CVS Help File

CVS lets you manage project versions and file revisions easily.

You can check out files, modify them, submit them as revisions, merge different versions of the same file, go back to old revisions, make branches in the development process, etc.

For our purposes, we hope we don't have to do many merges, we are most interested in keeping older versions of everything.

Most of this README was taken directly from:
    http://www.cdt.luth.se/~peppar/presentations/cvs/slide0.html
Additional information was taken from:
    http://www.loria.fr/~molli/cvs/doc/cvs_toc.html
For information from the authorities on cvs:
    http://www.gnu.org/manual/cvs/html_chapter/cvs_7.html#SEC41

Our root CVS directory

/net/pizza/vcl/ppd_cvs

To check out the entire ppd "module" or "tree"

Go to your path_to_your_copy directory and execute the command:
cvs checkout ppd
This will create a dir named "ppd" which is the top level of the cvs tree.

path_to_your_copy is the location where your checked out CVS tree will be stored.

To check out just one part of the module


This is not commonly used and it is usually best to check out the entire tree.

Go to a new/empty directory and execute the command:
cvs checkout ppd/assembler

The ppd directory will still be checked out, but only the specified subdirectory ("assembler" in this case) will be in it.

To checkout a specific revision of a module

This is commonly done to retrieve an old version of a particular file. Restoring the file so that it always retrieves the latest version is a little tricky and I think requires clearing Sticky Options (see below).

cvs checkout -r version module
example:
cd ppd/doc; cvs checkout -r 1.1 manual.txt
cvs checkout -r 1.1 ppd/doc/manual.txt (less common usage)

To update a module that you've already checked out in case changes were made to it recently

cvs update

To add a (new) file to the ppd module

(1) Make sure the module has been checked out
(2) Create some file in some part of the checked out module
cvs add filename

The file will be added the next time you execute a commit.
It will be added in the CVS wherever you added it in the checked-out version.
Notice that the add command is not recursive and has no recursive options.
Adding a sub-module requires using the import command and importing the
sub-module into the correct subdirectory in the main module.

To remove a file from the ppd module

(1) remove the file from the checked out version
cvs remove filename

The file will be removed the next time you execute a commit.
Notice that directories can never be removed from a CVS tree.

If a directory is in the tree and is empty, and you do not
wish to see it, you can use:
cvs checkout -P
cvs update -P

This will disable ALL empty directories from being checked.

Random notes

cvs -H command_name     # general help for a command
cvsup                   # 'cvs up -dP'
cvsed    dff.mag        # locks and edits file
cvsuned  dff.mag        # unlocks and unedits file
cvs update -d           # include any new directories
cvs update -P           # prune out empty directories
cvs --help-commands
cvs --help remove       # to remove a file from cvs
    rm file             
    cvs remove file
    cvs commit
tkdiff -r1.3 -r1.4 mem_fifo_pipe.v      # to compare two revisions of a file
To remove sticky tag and sticky options (from web page)
    cvs status filename         # check status first
    cvs update -A filename      # Sticky Tag should be cleared
    cvs admin -kkv filename     # no noticeable change to status apparently!
    cvs update -A filename      # Sticky Options should be cleared (strange!)
cvs update -D  9/10/2004        # check out a particular date
cvs update -D "9/10/2004 17:15" 
cvs update -R -D "2004/09/11 17:00"  # works, needs quotes, recursive