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Reference manual for the Administrative files

Inside the repository, in the directory `$CVSROOT/CVSROOT', there are a number of supportive files for CVS. You can use CVS in a limited fashion without any of them, but if they are set up properly they can help make life easier. For a discussion of how to edit them, See section The administrative files.

The most important of these files is the `modules' file, which defines the modules inside the repository.

The modules file

The `modules' file records your definitions of names for collections of source code. CVS will use these definitions if you use CVS to update the modules file (use normal commands like add, commit, etc).

The `modules' file may contain blank lines and comments (lines beginning with `#') as well as module definitions. Long lines can be continued on the next line by specifying a backslash (`\') as the last character on the line.

A module definition is a single line of the `modules' file, in either of two formats. In both cases, mname represents the symbolic module name, and the remainder of the line is its definition.

mname -a aliases...
This represents the simplest way of defining a module mname. The `-a' flags the definition as a simple alias: CVS will treat any use of mname (as a command argument) as if the list of names aliases had been specified instead. aliases may contain either other module names or paths. When you use paths in aliases, checkout creates all intermediate directories in the working directory, just as if the path had been specified explicitly in the CVS arguments.
mname [ options ] dir [ files... ] [ &module... ]
In the simplest case, this form of module definition reduces to `mname dir'. This defines all the files in directory dir as module mname. dir is a relative path (from $CVSROOT) to a directory of source in the source repository. In this case, on checkout, a single directory called mname is created as a working directory; no intermediate directory levels are used by default, even if dir was a path involving several directory levels. By explicitly specifying files in the module definition after dir, you can select particular files from directory dir. The sample definition for `modules' is an example of a module defined with a single file from a particular directory. Here is another example: 
m4test  unsupported/gnu/m4 foreach.m4 forloop.m4
With this definition, executing `cvs checkout m4test' will create a single working directory `m4test' containing the two files listed, which both come from a common directory several levels deep in the CVS source repository. A module definition can refer to other modules by including `&module' in its definition. checkout creates a subdirectory for each such module, in your working directory.
-d name
Name the working directory something other than the module name.
-e prog
Specify a program prog to run whenever files in a module are exported. prog runs with a single argument, the module name.
-i prog
Specify a program prog to run whenever files in a module are committed. prog runs with a single argument, the full pathname of the affected directory in a source repository. The `commitinfo', `loginfo', and `editinfo' files provide other ways to call a program on commit.
-o prog
Specify a program prog to run whenever files in a module are checked out. prog runs with a single argument, the module name.
-s status
Assign a status to the module. When the module file is printed with `cvs checkout -s' the modules are sorted according to primarily module status, and secondarily according to the module name. This option has no other meaning. You can use this option for several things besides status: for instance, list the person that is responsible for this module.
-t prog
Specify a program prog to run whenever files in a module are tagged with rtag. prog runs with two arguments: the module name and the symbolic tag specified to rtag. There is no way to specify a program to run when tag is executed.
-u prog
Specify a program prog to run whenever `cvs update' is executed from the top-level directory of the checked-out module. prog runs with a single argument, the full path to the source repository for this module.

The cvswrappers file

Wrappers allow you to set a hook which transforms files on their way in and out of CVS. Most or all of the wrappers features do not work with client/server CVS.

The file `cvswrappers' defines the script that will be run on a file when its name matches a regular expresion. There are two scripts that can be run on a file or directory. One script is executed on the file/directory before being checked into the repository (this is denoted with the -t flag) and the other when the file is checked out of the repository (this is denoted with the -f flag)

The `cvswrappers' also has a `-m' option to specify the merge methodology that should be used when the file is updated. MERGE means the usual CVS behavior: try to merge the files (this generally will not work for binary files). COPY means that cvs update will merely copy one version over the other, and require the user using mechanisms outside CVS, to insert any necessary changes. The `-m' wrapper option only affects behavior when merging is done on update; it does not affect how files are stored. See See section Handling binary files, for more on binary files.

