CO(1) CO(1)
NAME
co - check out RCS revisions
SYNOPSIS
co [options] file ...
DESCRIPTION
co retrieves a revision from each RCS file and stores it into the cor-
responding working file.
Pathnames matching an RCS suffix denote RCS files; all others denote
working files. Names are paired as explained in ci(1).
Revisions of an RCS file can be checked out locked or unlocked. Lock-
ing a revision prevents overlapping updates. A revision checked out
for reading or processing (e.g., compiling) need not be locked. A
revision checked out for editing and later checkin must normally be
locked. Checkout with locking fails if the revision to be checked out
is currently locked by another user. (A lock can be broken with
rcs(1).) Checkout with locking also requires the caller to be on the
access list of the RCS file, unless he is the owner of the file or the
superuser, or the access list is empty. Checkout without locking is
not subject to accesslist restrictions, and is not affected by the
presence of locks.
A revision is selected by options for revision or branch number,
checkin date/time, author, or state. When the selection options are
applied in combination, co retrieves the latest revision that satisfies
all of them. If none of the selection options is specified, co
retrieves the latest revision on the default branch (normally the
trunk, see the -b option of rcs(1)). A revision or branch number can
be attached to any of the options -f, -I, -l, -M, -p, -q, -r, or -u.
The options -d (date), -s (state), and -w (author) retrieve from a sin-
gle branch, the selected branch, which is either specified by one of
-f, ..., -u, or the default branch.
A co command applied to an RCS file with no revisions creates a zero-
length working file. co always performs keyword substitution (see
below).
OPTIONS
-r[rev]
retrieves the latest revision whose number is less than or equal
to rev. If rev indicates a branch rather than a revision, the
latest revision on that branch is retrieved. If rev is omitted,
the latest revision on the default branch (see the -b option of
rcs(1)) is retrieved. If rev is $$, co determines the revision
number from keyword values in the working file. Otherwise, a
revision is composed of one or more numeric or symbolic fields
separated by periods. If rev begins with a period, then the
default branch (normally the trunk) is prepended to it. If rev
is a branch number followed by a period, then the latest revi-
sion on that branch is used. The numeric equivalent of a sym-
bolic field is specified with the -n option of the commands
ci(1) and rcs(1).
-l[rev]
same as -r, except that it also locks the retrieved revision for
the caller.
-u[rev]
same as -r, except that it unlocks the retrieved revision if it
was locked by the caller. If rev is omitted, -u retrieves the
revision locked by the caller, if there is one; otherwise, it
retrieves the latest revision on the default branch.
-f[rev]
forces the overwriting of the working file; useful in connection
with -q. See also FILE MODES below.
-kkv Generate keyword strings using the default form, e.g. $$Revision::
1.1.1.1 $$ for the Revision keyword. A locker's name is inserted
in the value of the Header, Id, and Locker keyword strings only
as a file is being locked, i.e. by ci -l and co -l. This is the
default.
-kkvl Like -kkv, except that a locker's name is always inserted if the
given revision is currently locked.
-kk Generate only keyword names in keyword strings; omit their val-
ues. See KEYWORD SUBSTITUTION below. For example, for the
Revision keyword, generate the string $$Revision$$ instead of
$$Revision:: 1.1.1.1 $$. This option is useful to ignore differ-
ences due to keyword substitution when comparing different revi-
sions of a file. Log messages are inserted after $$Log$$ keywords
even if -kk is specified, since this tends to be more useful
when merging changes.
-ko Generate the old keyword string, present in the working file
just before it was checked in. For example, for the Revision
keyword, generate the string $$Revision:: 1.1 $$ instead of $$Revi-
sion:: 1.1.1.1 $$ if that is how the string appeared when the file
was checked in. This can be useful for file formats that cannot
tolerate any changes to substrings that happen to take the form
of keyword strings.
-kb Generate a binary image of the old keyword string. This acts
like -ko, except it performs all working file input and output
in binary mode. This makes little difference on Posix and Unix
hosts, but on DOS-like hosts one should use rcs -i -kb to ini-
tialize an RCS file intended to be used for binary files. Also,
on all hosts, rcsmerge(1) normally refuses to merge files when
-kb is in effect.
