CVS Quick Start Guide

Here are a few useful cvs commands. For more information check out the CVS Web page.

To use these commands with the Rover source CVS repository, you must have login access or remote NFS mount access to the Rover source CVS repository.

cvs checkout module names or cvs co module names
This command is used to check out a module from the CVS repository. A module is a collection of related files (e.g., Rover documentation, client application source code, etc.).
cvs add filenames This command schedules the listed filenames for addition to the CVS repository. No action will be taken until commit time.
cvs delete filenames or cvs remove filenames
This command schedules the listed filenames for deletion from the CVS repository. The files must have already been deleted from the current directory. No action will be taken until commit time.
cvs [-n] update
This command updates the current directory and all directories below it (that are part of the CVS repository). All actions and any conflicts will be reported to the user. Using the n option causes no actual writing to take place and is useful for seeing the changes that others have made to the repository.
cvs commit
This command commits changes that you have made to repository (including adding, deleting, or changing files). Your copy of the module must be up-to-date or CVS will report an error. CVS will bring up your favorite editor (as defined by your EDITOR environment variable) and ask you to enter a comment for the updates. Enter the comment, save it, and exit the editor. CVS will then apply your changes to the repository.
cvs diff filenames
This command shows differences between files in your working directory and the source repository. It is useful to diff a directory before committing it, in order to know what comments to enter into the change log.

cvs update and cvs commit list all the files they touch preceded by a one-character code signifying the change. Here is a quick key to the code:

M The file is modified in your working directory.
U The file was brought up to date with respect to the repository.
P The file was patched to bring it up to date with respect to the repository.
? The file is in your working directory, but not in the repository.
C A conflict was detected while trying to merge your changes to file with changes from the source repository. Edit the file, by hand to fix up the changes. Look for the string "<<<<"
A The file is scheduled to be added to the source repository at the next commit point.
R The file is scheduled to be removed from the source repository at the next commit point.