Quick Guide to CVS

Here is a quick guide to setting up and using CVS. The commands shown below were tested on Concurrent Versions System (CVS) 1.10 available from Cyclic Software.

See also:

Setup

  • Set CVSROOT to a directory (e.g. setenv CVSROOT ~/cvsroot )
  • Run “cvs init”

Put Project into CVS

  • To add version control for a project consist of multiple files in a directory, e.g. ~/project
  • cd to ~/project
  • Run “cvs import -m “Project” myproject sample start”
  • The respective arguments are :
  • cvs -m “Log message” repository vendor-tag release-tags
  • You can put anything you like for the tags and log message.
  • You will need to use “repository” to checkout your files later.

Checkout a Project

  • To checkout a project
  • Run “cvs checkout myproject”
  • You can subsitute “myproject” for any other repositories in the CVS.

Update a Project

  • To update a project after modifying several files
  • Run “cvs commit”
  • An editor will be shown to allow you to add comments on the changes
  • To use another editor eg: xemacs, do “setenv EDITOR xemacs”

Add/Remove File

  • To add a file, run “cvs add filename; cvs commit”
  • To remove a file, run “cvs remove filename; cvs commit”

Topics not covered here

  • Version branches
  • Multiple developers

See also this site for a more comprehensive tutorial.

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