1 .TH CO 1L "" "Purdue University"
3 co \- check out RCS revisions
10 retrieves a revision from each RCS file and stores it into
11 the corresponding working file.
12 Each file name ending in `,v' is taken to be an RCS file;
13 all other files are assumed to be working files.
14 If only a working file is given, \fIco\fR tries to find the corresponding
15 RCS file in the directory ./RCS and then in the current directory.
16 For more details, see the file naming section below.
18 Revisions of an RCS file may be checked out locked or unlocked. Locking a
19 revision prevents overlapping updates. A revision checked out for reading or
20 processing (e.g., compiling) need not be locked. A revision checked out
21 for editing and later checkin must normally be locked. \fICo\fR with locking
22 fails if the revision to be checked out is currently locked by another user.
23 (A lock may be broken with the
26 \fICo\fR with locking also requires the caller to be on the access list of
27 the RCS file, unless he is the owner of the
28 file or the superuser, or the access list is empty.
29 \fICo\fR without locking is not subject to accesslist restrictions, and is
30 not affected by the presence of locks.
32 A revision is selected by options for revision or branch number,
33 checkin date/time, author, or state.
34 When the selection options
35 are applied in combination, \fIco\fR retrieves the latest revision
36 that satisfies all of them.
37 If none of the selection options
38 is specified, \fIco\fR retrieves the latest revision
39 on the default branch (normally the trunk, see the
43 A revision or branch number may be attached
45 \fB\-f\fR, \fB\-l\fR, \fB\-p\fR, \fB\-q\fR, \fB\-r\fR, or \fB\-u\fR.
46 The options \fB\-d\fR (date), \fB\-s\fR (state), and \fB\-w\fR (author)
47 retrieve from a single branch, the \fIselected\fR branch,
48 which is either specified by one of
49 \fB\-f\fR,..., \fB\-u\fR, or the default branch.
51 A \fIco\fR command applied to an RCS
52 file with no revisions creates a zero-length working file.
53 \fICo\fR always performs keyword substitution (see below).
57 retrieves the latest revision whose number is less than or equal to \fIrev\fR.
58 If \fIrev\fR indicates a branch rather than a revision,
59 the latest revision on that branch is retrieved.
60 If \fIrev\fR is omitted, the latest revision on the default branch
66 \fIRev\fR is composed of one or more numeric or symbolic fields
67 separated by `.'. The numeric equivalent of a symbolic field
68 is specified with the \fB\-n\fR option of the commands
74 same as \fB\-r\fR, except that it also locks the retrieved revision for
75 the caller. See option \fB\-r\fR for handling of the revision number
79 same as \fB\-r\fR, except that it unlocks the retrieved revision (if it was
80 locked by the caller). If \fIrev\fR is omitted, \fB\-u\fR
81 retrieves the latest revision locked by the caller; if no such lock exists,
82 it retrieves the latest revision on the default branch.
85 forces the overwriting of the working file;
86 useful in connection with \fB\-q\fR.
87 See also the section on file modes below.
90 prints the retrieved revision on the standard output rather than storing it
92 This option is useful when \fIco\fR
96 quiet mode; diagnostics are not printed.
99 retrieves the latest revision on the selected branch whose checkin date/time is less than or equal to \fIdate\fR.
100 The date and time may be given in free format and are converted to local time.
101 Examples of formats for \fIdate\fR:
105 \fI22-April-1982, 17:20-CDT,
106 2:25 AM, Dec. 29, 1983,
107 Tue-PDT, 1981, 4pm Jul 21\fR \fR(free format),
108 \fIFri, April 16 15:52:25 EST 1982 \fR(output of ctime).
111 Most fields in the date and time may be defaulted.
112 \fICo\fR determines the defaults in the order year, month, day,
113 hour, minute, and second (most to least significant). At least one of these
114 fields must be provided. For omitted fields that are of higher significance
115 than the highest provided field,
116 the current values are assumed. For all other omitted fields,
117 the lowest possible values are assumed.
118 For example, the date "20, 10:30" defaults to
119 10:30:00 of the 20th of the current month and current year.
120 The date/time must be quoted if it contains spaces.
123 retrieves the latest revision on the selected branch whose state is set to \fIstate\fR.
125 .BR \-w [\fIlogin\fR]
126 retrieves the latest revision on the selected branch which was checked in
127 by the user with login name \fIlogin\fR. If the argument \fIlogin\fR is
128 omitted, the caller's login is assumed.
131 generates a new revision which is the join of the revisions on \fIjoinlist\fR.
132 \fIJoinlist\fR is a comma-separated list of pairs of the form
133 \fIrev2:rev3\fR, where \fIrev2\fR and \fIrev3\fR are (symbolic or numeric)
135 For the initial such pair, \fIrev1\fR denotes the revision selected
136 by the above options \fB\-r\fR, ..., \fB\-w\fR. For all other pairs, \fIrev1\fR
137 denotes the revision generated by the previous pair. (Thus, the output
138 of one join becomes the input to the next.)
140 For each pair, \fIco\fR joins revisions \fIrev1\fR and \fIrev3\fR
141 with respect to \fIrev2\fR.
142 This means that all changes that transform
143 \fIrev2\fR into \fIrev1\fR are applied to a copy of \fIrev3\fR.
144 This is particularly useful if \fIrev1\fR
145 and \fIrev3\fR are the ends of two branches that have \fIrev2\fR as a common
146 ancestor. If \fIrev1\fR < \fIrev2\fR < \fIrev3\fR on the same branch,
147 joining generates a new revision which is like \fIrev3\fR, but with all
148 changes that lead from \fIrev1\fR to \fIrev2\fR undone.
