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cvs(5)                        File Formats Manual                       cvs(5)



NAME
       cvs - Concurrent Versions System support files

NOTE
       This documentation may no longer be up to date.  Please consult the
       Cederqvist (CVS Manual) as specified in cvs(1).


SYNOPSIS
       $CVSROOT/CVSROOT/commitinfo,v

       $CVSROOT/CVSROOT/cvsignore,v

       $CVSROOT/CVSROOT/cvswrappers,v

       $CVSROOT/CVSROOT/editinfo,v

       $CVSROOT/CVSROOT/history

       $CVSROOT/CVSROOT/loginfo,v

       $CVSROOT/CVSROOT/modules,v

       $CVSROOT/CVSROOT/rcsinfo,v

       $CVSROOT/CVSROOT/taginfo,v

DESCRIPTION
       cvs is a system for providing source control to hierarchical
       collections of source directories.  Commands and procedures for using
       cvs are described in cvs(1).

       cvs manages source repositories, the directories containing master
       copies of the revision-controlled files, by copying particular
       revisions of the files to (and modifications back from) developers'
       private working directories.  In terms of file structure, each
       individual source repository is an immediate subdirectory of $CVSROOT.

       The files described here are supporting files; they do not have to
       exist for cvs to operate, but they allow you to make cvs operation more
       flexible.

       You can use the `modules' file to define symbolic names for collections
       of source maintained with cvs.  If there is no `modules' file,
       developers must specify complete path names (absolute, or relative to
       $CVSROOT) for the files they wish to manage with cvs commands.

       You can use the `commitinfo' file to define programs to execute
       whenever `cvs commit' is about to execute.  These programs are used for
       ``pre-commit'' checking to verify that the modified, added, and removed
       files are really ready to be committed.  Some uses for this check might
       be to turn off a portion (or all) of the source repository from a
       particular person or group.  Or, perhaps, to verify that the changed
       files conform to the site's standards for coding practice.

       You can use the `cvswrappers' file to record cvs wrapper commands to be
       used when checking files into and out of the repository.  Wrappers
       allow the file or directory to be processed on the way in and out of
       CVS.  The intended uses are many, one possible use would be to reformat
       a C file before the file is checked in, so all of the code in the
       repository looks the same.

       You can use the `loginfo' file to define programs to execute after any
       commit, which writes a log entry for changes in the repository.  These
       logging programs might be used to append the log message to a file.  Or
       send the log message through electronic mail to a group of developers.
       Or, perhaps, post the log message to a particular newsgroup.

       You can use the `taginfo' file to define programs to execute after any
       tagorrtag operation.  These programs might be used to append a message
       to a file listing the new tag name and the programmer who created it,
       or send mail to a group of developers, or, perhaps, post a message to a
       particular newsgroup.

       You can use the `rcsinfo' file to define forms for log messages.

       You can use the `editinfo' file to define a program to execute for
       editing/validating `cvs commit' log entries.  This is most useful when
       used with a `rcsinfo' forms specification, as it can verify that the
       proper fields of the form have been filled in by the user committing
       the change.

       You can use the `cvsignore' file to specify the default list of files
       to ignore during update.

       You can use the `history' file to record the cvs commands that affect
       the repository.  The creation of this file enables history logging.

FILES
       modules
              The `modules' file records your definitions of names for
              collections of source code.  cvs will use these definitions if
              you use cvs to check in a file with the right format to
              `$CVSROOT/CVSROOT/modules,v'.

              The `modules' file may contain blank lines and comments (lines
              beginning with `#') as well as module definitions.  Long lines
              can be continued on the next line by specifying a backslash
              (``\'') as the last character on the line.

              A module definition is a single line of the `modules' file, in
              either of two formats.  In both cases, mname represents the
              symbolic module name, and the remainder of the line is its
              definition.

              mname -a aliases...
              This represents the simplest way of defining a module mname.
              The `-a' flags the definition as a simple alias: cvs will treat
              any use of mname (as a command argument) as if the list of names
              aliases had been specified instead.  aliases may contain either
              other module names or paths.  When you use paths in aliases,
              `cvs checkout' creates all intermediate directories in the
              working directory, just as if the path had been specified
              explicitly in the cvs arguments.

              mname [ options ] dir [ files... ] [ &module... ]

              In the simplest case, this form of module definition reduces to
              `mname dir'.  This defines all the files in directory dir as
              module mname.  dir is a relative path (from $CVSROOT) to a
              directory of source in one of the source repositories.  In this
              case, on checkout, a single directory called mname is created as
              a working directory; no intermediate directory levels are used
              by default, even if dir was a path involving several directory
              levels.

              By explicitly specifying files in the module definition after
              dir, you can select particular files from directory dir.  The
              sample definition for modules is an example of a module defined
              with a single file from a particular directory.  Here is another
              example:

              m4test  unsupported/gnu/m4 foreach.m4 forloop.m4

              With this definition, executing `cvs checkout m4test' will
              create a single working directory `m4test' containing the two
              files listed, which both come from a common directory several
              levels deep in the cvs source repository.

