


CI(1)                                                       CI(1)


NAME
       ci - check in RCS revisions

SYNOPSIS
       ci [options] file ...

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 working  file
       into  the  corresponding RCS file.  If only a working file
       is given, ci tries to find the corresponding RCS  file  in
       an  RCS subdirectory and then in the working file's direc-
       tory.  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 can be
       broken with the rcs command.

       Unless the -f option is given, ci checks whether the revi-
       sion  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 reverting, any -n and -s options apply to the preced-
       ing revision.

       For each revision deposited, ci prompts for a log message.
       The  log  message  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 message 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 descrip-
       tive text (see -t below).

       The number rev of the deposited revision can be  given  by
       any  of the options -f, -i, -I, -j, -k, -l, -M, -q, -r, or
       -u.  rev can be symbolic,  numeric,  or  mixed.   Symbolic
       names  in  rev  must already be defined; see the -n and -N



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       options for assigning names during checkin.  If rev is  $,
       ci  determines  the revision number from keyword values in
       the working file.

       If rev begins with a period, then the default branch (nor-
       mally  the  trunk) is prepended to it.  If rev is a branch
       number followed by a period, then the latest  revision  on
       that branch is used.

       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 revision 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.

OPTIONS
       -rrev  Check in revision rev.

       -r     The bare -r option (without any  revision)  has  an
              unusual  meaning in ci.  With other RCS commands, a
              bare -r option specifies the most  recent  revision
              on  the  default  branch,  but  with  ci, a bare -r
              option  reestablishes  the  default   behavior   of
              releasing a lock and removing the working file, and
              is used to override any default -l  or  -u  options
              established by shell aliases or scripts.

       -l[rev]
              works  like  -r,  except  it performs an additional
              co -l  for  the  deposited  revision.   Thus,   the
              deposited revision is immediately checked out again



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              and locked.  This is useful for saving  a  revision
              although one wants to continue editing it after the
              checkin.

       -u[rev]
              works like -l, except that the  deposited  revision
              is not locked.  This lets one read the working file
              immediately after checkin.

              The -l, bare -r, and -u options are mutually exclu-
              sive  and  silently override each other.  For exam-
              ple, ci -u -r is equivalent to ci -r  because  bare
              -r overrides -u.

       -f[rev]
              forces  a  deposit;  the  new revision is deposited
              even it is not different from the preceding one.

       -k[rev]
              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 com-
              puting them locally.  It also generates  a  default
              login  message  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 num-
              ber, date, author, and state.  The  extracted  key-
              word  values  and  the  default  log message can be
              overridden with the options -d, -m, -s, -w, and any
              option that carries a revision number.

       -q[rev]
              quiet  mode;  diagnostic  output is not printed.  A
              revision that is not different from  the  preceding
              one is not deposited, unless -f is given.

       -i[rev]
              initial  checkin;  report  an error if the RCS file
              already exists.  This  avoids  race  conditions  in
              certain applications.

       -j[rev]
              just checkin and do not initialize; report an error
              if the RCS file does not already exist.

       -I[rev]
              interactive mode; the user is  prompted  and  ques-
              tioned  even  if the standard input is not a termi-
              nal.





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       -d[date]
              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.

       -M[rev]
              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 modifica-
              tion time, even if f's contents change due to  key-
              word  substitution.   Use this option with care; it
              can confuse make(1).

       -mmsg  uses the string msg as  the  log  message  for  all
              revisions  checked in.  By convention, log messages
              that start with # are comments and are  ignored  by
              programs  like  GNU  Emacs's vc package.  Also, log
              messages that start with {clumpname}  (followed  by
              white  space)  are  meant to be clumped together if
              possible, even if they are associated with  differ-
              ent  files;  the {clumpname} label is used only for
              clumping, and is not considered to be part  of  the
              log message itself.

       -nname 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.

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

       -sstate
              sets the state of the checked-in  revision  to  the
              identifier state.  The default state is Exp.

       -tfile writes  descriptive  text  from the contents of the
              named file into the RCS file, deleting the existing
              text.  The file cannot begin with -.

       -t-string
              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  initial 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



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              possible; see -I.

              For backward compatibility with older  versions  of
              RCS, a bare -t option is ignored.

       -T     Set  the  RCS  file's  modification time to the new
              revision's time if the former precedes  the  latter
              and  there  is  a  new  revision;  preserve the RCS
              file's modification time otherwise.   If  you  have
              locked  a  revision,  ci  usually  updates  the RCS
              file's  modification  time  to  the  current  time,
              because  the  lock  is  stored  in the RCS file and
              removing the lock requires changing the  RCS  file.
              This  can create an RCS file newer than the working
              file in one of two ways: first, ci -M can create  a
              working  file  with a date before the current time;
              second, when reverting to the previous revision the
              RCS  file can change while the working file remains
              unchanged.  These two  cases  can  cause  excessive
              recompilation caused by a make(1) dependency of the
              working file  on  the  RCS  file.   The  -T  option
              inhibits  this recompilation by lying about the RCS
              file's date.  Use this option  with  care;  it  can
              suppress  recompilation  even when a checkin of one
              working file should  affect  another  working  file
              associated  with  the  same RCS file.  For example,
              suppose the RCS file's time is 01:00, the (changed)
              working  file's  time  is 02:00, some other copy of
              the working file has a time of 03:00, and the  cur-
              rent  time  is  04:00.   Then ci -d -T sets the RCS
              file's time to 02:00 instead of  the  usual  04:00;
              this causes make(1) to think (incorrectly) that the
              other copy is newer than the RCS file.

