sccs(1) General Commands Manual sccs(1)
Name
sccs - Source Code Control System
Syntax
sccs [flags] command [command-option] [file] [sccs]
Description
SCCS is a source management system which maintains records of changes made in files within that system. Records stating what the changes
were, why and when they were made, and who made them are kept for each version. Previous versions can be recovered, and different versions
can be maintained simultaneously. SCCS also insures that two people are not editing the same file at the same time.
The SCCS system has two levels of operation, a preprocessor called and the traditional SCCS commands. The preprocessor provides an inter-
face with the more traditional SCCS commands, such as get, delta, and so forth. The interface is a more user-friendly environment for the
SCCS user. Some of the commands are more intuitive, such as sccs edit rather than the traditional get -e to retrieve a file for editing.
Some commands perform multiple operations, such as sccs delget which performs a delta on the file, and then get the changed file back.
The preprocessor also restructures the method in which SCCS files are stored and manipulated. In the traditional version of SCCS, files
(s-files, p-files, and so forth) are stored in the directory that contains the g-files, unless an SCCS directory is explicitly defined with
each command. The preprocessor expects that an SCCS directory is available within the directory that contains the g-files and that this
directory also contains the SCCS files. The SCCS directory is owned by providing an additional level of security. This method also cleans
up the directory where the g-files are stored. One other important difference in using the preprocessor is that the file specification is
the name of the g-file rather than the name of the s-file when invoking an SCCS command. If SCCS is specified rather than the file name,
the SCCS preprocessor handles this in the same manner as the traditional commands handle it. Each s-file in the directory SCCS is acted
upon as if explicitly named. Please note that not all preprocessor commands permit this feature.
The traditional SCCS commands are also included for reference in SEE ALSO. If the preprocessor is used, small discrepancies may exist due
to conflicts between the command parameters and the preprocessor parameters.
SCCS stores all versions of each file along with the logged data about each version in the s-file. Three major operations can be performed
on the s-file.
To retrieve a file for reading or printing use the following command:
sccs get [filename][sccs]
The latest version is retrieved and is NOT intended for edit.
To retrieve a file for edit use the following command:
sccs edit [filename][sccs]
The latest version is retrieved and only one person can edit a given file at one time.
To merge a file back into the s-file use the following command:
sccs delta [filename][sccs]
This is a companion operation to the edit command (Step 2). A new version number is assigned. Comments explaining the changes are saved.
A delta consists of the changes made to a file, not the file itself. All deltas to a given file are stored, enabling you to get a version
of the file that has selected deltas removed which gives you the option of removing your selected changes later.
An SID is an identification number for a delta. It consists of two parts, a release number and a level number. The release number nor-
mally remains constant but can be changed when major changes in the file are made. The level numbers represent each delta for a given
file. A SID can also be used to represent a version number of the entire file.
To create all the source files in a given directory in SCCS format, run the following shell script from csh:
mkdir SCCS save
chown sccs SCCS
foreach i (*.[.ch])
sccs admin -i$i $i
mv $i save/$i
end
Note that to run the command, you must be the superuser. However, the Guide to the Source Code Control System describes a method for set-
ting up SCCS files that makes superuser privileges unnecessary.
To create a single source file in SCCS format, assuming the presence of the SCCS directory, use the following command:
sccs create <filename>
Because the number and types of commands used within SCCS are many and complex, the following quick reference table is included here. See
the Guide to the Source Code Control System for further explanations of commands.
Flags
-d<dir> The <dir> represents a directory to search out of. It should be a full pathname for general usage. For example, if <dir>
is then a reference to the file becomes a reference to
-p<path> Prepends <path> to the final component of the pathname. By default, this is SCCS. For example, in the -d example above,
the path then gets modified to In more common usage (without the -d flag), would get modified to In both cases, the gets
automatically prepended.
-r Run as the real user.
Commands
These commands should all be preceded by
get Gets files for compilation (not for editing). Id keywords are expanded.
-e Gets a writable copy of the file.
-rSID Get specified version.
-p Send to standard output rather than to the actual file.
-k Gets a writable copy of the file. Does not expand id keywords.
-ilist Include list of deltas.
-xlist Exclude list of deltas.
-m Precede each line with SID of delta being created.
-cdate Do not apply any deltas created after date.
edit Gets files for editing. Id keywords are not expanded. Should be matched with a delta command after editing.
-rSID Get specified version. If SID specifies a release that does not yet exist, the highest numbered delta is
retrieved and the new delta is numbered with SID
-b Create a branch.
-ilist Include list of deltas
-xlist Exclude list of deltas
delta Merge a file retrieved using edit back into the s-file. Collect comments about why this delta was made.
unedit Remove a file that has been edited previously without merging the changes into the s-file.
info Display a list of all files being edited.
-b Ignore branches.
-u[user] Ignore files not being edited by user .
check Same as info, except that nothing is printed if nothing is being edited and exit status is returned.
prs Produces a report of changes to the named file. Time, date, user, number of lines changed, the revision number, and comments
are listed for each delta.
create Create an s. file and do not remove the associated g-file.
tell Same as info, except that only the file name of files being edited is listed.
clean Remove all files that can be regenerated from the s-file.
what Find and print id keywords.
admin Create or set parameters on s-files.
-ifile Create, using file as the initial contents.
-z Rebuild the checksum in case the file has been corrupted.
-fflag Turn on the flag.
-dflag Turn off (delete) the flag .
-tfile Replace the text in the s-file with the contents of file. If file is omitted, the text is deleted. Useful for
storing documentation or design and implementation documents to insure distribution with the s-file.
Useful flags are:
b Allow branches to be made using the -b flag to edit.
dSID Default SID to be used on a get or edit.
i Cause No Id Keywords error message to be a fatal error rather than a warning.
t The module type; the value of this flag replaces the %Y% keyword.
fix Remove a delta and reedit it.
delget Do a delta followed by a get.
deledit Do a delta followed by an edit.
diffs Compare the g-file out for edit with an earlier SCCS version.
sccsdiff Compare any two SCCS versions of a g-file.
help Given either a command name, or an sccs message number, this command provides additional information.
Id Keywords
%Z% Expands to @(#) for the what command to find.
%M% The current module name, for example, prog.c.
%I% The highest SID applied.
%W% A shorthand for ``%Z%%M% <tab> %I%''.
%G%. The date of the delta corresponding to the %I%. keyword.
%R%. The current release number, for example, the first component of the %I% keyword.
%Y% Replaced by the value of the t flag (set by admin).
See Also
admin(1), cdc(1), comb(1), delta(1), get(1), prs(1), rmdel(1), sccshelp(1), unget(1), val(1), what(1), sccsfile(5)
Guide to the Source Code Control System
sccs(1)