              A module definition can refer to other modules by including
              `&module' in its definition.  checkout creates a subdirectory
              for each such module, in your working directory.
              New in cvs 1.3; avoid this feature if sharing module definitions
              with older versions of cvs.

              Finally, you can use one or more of the following options in
              module definitions:

              `-d name', to name the working directory something other than
              the module name.
              New in cvs 1.3; avoid this feature if sharing module definitions
              with older versions of cvs.

              `-i prog' allows you to specify a program prog to run whenever
              files in a module are committed.  prog runs with a single
              argument, the full pathname of the affected directory in a
              source repository.   The `commitinfo', `loginfo', and `editinfo'
              files provide other ways to call a program on commit.

              `-o prog' allows you to specify a program prog to run whenever
              files in a module are checked out.  prog runs with a single
              argument, the module name.

              `-e prog' allows you to specify a program prog to run whenever
              files in a module are exported.  prog runs with a single
              argument, the module name.

              `-t prog' allows you to specify a program prog to run whenever
              files in a module are tagged.  prog runs with two arguments:
              the module name and the symbolic tag specified to rtag.

              `-u prog' allows you to specify a program prog to run whenever
              `cvs update' is executed from the top-level directory of the
              checked-out module.  prog runs with a single argument, the full
              path to the source repository for this module.

       commitinfo, loginfo, rcsinfo, editinfo
              These files all specify programs to call at different points in
              the `cvs commit' process.  They have a common structure.  Each
              line is a pair of fields: a regular expression, separated by
              whitespace from a filename or command-line template.  Whenever
              one of the regular expression matches a directory name in the
              repository, the rest of the line is used.  If the line begins
              with a # character, the entire line is considered a comment and
              is ignored.  Whitespace between the fields is also ignored.

              For `loginfo', the rest of the line is a command-line template
              to execute.  The templates can include not only a program name,
              but whatever list of arguments you wish.  If you write `%s'
              somewhere on the argument list, cvs supplies, at that point, the
              list of files affected by the commit.  The first entry in the
              list is the relative path within the source repository where the
              change is being made.  The remaining arguments list the files
              that are being modified, added, or removed by this commit
              invocation.

              For `taginfo', the rest of the line is a command-line template
              to execute.  The arguments passed to the command are, in order,
              the tagname , operation (i.e.  add for `tag', mov for `tag -F',
              and del for `tag -d`), repository , and any remaining are pairs
              of filename revision .  A non-zero exit of the filter program
              will cause the tag to be aborted.

              For `commitinfo', the rest of the line is a command-line
              template to execute.  The template can include not only a
              program name, but whatever list of arguments you wish.  The full
              path to the current source repository is appended to the
              template, followed by the file names of any files involved in
              the commit (added, removed, and modified files).

              For `rcsinfo', the rest of the line is the full path to a file
              that should be loaded into the log message template.

              For `editinfo', the rest of the line is a command-line template
              to execute.  The template can include not only a program name,
              but whatever list of arguments you wish.  The full path to the
              current log message template file is appended to the template.

              You can use one of two special strings instead of a regular
              expression: `ALL' specifies a command line template that must
              always be executed, and `DEFAULT' specifies a command line
              template to use if no regular expression is a match.

              The `commitinfo' file contains commands to execute before any
              other commit activity, to allow you to check any conditions that
              must be satisfied before commit can proceed.  The rest of the
              commit will execute only if all selected commands from this file
              exit with exit status 0.

              The `rcsinfo' file allows you to specify log templates for the
              commit logging session; you can use this to provide a form to
              edit when filling out the commit log.  The field after the
              regular expression, in this file, contains filenames (of files
              containing the logging forms) rather than command templates.

              The `editinfo' file allows you to execute a script before the
              commit starts, but after the log information is recorded.  These
              "edit" scripts can verify information recorded in the log file.
              If the edit script exits with a non-zero exit status, the commit
              is aborted.

              The `loginfo' file contains commands to execute at the end of a
              commit.  The text specified as a commit log message is piped
              through the command; typical uses include sending mail, filing
              an article in a newsgroup, or appending to a central file.

       cvsignore, .cvsignore
              The default list of files (or sh(1) file name patterns) to
              ignore during `cvs update'.  At startup time, cvs loads the
              compiled in default list of file name patterns (see cvs(1)).
              Then the per-repository list included in
              $CVSROOT/CVSROOT/cvsignore is loaded, if it exists.  Then the
              per-user list is loaded from `$HOME/.cvsignore'.  Finally, as
              cvs traverses through your directories, it will load any per-
              directory `.cvsignore' files whenever it finds one.  These per-
              directory files are only valid for exactly the directory that
              contains them, not for any sub-directories.

       history
              Create this file in $CVSROOT/CVSROOT to enable history logging
              (see the description of `cvs history').

SEE ALSO
       cvs(1),

COPYING
       Copyright (C) 1992 Cygnus Support, Brian Berliner, and Jeff Polk

       Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this
       manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are
       preserved on all copies.

       Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this
       manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that the
       entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a
       permission notice identical to this one.

       Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this
       manual into another language, under the above conditions for modified
       versions, except that this permission notice may be included in
       translations approved by the Free Software Foundation instead of in the
       original English.



                               12 February 1992                         cvs(5)