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A.6.1 admin options

Some of these options have questionable usefulness for CVS but exist for historical purposes. Some even make it impossible to use CVS until you undo the effect!

-Aoldfile
Might not work together with CVS. Append the access list of oldfile to the access list of the RCS file.
-alogins
Might not work together with CVS. Append the login names appearing in the comma-separated list logins to the access list of the RCS file.
-b[rev]
Set the default branch to rev. In CVS, you normally do not manipulate default branches; sticky tags (see section 6.7 Sticky tags) are a better way to decide which branch you want to work on. There is one reason to run cvs admin -b: to revert to the vendor's version when using vendor branches (see section 10.3 Reverting to the latest vendor release). There can be no space between `-b' and its argument.
-cstring
Sets the comment leader to string. The comment leader is not used by current versions of CVS or RCS 5.7. Therefore, you can almost surely not worry about it. See section 12 Keyword substitution.
-e[logins]
Might not work together with CVS. Erase the login names appearing in the comma-separated list logins from the access list of the RCS file. If logins is omitted, erase the entire access list.
-I
Run interactively, even if the standard input is not a terminal. This option does not work with the client/server CVS and is likely to disappear in a future release of CVS.
-i
Useless with CVS. This creates and initializes a new RCS file, without depositing a revision. With CVS, add files with the cvs add command (see section 9.1 Adding files to a directory).
-ksubst
Set the default keyword substitution to subst. See section 12 Keyword substitution. Giving an explicit `-k' option to cvs update, cvs export, or cvs checkout overrides this default.
-l[rev]
Lock the revision with number rev. If a branch is given, lock the latest revision on that branch. If rev is omitted, lock the latest revision on the default branch. There can be no space between `-l' and its argument. This can be used in conjunction with the `rcslock.pl' script in the `contrib' directory of the CVS source distribution to provide reserved checkouts (where only one user can be editing a given file at a time). See the comments in that file for details (and see the `README' file in that directory for disclaimers about the unsupported nature of contrib). According to comments in that file, locking must set to strict (which is the default).
-L
Set locking to strict. Strict locking means that the owner of an RCS file is not exempt from locking for checkin. For use with CVS, strict locking must be set; see the discussion under the `-l' option above.
-mrev:msg
Replace the log message of revision rev with msg.
-Nname[:[rev]]
Act like `-n', except override any previous assignment of name. For use with magic branches, see section 6.8 Magic branch numbers.
-nname[:[rev]]
Associate the symbolic name name with the branch or revision rev. It is normally better to use `cvs tag' or `cvs rtag' instead. Delete the symbolic name if both `:' and rev are omitted; otherwise, print an error message if name is already associated with another number. If rev is symbolic, it is expanded before association. A rev consisting of a branch number followed by a `.' stands for the current latest revision in the branch. A `:' with an empty rev stands for the current latest revision on the default branch, normally the trunk. For example, `cvs admin -nname:' associates name with the current latest revision of all the RCS files; this contrasts with `cvs admin -nname:$' which associates name with the revision numbers extracted from keyword strings in the corresponding working files.
-orange
Potentially useful, but dangerous, with CVS (see below). Deletes (outdates) the revisions given by range. A range consisting of a single revision number means that revision. A range consisting of a branch number means the latest revision on that branch. A range of the form `rev1:rev2' means revisions rev1 to rev2 on the same branch, `:rev' means from the beginning of the branch containing rev up to and including rev, and `rev:' means from revision rev to the end of the branch containing rev. None of the outdated revisions may have branches or locks. Due to the way CVS handles branches rev cannot be specified symbolically if it is a branch. See section 6.8 Magic branch numbers, for an explanation. Make sure that no-one has checked out a copy of the revision you outdate. Strange things will happen if he starts to edit it and tries to check it back in. For this reason, this option is not a good way to take back a bogus commit; commit a new revision undoing the bogus change instead (see section 7.3 Merging differences between any two revisions).
-q
Run quietly; do not print diagnostics.
-sstate[:rev]
Useful with CVS. Set the state attribute of the revision rev to state. If rev is a branch number, assume the latest revision on that branch. If rev is omitted, assume the latest revision on the default branch. Any identifier is acceptable for state. A useful set of states is `Exp' (for experimental), `Stab' (for stable), and `Rel' (for released). By default, the state of a new revision is set to `Exp' when it is created. The state is visible in the output from cvs log (see section A.13 log--Print out log information for files), and in the `$'Log$ and `$'State$ keywords (see section 12 Keyword substitution). Note that CVS uses the dead state for its own purposes; to take a file to or from the dead state use commands like cvs remove and cvs add, not cvs admin -s.
-t[file]
Useful with CVS. Write descriptive text from the contents of the named file into the RCS file, deleting the existing text. The file pathname may not begin with `-'. The descriptive text can be seen in the output from `cvs log' (see section A.13 log--Print out log information for files). There can be no space between `-t' and its argument. If file is omitted, obtain the text from standard input, terminated by end-of-file or by a line containing `.' by itself. Prompt for the text if interaction is possible; see `-I'. Reading from standard input does not work for client/server CVS and may change in a future release of CVS.
-t-string
Similar to `-tfile'. Write descriptive text from the string into the RCS file, deleting the existing text. There can be no space between `-t' and its argument.
-U
Set locking to non-strict. Non-strict locking means that the owner of a file need not lock a revision for checkin. For use with CVS, strict locking must be set; see the discussion under the `-l' option above.
-u[rev]
See the option `-l' above, for a discussion of using this option with CVS. Unlock the revision with number rev. If a branch is given, unlock the latest revision on that branch. If rev is omitted, remove the latest lock held by the caller. Normally, only the locker of a revision may unlock it. Somebody else unlocking a revision breaks the lock. This causes a mail message to be sent to the original locker. The message contains a commentary solicited from the breaker. The commentary is terminated by end-of-file or by a line containing . by itself. There can be no space between `-u' and its argument.
-Vn
Emulate RCS version n. Use -Vn to make an RCS file acceptable to RCS version n by discarding information that would confuse version n.
-xsuffixes
In previous versions of CVS, this was documented as a way of specifying the names of the RCS files. However, CVS has always required that the RCS files used by CVS end in `,v', so this option has never done anything useful.


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