro(1), rcsmerge(1), rlog(1), rcsfile(5)
Walter F. Tichy, RCS--A System for Version Control, Software--Practice & Experience 15, 7 (July 1985), 637-654.