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ci(1)									 ci(1)

NAME
       ci - check in RCS revisions

SYNOPSIS
       ci [options] file...

OPTIONS
       checks  in a revision, releases the corresponding lock, and removes the
       working file.  This is the default.

	      The -r option has an unusual meaning in ci. In  other  RCS  com‐
	      mands,  -r merely specifies a revision number, but in ci it also
	      releases a lock and removes the  working	file.  See  -u	for  a
	      tricky example.  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 revision although one  wants  to	 continue  editing  it
	      after  the  checkin.   works  like -l, except that the deposited
	      revision is not locked. This lets	 one  read  the	 working  file
	      immediately after checkin.

	      The  -l,	-r, and -u options are mutually exclusive and silently
	      override each other. For example, ci -u -r is equivalent	to  ci
	      -r  because -r overrides -u.  forces a deposit; the new revision
	      is deposited even it is not different from  the  preceding  one.
	      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 may be overridden with the options -d, -m,  -s,  -w,
	      and  any	option	that  carries  a revision number.  quiet mode;
	      diagnostic output is not printed. A revision that is not differ‐
	      ent from the preceding one is not deposited, unless -f is given.
	      interactive mode; the user is prompted and  questioned  even  if
	      the standard input is not a terminal.  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.  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 modifi‐
	      cation time, even if f's contents change due to keyword  substi‐
	      tution. Use this option with care; it can confuse make(1).  uses
	      the string msg as the log message for all revisions checked  in.
	      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.  same as -n, except that it over‐
	      rides a previous assignment of name.   sets  the	state  of  the
	      checked-in  revision  to the identifier state. The default state
	      is Exp.  writes descriptive text from the contents of the	 named
	      file into the RCS file, deleting the existing text. The file may
	      not begin with -.	 Write descriptive text from the  string  into
	      the RCS file, deleting 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.  uses login  for  the	author	field  of  the
	      deposited	 revision.  Useful for lying about the author, and for
	      -k if no author is available.  Emulate RCS version n. See	 co(1)
	      for  details.   specifies the suffixes for RCS files. A nonempty
	      suffix matches any pathname ending in the suffix. An empty  suf‐
	      fix  matches any pathname of the form RCS/file or path/RCS/file.
	      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
	      created,	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 file names, and is empty (i.e. just  the  empty  suffix)  for
	      other hosts.

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 working
       files containing new revisions.	ci deposits the contents of each work‐
       ing file into the corresponding RCS file. If only  a  working  file  is
       given,  ci tries to find the corresponding RCS file in an RCS subdirec‐
       tory 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  revert‐
       ing, any -n and -s options apply to the preceding revision.

       For each revision deposited, ci prompts for a log message. The log mes‐
       sage 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 mes‐
       sage 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 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.

FILE NAMING
       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  cre‐
       ated  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 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 direc‐
       tory  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
       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 file‐
       names 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 suf‐
       fices  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.	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 adminis‐
       trator for the set of users. Only A will be able to invoke the rcs com‐
       mand  on	 the users' RCS files.	A should not be root or any other user
       with special powers. Mutually suspicious sets of users should use  dif‐
       ferent  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!

ENVIRONMENT
       options	prepended  to the argument list, separated by spaces.  A back‐
       slash  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.

DIAGNOSTICS
       For  each revision, ci prints the  file, the working file, and the num‐
       ber of both the deposited and the preceding revision. The  exit	status
       is zero if and only if all operations were successful.

IDENTIFICATION
       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.

SEE ALSO
       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.

									 ci(1)
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