The basic format of the file `cvswrappers' is: 

wildcard     [option value][option value]...

where option is one of
-f           from cvs filter         value: path to filter
-t           to cvs filter           value: path to filter
-m           update methodology      value: MERGE or COPY
-k           keyword expansion       value: expansion mode

and value is a single-quote delimited value.

*.nib    -f 'unwrap %s' -t 'wrap %s %s' -m 'COPY'
*.c      -t 'indent %s %s'

The above example of a `cvswrappers' file states that all files/directories that end with a .nib should be filtered with the `wrap' program before checking the file into the repository. The file should be filtered though the `unwrap' program when the file is checked out of the repository. The `cvswrappers' file also states that a COPY methodology should be used when updating the files in the repository (that is no merging should be performed).

The last example line says that all files that end with a *.c should be filtered with `indent' before being checked into the repository. Unlike the previous example no filtering of the *.c file is done when it is checked out of the repository. The -t filter is called with two arguments, the first is the name of the file/directory to filter and the second is the pathname to where the resulting filtered file should be placed.

The -f filter is called with one argument, which is the name of the file to filter from. The end result of this filter will be a file in the users directory that they can work on as they normally would.

For another example, the following command imports a directory, treating files whose name ends in `.exe' as binary: 

cvs import -I ! -W "*.exe -k 'b'" first-dir vendortag reltag

The commit support files

The `-i' flag in the `modules' file can be used to run a certain program whenever files are committed (see section The modules file). The files described in this section provide other, more flexible, ways to run programs whenever something is committed.

There are three kind of programs that can be run on commit. They are specified in files in the repository, as described below. The following table summarizes the file names and the purpose of the corresponding programs.

`commitinfo'
The program is responsible for checking that the commit is allowed. If it exits with a non-zero exit status the commit will be aborted.
`editinfo'
The specified program is used to edit the log message, and possibly verify that it contains all required fields. This is most useful in combination with the `rcsinfo' file, which can hold a log message template (see section Rcsinfo).
`loginfo'
The specified program is called when the commit is complete. It receives the log message and some additional information and can store the log message in a file, or mail it to appropriate persons, or maybe post it to a local newsgroup, or... Your imagination is the limit!

The common syntax

The four files `commitinfo', `loginfo', `rcsinfo' and `editinfo' all have a common format. The purpose of the files are described later on. The common syntax is described here.

Each line contains the following:

Blank lines are ignored. Lines that start with the character `#' are treated as comments. Long lines unfortunately can not be broken in two parts in any way.

The first regular expression that matches the current directory name in the repository is used. The rest of the line is used as a file name or command-line as appropriate.

Commitinfo

The `commitinfo' file defines programs to execute whenever `cvs commit' is about to execute. These programs are used for pre-commit checking to verify that the modified, added and removed files are really ready to be committed. This could be used, for instance, to verify that the changed files conform to to your site's standards for coding practice.

As mentioned earlier, each line in the `commitinfo' file consists of a regular expression and a command-line template. The template can include a program name and any number of arguments you wish to supply to it. The full path to the current source repository is appended to the template, followed by the file names of any files involved in the commit (added, removed, and modified files).

The first line with a regular expression matching the relative path to the module will be used. If the command returns a non-zero exit status the commit will be aborted.

If the repository name does not match any of the regular expressions in this file, the `DEFAULT' line is used, if it is specified.

All occurances of the name `ALL' appearing as a regular expression are used in addition to the first matching regular expression or the name `DEFAULT'.

Note: when CVS is accessing a remote repository, `commitinfo' will be run on the remote (i.e., server) side, not the client side (see section Remote repositories).

Editinfo

If you want to make sure that all log messages look the same way, you can use the `editinfo' file to specify a program that is used to edit the log message. This program could be a custom-made editor that always enforces a certain style of the log message, or maybe a simple shell script that calls an editor, and checks that the entered message contains the required fields.

