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ci(1)                                                                    ci(1)




NAME

       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  work-
       ing  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 subdi-
       rectory 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 can 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 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  sym-
       bolic,  numeric,  or  mixed.   Symbolic  names  in  rev must already be
       defined; see the -n and -N options for assigning names during  checkin.
       If  rev  is $, ci determines the revision number from keyword values in
       the working file.

       If rev begins with a period, then  the  default  branch  (normally  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-exist-
       ing 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 revi-
       sion 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 deposited revision is immediately
              checked out again and locked.  This is useful for saving a revi-
              sion  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 exclusive and
              silently override each other.  For example, ci -u -r is  equiva-
              lent 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
              computing  them locally.  It also generates a default login mes-
              sage 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  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  questioned  even  if
              the standard input is not a terminal.

       -d[date]
              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 modification time, even if f's contents change due to
              keyword 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 different 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, delet-
              ing the existing text.

              The -t option, in both its forms, has effect only during an ini-
              tial 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.  The user is prompted for  the  text  if
              interaction is possible; see -I.

              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 modi-
              fication 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 recompi-
              lation 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 current 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.  Use-
              ful 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 specified, they are  tried  in  order  when
              looking  for  an  RCS file; the first one that works is used for
              that file.  If no RCS file is found but an RCS file can be  cre-
              ated,  the  suffixes are tried in order to determine the new RCS
              file's name.  The default for  suffixes  is  installation-depen-
              dent;  normally it is ,v/ for hosts like Unix that permit commas
              in filenames, and is empty (i.e.  just  the  empty  suffix)  for
              other hosts.

       -zzone specifies  the  date  output format in keyword substitution, 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 without any time zone
              indication and with slashes separating the parts  of  the  date;
              otherwise,  times  are  output in ISO 8601 format with time zone
              indication.  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 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 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.

       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.


EXAMPLES

       Suppose ,v is an RCS suffix and the current directory contains a subdi-
       rectory  RCS  with an RCS file io.c,v.  Then each of the following com-
       mands 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 per-
       missions of RCS files.


FILES

       Temporary files are created in the  directory  containing  the  working
       file,  and  also  in the temporary directory (see TMPDIR under ENVIRON-
       MENT).  A semaphore file or files are created in the directory contain-
       ing  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  con-
       taining 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.


SETUID USE

       To prevent anybody but their RCS administrator from deleting 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 suspi-
         cious 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:

              mkdir  B
              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 any-
         one  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.   Use-
              ful 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  of  them  are set, a host-dependent
              default is used, typically /tmp.


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 sta-
       tus is zero if and only if all operations were successful.


IDENTIFICATION

       Author: Walter F. Tichy.
       Manual Page Revision: 1.1; Release Date: 1999/04/23.
       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.



GNU                               1999/04/23                             ci(1)

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