Using the PVCS preferences dialog

The PVCS preferences dialog is the place, where you can set the additional configuration files and where you can customize the used archive suffix rules. The following dialog will be shown if you select PVCS > Preferences...:

The General settings view shows you some settings for the information level of the PVCS commands. Please refer the PVCS documentation to the directives "DIAGNOSTIC", "QUIET/VERBOSE" and "SIGNON/NOSIGNON" for information about these settings. The second section of this page contains the settings for switching on or off the debug possibilities of the PVCS adapter itself. The basic adapter debug information includes information about general process control and the called PVCS commands. The detailed debug information contains additional information about adapter internal calls and all the processed data. This level can print out a lot of information. Please stay patient in this case until the log window scrolling is stopped. The log parser debug information shows additional information about the floating label handling for the SNiFF+ Project Editor History Pane.
The Archive File Searching view gives you the possibility to setup the used archive suffix rules to calculate the responsible archive file for a work file.

At least one rule MUST be in this list, the rule for all file extensions ".?" (per default ".? -> ??v___". You can edit this rule, but you cannot delete this rule (all rules which you cannot delete are show in a red font). You can create new rules (button New...), you can modify existing rules (button Edit...) and you can copy an existing rule to create a new rule (button Copy...).
At least one rule MUST be in this list, the rule for all file extensions ".?" (per default ".? -> ??v___". You can edit this rule, but you cannot delete this rule (all rules which you cannot delete are show in a red font). You can create new rules (button New...), you can modify existing rules (button Edit...) and you can copy an existing rule to create a new rule (button Copy...).

| Note
| Multiple PVCS archive suffix metarules (include a '?' inside the rule) are currently not supported, because PVCS seems to have a problem itself with multiple metarules. TakeFive will clear this issue as soon as possible.

The New Suffix Rule dialog:

You have to fill out the field for the extension (the extension of the work file) and the field for the suffix rule (describe how we should calculate the archive extension).

The Edit Suffix Rule dialog:

The field extension and the field suffix rule are by default filled with the values of the selected suffix rule.

The Copy Suffix Rule dialog:

The Copy Suffix Rule dialog sets by default the fields for extension and suffix rule with the values of the selected suffix rule in the list and appends to the extension a unique number which makes the extension itself unique to avoid double extensions. You must change the extension to the one you want to add.

The field VCS Adapter specific subdirectory specifies an additional subdirectory which will be appended to the repository directory. The field contains by default the directory Pvcs. If you use a repository which was created by PVCS itself, then clear this field to find the existing archives.
Using the Set Label on Revision dialog
With the Set Label on Revision dialog it is possible to set a version label (PVCS fixed and floating labels) and/or a SNiFF+ change set to a specific version of a single file or to the tip revision (HEAD) of multiple selected files. Use the custom menu PVCS > Set Label... to show the following Set Label on Revision dialog.

In the field Label you can specify the label name you want to set. The dialog excepts all label names which are valid for PVCS itself. The field Revision contains the revision number for which you want to set the label. The field is pre - filled with the number of the tip revision (HEAD) if you don't select a specific revision in the 'History Panel' of the SNiFF+ Project Editor, otherwise the selected version is there. If you select more then one file, everytime the string 'TIP' is presented. In this case, the field is not editable and the label will be set on the newest revisions of all selected files. By default, all labels are set as fixed labels. If you want to set a label as floating label or as SNiFF+ changeset, checkmark the corresponding checkbox.
Using the Move Label dialog
The 'Move Label' Dialog provides functionality to reassign a version label on a revision of one file to another revision on the same file. Multiple file operations are not allowed. To use the 'Move Label' Dialog, select the label you want to reassign in the history pane of the SNiFF+ Project Editor. Choose the menu item 'Move Label to ...' and you get the dialog

or if there are more than one label (not changesets !) assigned to the revision

In both cases select the revision to witch you want to reassign the selected label. If there are more than one label assigned to a revision, all label are listed as show in the second dialog in the most left combobox. Select there the right label to move again.

| Note
| SNiFF+ can handle only one changeset per revision. This is limitation of SNiFF+ and not of the underlaying Version Control Tool. The 'Set Label'- and the 'Move Label' - Dialog shows a warning if someone tries to set more than one changeset per revision.

Note About Branching
When locking a non - tip (non HEAD) revision in PVCS, a check in is only allowed in a new branch. To identify the tip revision in the branch, the adapter implements a mechanism to calculate an automatic name for the branch. The user will be asked, if he/she accepts the name or not. If the user declines the automatic generated name, the only way to check in a locked non - tip revision is to check in with a new branch (checkmark New Branch in the Check in dialog).
Customizing the PVCS Adapter
The PVCS adapter is written in the Python scripting language. Customization of the adapter needs to be done in Python. Alternatively you could use a PVCS adapter from an earlier SNiFF+ version, see next section. For customizing the archive suffixes, use the earlier described PVCS Preferences dialog

Customization details:

- Refer to the Python home page
http://www.python.org/
for more details about the Python language.
- If necessary, switch on the different adapter debug levels inside the PVCS Preferences Dialog.
- Reloading the VCS adapter after every change restart SNiFF+