RCS(1)							      General Commands Manual							    RCS(1)

NAME

       rcs - change RCS file attributes

SYNOPSIS

       rcs [ options ] file ...

DESCRIPTION

       Rcs  creates  new  RCS  files  or  changes attributes of existing ones.	An RCS file contains multiple revisions of text, an access list, a
       change log, descriptive text, and some control attributes.  For rcs to work, the caller's login name must be on the access list, except	if
       the access list is empty, the caller is the owner of the file or the superuser, or the -i option is present.

       Files  ending in `,v' are RCS files, all others are working files. If a working file is given, rcs tries to find the corresponding RCS file
       first in directory ./RCS and then in the current directory, as explained in co (1).

       -i	  creates and initializes a new RCS file, but does not deposit any revision.  If the RCS file has no path  prefix,  rcs  tries	to
		  place  it first into the subdirectory ./RCS, and then into the current directory.  If the RCS file already exists, an error mes-
		  sage is printed.

       -alogins   appends the login names appearing in the comma-separated list logins to the access list of the RCS file.

       -Aoldfile  appends the access list of oldfile to the access list of the RCS file.

       -e[logins] erases the login names appearing in the comma-separated list logins from the access list of the RCS file.  If logins is omitted,
		  the entire access list is erased.

       -cstring   sets	the  comment  leader to string. The comment leader is printed before every log message line generated by the keyword $Log$
		  during checkout (see co). This is useful for programming languages without multi-line comments. During rcs -i or initial ci, the
		  comment leader is guessed from the suffix of the working file.

       -l[rev]	  locks the revision with number rev.  If a branch is given, the latest revision on that branch is locked.  If rev is omitted, the
		  latest revision on the trunk is locked.  Locking prevents overlapping changes.  A lock is removed with ci or rcs -u (see below).

       -u[rev]	  unlocks the revision with number rev.  If a branch is given, the latest revision on that branch is unlocked.	If rev is omitted,
		  the  latest lock held by the caller is removed.  Normally, only the locker of a revision may unlock it.  Somebody else unlocking
		  a revision breaks the lock.  This causes a mail message to be sent to the original locker.  The message  contains  a	commentary
		  solicited from the breaker.  The commentary is terminated with a line containing a single `.' or control-D.

       -L	  sets	locking to strict. Strict locking means that the owner of an RCS file is not exempt from locking for checkin.  This option
		  should be used for files that are shared.

       -U	  sets locking to non-strict. Non-strict locking means that the owner of a file need not lock a revision for checkin.  This option
		  should NOT be used for files that are shared.  The default (-L or -U) is determined by your system administrator.

       -nname[:rev]
		  associates  the  symbolic  name name with the branch or revision rev.  Rcs prints an error message if name is already associated
		  with another number.	If rev is omitted, the symbolic name is deleted.

       -Nname[:rev]
		  same as -n, except that it overrides a previous assignment of name.

       -orange	  deletes ("outdates") the revisions given by range.  A range consisting of a single revision number means that revision.  A range
		  consisting  of  a branch number means the latest revision on that branch.  A range of the form rev1-rev2 means revisions rev1 to
		  rev2 on the same branch, -rev means from the beginning of the branch containing rev up to and including rev, and rev- means from
		  revision rev to the end of the branch containing rev.  None of the outdated revisions may have branches or locks.

       -q	  quiet mode; diagnostics are not printed.

       -sstate[:rev]
		  sets	the  state attribute of the revision rev to state.  If rev is omitted, the latest revision on the trunk is assumed; If rev
		  is a branch number, the latest revision on that branch is assumed.  Any identifier is acceptable for state.	A  useful  set	of
		  states  is  Exp  (for  experimental), Stab (for stable), and Rel (for released).  By default, ci sets the state of a revision to
		  Exp.

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

DIAGNOSTICS

       The  RCS  file  name  and  the revisions outdated are written to the diagnostic output.	The exit status always refers to the last RCS file
       operated upon, and is 0 if the operation was successful, 1 otherwise.

FILES

       The caller of the command must have read/write permission for the directory containing the RCS file and read permission for  the  RCS  file
       itself.	 Rcs  creates a semaphore file in the same directory as the RCS file to prevent simultaneous update.  For changes, rcs always cre-
       ates a new file. On successful completion, rcs deletes the old one and renames the new one.  This strategy makes links to  RCS  files  use-
       less.

IDENTIFICATION

       Author: Walter F. Tichy, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, 47907.
       Revision Number: 3.1 ; Release Date: 83/04/04 .
       Copyright (C) 1982 by Walter F. Tichy.

SEE ALSO

       co (1), ci (1), ident(1), rcsdiff (1), rcsintro (1), rcsmerge (1), rlog (1), rcsfile (5), sccstorcs (8).
       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.

BUGS

Purdue University						      6/29/83								    RCS(1)