       -wlogin
              uses login for the author field  of  the  deposited
              revision.   Useful  for lying about the author, and
              for -k if no author is available.

       -V     Print RCS's version number.

       -Vn    Emulate RCS version n.  See co(1) for details.

       -xsuffixes
              specifies the suffixes for RCS files.   A  nonempty
              suffix  matches  any pathname ending in the suffix.
              An empty suffix matches any pathname  of  the  form
              RCS/path  or  path1/RCS/path2.   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  speci-
              fied,  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



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              be created, the suffixes  are  tried  in  order  to
              determine the new RCS file's name.  The default for
              suffixes is installation-dependent; 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.

       -zzone specifies the date output format in keyword substi-
              tution, and specifies the  default  time  zone  for
              date  in  the  -ddate  option.   The zone should be
              empty, a numeric UTC offset, or the special  string
              LT  for  local time.  The default is an empty zone,
              which uses the traditional RCS format of UTC  with-
              out any time zone indication and with slashes sepa-
              rating the parts of the date; otherwise, times  are
              output  in  ISO  8601 format with time zone indica-
              tion.  For example, if local time  is  January  11,
              1990,  8pm  Pacific Standard Time, eight hours west
              of UTC, then the time is output as follows:

                     option    time output
                     -z        1990/01/12 04:00:00        (default)
                     -zLT      1990-01-11 20:00:00-08
                     -z+05:30  1990-01-12 09:30:00+05:30

              The -z option does not affect dates stored  in  RCS
              files, which are always UTC.

FILE NAMING
       Pairs  of  RCS files and working files can be specified in
       three ways (see also the example section).

       1) Both the RCS file and the working file are given.   The
       RCS  pathname is of the form path1/workfileX and the work-
       ing pathname is of the form  path2/workfile  where  path1/
       and  path2/ are (possibly different or empty) paths, work-
       file is a filename, and X is  an  RCS  suffix.   If  X  is
       empty,  path1/ must start with RCS/ or must contain /RCS/.

       2) Only the RCS file is given.  Then the working  file  is
       created  in  the current directory and its name is derived
       from the name of the RCS file by removing path1/  and  the
       suffix X.

       3) 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 ./RCS and
       then in the current directory.

       ci reports an error if an attempt  to  open  an  RCS  file



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       fails  for an unusual reason, even if the RCS file's path-
       name is just one of several possibilities.   For  example,
       to suppress use of RCS commands in a directory 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 con-
       tains a subdirectory RCS with an RCS  file  io.c,v.   Then
       each  of  the  following  commands 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 permissions of RCS files.

FILES
       Temporary files are 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 suf-
       fix whose first character could be that of a working file-
       name.   With an empty suffix, the semaphore names end with
       _ so working filenames 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  containing  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



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       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 per-
       missions 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 suffices 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 for-
       mal projects sometimes distinguish between an RCS adminis-
       trator,  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 delet-
       ing revisions, a set of users can employ setuid privileges
       as follows.

       o Check  that the host supports RCS 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 or effective user is root.  If
         RCS detects any failure in setuid, it quits immediately.

       o Choose  a  user  A to serve as RCS administrator for the
         set of users.  Only A can invoke the rcs command on  the
         users'  RCS  files.   A  should not be root or any other
         user with special powers.  Mutually suspicious  sets  of
         users should use different administrators.

       o Choose  a  pathname  B  to be a directory of files to be
         executed by the users.

       o 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:






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              mkdir  B
              cp  D/c[io]  B
              chmod  go-w,u+s  B/c[io]

       o Have each user prepend B to their path as follows:

              PATH=B:$PATH;  export  PATH  # ordinary shell
              set  path=(B  $path)  # C shell

       o Have A create each RCS directory  R  with  write  access
         only to A as follows:

              mkdir  R
              chmod  go-w  R

       o 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

       o Have  A  copy  old  RCS files (if any) into R, to ensure
         that A owns them.

       o 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 -aA limits access to just A.

       o Have  A  initialize any new RCS files with rcs -i before
         initial checkin, adding the -a option  if  you  want  to
         limit checkin access.

       o Give  setuid privileges only to ci, co, and rcsclean; do
         not give them to rcs or to any other command.

       o Do not use other setuid commands to invoke RCS commands;
         setuid is trickier than you think!

ENVIRONMENT
       RCSINIT
              options  prepended  to the argument list, separated
              by spaces.  A backslash escapes  spaces  within  an
              option.   The  RCSINIT options are prepended to the
              argument  lists  of  most  RCS  commands.    Useful
              RCSINIT options include -q, -V, -x, and -z.

       TMPDIR 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,



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              typically /tmp.

DIAGNOSTICS
       For  each  revision,  ci  prints the RCS file, the working
       file, and the number of both the deposited and the preced-
       ing  revision.  The exit status is zero if and only if all
       operations were successful.

IDENTIFICATION
       Author: Walter F. Tichy.
       Manual Page Revision: 1.1; Release Date: 1996/08/12.
       Copyright (C) 1982, 1988, 1989 Walter F. Tichy.
       Copyright (C) 1990, 1991,  1992,  1993,  1994,  1995  Paul
       Eggert.

SEE ALSO
       co(1),  emacs(1),  ident(1), make(1), rcs(1), rcsclean(1),
       rcsdiff(1), rcsintro(1), rcsmerge(1), rlog(1),  setuid(2),
       rcsfile(5)
       Walter  F.  Tichy,  RCS--A  System  for  Version  Control,
       Software--Practice  &  Experience  15,  7   (July   1985),
       637-654.



































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