Back - How to put a project under CVS

Basic CVS Usage

Now that you have added 'testproj' to your CVS repository, you will want to be able to modify the code and check the modified version back into the repository. You can also use CVS to tell you what uncommitted changes you have made since you checked out the source.

To do this you will first need to check out the source to obtain a working copy. This can be done into any existing directory to which you have write permission, but for the purpose of this example we will assume that you are using your home directory.

cd
cvs checkout testproj

The output indicates that CVS has created the testproj directory in your home directory and put the files: Makefile, bar.c, foo.c, and main.c into this directory along with a CVS directory which stores some information about the files.

You can now modify any of the project files in the testproj directory. Once you are happy with the changes you can commit them back into your repository. As an example, add the following line to main.c after the the function call to bar():
printf("DONE\n");

[You can edit the file yourself or copy main2.c to main.c]

In the process of making more complex modifications to a real project you may want to check which files you have modified and how. The CVS commands status and diff will give you this information. The following examples demonstrate how this works.

After you have made the above modifications to main.c, use the cvs status command to list the status of all files in the project.

cvs status

The output shows that main.c has been locally modified but all other files are up-to-date. You can then use the cvs diff command to check the precise changes you have made to main.c.

cvs diff

The output lists the differences to each file you have changed in the same format as the UNIX diff command.

You are now ready to check in the new copy.

cvs commit -m "Added a DONE message." main.c

The output indicates that CVS has checked in a new version of main.c into the repository and given this a new revision number.

Note: the -m option lets you define the check-in message on the command line (useful for short messages). If you omit it you will be placed into an editor where you can type in the check-in message (useful for longer multi-line messages). The check-in message should summarise the changes you have made and why you made them. Such comments can be invaluable when you return to the code at a later date. A list of the revisions you have made and the associated comments can be retrieved with the cvs log command.

cvs log main.c

The output Lists some summary information followed by a description of each revision starting with the most current revision (1.2). There are currently two other revisions: revision 1.1 is the initial revision that you checked in with the the cvs import command, you do not need to know the purpose of revision 1.1.1.1 for now.

Continue - Adding and Removing Files