NAME
ci - check in RCS revisions

SYNOPSIS
ci [ options ] file ...

DESCRIPTION
Ci stores new revisions into RCS files. Each file name ending in
‘,v’ 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 the directory ./RCS and then in the current directory. For more
details, see the file naming section 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, unless
locking is set to strict (see rcs(1)). A lock held by someone else
may be broken with the rcs command.

Normally, ci checks whether the revision to be deposited is
different from the preceding one. If it is not different, ci either
aborts the deposit (if -q is given) or asks whether to abort (if -q
is omitted). A deposit can be forced with the -f option.

For each revision deposited, ci prompts for a log message. The log
message should summarize the change and must be terminated with a
line containing a single ‘.’ or a control-D. 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.

The number of the deposited revision can be given by any of the
options -r, -f, -k, -l, -u, or -q.

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 below).

-r[rev] assigns the revision number rev to the checked-in revision,
releases the corresponding lock, and deletes the working
file. This is the default. Rev may be symbolic, numeric,
or mixed.

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 he is the
owner of 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.

-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 computing 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 number, date, author, and
state. The extracted keyword values and the default log
message may be overridden with the options -r, -d, -s, -w,
and -m.

-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 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 is useful if one wants to process (e.g.,
compile) the revision immediately after checkin.

-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.

-ddate uses date for the checkin date and time. Date may be
specified in free format as explained in co(1). Useful for
lying about the checkin date, and for -k if no date is
available.

-mmsg uses the string msg as the log message for all revisions
checked in.

-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 is Exp.

-t[txtfile]
writes descriptive text into the RCS file (deletes the
existing text). If txtfile is omitted, ci prompts the user
for text supplied from the standard input, terminated with
a line containing a single ‘.’ or control-D. Otherwise,
the descriptive text is copied from the file txtfile.
During initialization, descriptive text is requested even
if -t is not given. The prompt is suppressed if standard
input is not a terminal.

-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.

FILE NAMING
Pairs of RCS files and working files may be specified in 3 ways
(see also the example section of co(1)).

1) Both the RCS file and the working file are given. The RCS file
name is of the form path1/workfile,v and the working file name is
of the form path2/workfile, where path1/ and path2/ are (possibly
different or empty) paths and workfile is a file name.

2) Only the RCS file is given. Then the working file is assumed to
be in the current directory and its name is derived from the name
of the RCS file by removing path1/ and the suffix ,v.

3) Only the working file is given. Then ci looks for an RCS file of
the form path2/RCS/workfile,v or path2/workfile,v (in this order).

If the RCS file is specified without a path in 1) and 2), then ci
looks for the RCS file first in the directory ./RCS and then in the
current directory.

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
The caller of the command must have read/write permission for the
directories containing the RCS file and the working file, and read
permission for the RCS file itself. A number of temporary files
are created. A semaphore file is created in the directory
containing the RCS file. Ci always creates a new RCS file and
unlinks the old one. This strategy makes links to RCS files
useless.

DIAGNOSTICS
For each revision, ci prints the RCS file, the working file, and
the number of both the deposited and the preceding revision. The
exit status always refers to the last file checked in, and is 0 if
the operation was successful, 1 otherwise.

IDENTIFICATION
Author: Walter F. Tichy, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN,
47907.
Revision Number: 1.3 ; Release Date: 91/10/03 .
Copyright (c) 1982, 1988, 1989 by Walter F. Tichy.

SEE ALSO
co(1), ident(1), rcs(1), rcsdiff(1), rcsintro(1), rcsmerge(1),
rlog(1), rcsfile(5)
Walter F. Tichy, "Design, Implementation, and Evaluation of a
Revision Control System," in Proceedings of the 6th International
Conference on Software Engineering, IEEE, Tokyo, Sept. 1982.