149 If changes from \fIrev2\fR to \fIrev1\fR overlap with changes from
150 \fIrev2\fR to \fIrev3\fR, \fIco\fR prints a warning and includes the
151 overlapping sections, delimited by the lines \fI<<<<<<<\ rev1,
152 =======\fR, and \fI>>>>>>>\ rev3\fR.
154 For the initial pair, \fIrev2\fR may be omitted. The default is the common
156 If any of the arguments indicate branches, the latest revisions
157 on those branches are assumed.
158 The options \fB\-l\fR and \fB\-u\fR lock or unlock \fIrev1\fR.
159 .SH "KEYWORD SUBSTITUTION"
160 Strings of the form \fI$keyword$\fR and \fI$keyword:...$\fR embedded in
161 the text are replaced
162 with strings of the form \fI$keyword:\ value\ $\fR,
163 where \fIkeyword\fR and \fIvalue\fR are pairs listed below.
164 Keywords may be embedded in literal strings
165 or comments to identify a revision.
167 Initially, the user enters strings of the form \fI$keyword$\fR.
168 On checkout, \fIco\fR replaces these strings with strings of the form
169 \fI$keyword:\ value\ $\fR. If a revision containing strings of the latter form
170 is checked back in, the value fields will be replaced during the next
172 Thus, the keyword values are automatically updated on checkout.
174 Keywords and their corresponding values:
177 The login name of the user who checked in the revision.
180 The date and time the revision was checked in.
183 A standard header containing the full pathname of the RCS file, the
184 revision number, the date, the author, the state, and the locker (if locked).
187 Same as $\&Header$, except that the RCS file name is without a path.
190 The login name of the user who locked the revision (empty if not locked).
193 The log message supplied during checkin, preceded by a header
194 containing the RCS file name, the revision number, the author, and the date.
195 Existing log messages are NOT replaced.
196 Instead, the new log message is inserted after \fI$\&Log:...$\fR.
198 accumulating a complete change log in a source file.
201 The name of the RCS file without path.
204 The revision number assigned to the revision.
207 The full pathname of the RCS file.
210 The state assigned to the revision with the
218 Pairs of RCS files and working files may be specified in 3 ways (see also the
221 1) Both the RCS file and the working file are given. The RCS file name is of
222 the form \fIpath1/workfile,v\fR
223 and the working file name is of the form
224 \fIpath2/workfile\fR, where
226 \fIpath2/\fR are (possibly different or empty) paths and
227 \fIworkfile\fR is a file name.
229 2) Only the RCS file is given. Then the working file is created in the current
230 directory and its name is derived from the name of the RCS file
231 by removing \fIpath1/\fR and the suffix \fI,v\fR.
233 3) Only the working file is given.
234 Then \fIco\fR looks for an RCS file of the form
235 \fIpath2/RCS/workfile,v\fR or \fIpath2/workfile,v\fR (in this order).
237 If the RCS file is specified without a path in 1) and 2), then \fIco\fR
238 looks for the RCS file first in the directory ./RCS and then in the current
241 Suppose the current directory contains a subdirectory `RCS' with an RCS file
242 `io.c,v'. Then all of the following commands retrieve the latest
243 revision from `RCS/io.c,v' and store it into `io.c'.
246 co io.c; co RCS/io.c,v; co io.c,v;
247 co io.c RCS/io.c,v; co io.c io.c,v;
248 co RCS/io.c,v io.c; co io.c,v io.c;
251 The working file inherits the read and execute permissions from the RCS
252 file. In addition, the owner write permission is turned on, unless the file
253 is checked out unlocked and locking is set to \fIstrict\fR (see
256 If a file with the name of the working file exists already and has write
257 permission, \fIco\fR aborts the checkout if \fB\-q\fR is given, or asks
258 whether to abort if \fB\-q\fR is not given. If the existing working file is
259 not writable or \fB\-f\fR is given, the working file is deleted without asking.
261 The caller of the command must have write permission in the working
262 directory, read permission for the RCS file, and either read permission
263 (for reading) or read/write permission (for locking) in the directory which
264 contains the RCS file.
266 A number of temporary files are created.
267 A semaphore file is created in the directory of the RCS file
268 to prevent simultaneous update.
270 The RCS file name, the working file name,
271 and the revision number retrieved are
272 written to the diagnostic output.
273 The exit status always refers to the last file checked out,
274 and is 0 if the operation was successful, 1 otherwise.
279 Author: Walter F. Tichy,
280 Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, 47907.
285 .VL $Date: 1993/03/21 09:58:03 $
288 Copyright \(co 1982, 1988, 1989 by Walter F. Tichy.
290 ci(1L), ident(1L), rcs(1L), rcsdiff(1L), rcsintro(1L), rcsmerge(1L), rlog(1L),
293 Walter F. Tichy, "Design, Implementation, and Evaluation of a Revision Control
294 System," in \fIProceedings of the 6th International Conference on Software
295 Engineering\fR, IEEE, Tokyo, Sept. 1982.
297 The option \fB\-d\fR gets confused in some circumstances,
298 and accepts no date before 1970.
299 Links to the RCS and working files are not preserved.
300 There is no way to suppress the expansion of keywords, except
301 by writing them differently. In nroff and troff, this is done by embedding the
302 null-character `\\&' into the keyword.
304 The option \fB\-j\fR does not work for
305 files that contain lines with a single `.'.