-kv Generate only keyword values for keyword strings. For example,
for the Revision keyword, generate the string 1.1.1.1 instead of
$$Revision:: 1.1.1.1 $$. This can help generate files in program-
ming languages where it is hard to strip keyword delimiters like
$$Revision:: $$ from a string. However, further keyword substitu-
tion cannot be performed once the keyword names are removed, so
this option should be used with care. Because of this danger of
losing keywords, this option cannot be combined with -l, and the
owner write permission of the working file is turned off; to
edit the file later, check it out again without -kv.
-p[rev]
prints the retrieved revision on the standard output rather than
storing it in the working file. This option is useful when co
is part of a pipe.
-q[rev]
quiet mode; diagnostics are not printed.
-I[rev]
interactive mode; the user is prompted and questioned even if
the standard input is not a terminal.
-ddate retrieves the latest revision on the selected branch whose
checkin date/time is less than or equal to date. The date and
time can be given in free format. The time zone LT stands for
local time; other common time zone names are understood. For
example, the following dates are equivalent if local time is
January 11, 1990, 8pm Pacific Standard Time, eight hours west of
Coordinated Universal Time (UTC):
8::0000 pm lt
4::0000 AM,, Jan. 12,, 19900 default is UTC
19900-001-12 004::0000::0000]0000 ISO 8601 (UTC)
19900-001-11 200::0000::0000-008 ISO 8601 (local time)
19900/001/12 004::0000::0000 traditional RCS format
Thu Jan 11 200::0000::0000 19900 LT output of ctime(3) ] LT
Thu Jan 11 200::0000::0000 PST 19900 output of date(1)
Fri Jan 12 004::0000::0000 GMT 19900
Thu,, 11 Jan 19900 200::0000::0000 -0080000 Internet RFC 822
12-January-19900,, 004::0000 WET
Most fields in the date and time can be defaulted. The default
time zone is normally UTC, but this can be overridden by the -z
option. The other defaults are determined in the order year,
month, day, hour, minute, and second (most to least signifi-
cant). At least one of these fields must be provided. For
omitted fields that are of higher significance than the highest
provided field, the time zone's current values are assumed. For
all other omitted fields, the lowest possible values are
assumed. For example, without -z, the date 200,, 100::300 defaults
to 10:30:00 UTC of the 20th of the UTC time zone's current month
and year. The date/time must be quoted if it contains spaces.
-M[rev]
Set the modification time on the new working file to be the date
of the retrieved revision. Use this option with care; it can
confuse make(1).
-sstate
retrieves the latest revision on the selected branch whose state
is set to state.
-T Preserve the modification time on the RCS file even if the RCS
file changes because a lock is added or removed. This option
can suppress extensive recompilation caused by a make(1) depen-
dency of some other copy of the working file on the RCS file.
Use this option with care; it can suppress recompilation even
when it is needed, i.e. when the change of lock would mean a
change to keyword strings in the other working file.
-w[login]
retrieves the latest revision on the selected branch which was
checked in by the user with login name login. If the argument
login is omitted, the caller's login is assumed.
-jjoinlist
generates a new revision which is the join of the revisions on
joinlist. This option is largely obsoleted by rcsmerge(1) but
is retained for backwards compatibility.
The joinlist is a comma-separated list of pairs of the form
rev2::rev3, where rev2 and rev3 are (symbolic or numeric) revi-
sion numbers. For the initial such pair, rev1 denotes the revi-
sion selected by the above options -f, ..., -w. For all other
pairs, rev1 denotes the revision generated by the previous pair.
(Thus, the output of one join becomes the input to the next.)
For each pair, co joins revisions rev1 and rev3 with respect to
rev2. This means that all changes that transform rev2 into rev1
are applied to a copy of rev3. This is particularly useful if
rev1 and rev3 are the ends of two branches that have rev2 as a
common ancestor. If rev1 |