If no matching line is found in the `editinfo' file, the editor specified in the environment variable $CVSEDITOR is used instead. If that variable is not set, then the environment variable $EDITOR is used instead. If that variable is not set a precompiled default, normally vi, will be used.

The `editinfo' file is often most useful together with the `rcsinfo' file, which can be used to specify a log message template.

Each line in the `editinfo' file consists of a regular expression and a command-line template. The template must include a program name, and can include any number of arguments. The full path to the current log message template file is appended to the template.

One thing that should be noted is that the `ALL' keyword is not supported. If more than one matching line is found, the first one is used. This can be useful for specifying a default edit script in a module, and then overriding it in a subdirectory.

If the repository name does not match any of the regular expressions in this file, the `DEFAULT' line is used, if it is specified.

If the edit script exits with a non-zero exit status, the commit is aborted.

Note: when CVS is accessing a remote repository, or when the `-m' or `-F' options to cvs commit are used, `editinfo' will not be consulted. There is no good workaround for this.

Editinfo example

The following is a little silly example of a `editinfo' file, together with the corresponding `rcsinfo' file, the log message template and an editor script. We begin with the log message template. We want to always record a bug-id number on the first line of the log message. The rest of log message is free text. The following template is found in the file `/usr/cvssupport/tc.template'. 

BugId:

The script `/usr/cvssupport/bugid.edit' is used to edit the log message. 

#!/bin/sh
#
#       bugid.edit filename
#
#  Call $EDITOR on FILENAME, and verify that the
#  resulting file contains a valid bugid on the first
#  line.
if [ "x$EDITOR" = "x" ]; then EDITOR=vi; fi
if [ "x$CVSEDITOR" = "x" ]; then CVSEDITOR=$EDITOR; fi
$CVSEDITOR $1
until head -1|grep '^BugId:[ ]*[0-9][0-9]*$' < $1
do  echo -n  "No BugId found.  Edit again? ([y]/n)"
    read ans
    case ${ans} in
        n*) exit 1;;
    esac
    $CVSEDITOR $1
done

The `editinfo' file contains this line: 

^tc     /usr/cvssupport/bugid.edit

The `rcsinfo' file contains this line: 

^tc     /usr/cvssupport/tc.template

Loginfo

The `loginfo' file is used to control where `cvs commit' log information is sent. The first entry on a line is a regular expression which is tested against the directory that the change is being made to, relative to the $CVSROOT. If a match is found, then the remainder of the line is a filter program that should expect log information on its standard input.

The filter program may use one and only one % modifier (a la printf). If `%s' is specified in the filter program, a brief title is included (enclosed in single quotes) showing the modified file names.

If the repository name does not match any of the regular expressions in this file, the `DEFAULT' line is used, if it is specified.

All occurances of the name `ALL' appearing as a regular expression are used in addition to the first matching regular expression or `DEFAULT'.

The first matching regular expression is used.

See section The commit support files, for a description of the syntax of the `loginfo' file.

Note: when CVS is accessing a remote repository, `loginfo' will be run on the remote (i.e., server) side, not the client side (see section Remote repositories).

Loginfo example

The following `loginfo' file, together with the tiny shell-script below, appends all log messages to the file `$CVSROOT/CVSROOT/commitlog', and any commits to the administrative files (inside the `CVSROOT' directory) are also logged in `/usr/adm/cvsroot-log'. 

ALL             /usr/local/bin/cvs-log $CVSROOT/CVSROOT/commitlog
^CVSROOT        /usr/local/bin/cvs-log /usr/adm/cvsroot-log

The shell-script `/usr/local/bin/cvs-log' looks like this: 

#!/bin/sh
(echo "-----------------------------------------------------------------";
 echo -n $USER"  ";
 date;
 echo;
 sed '1s+'${CVSROOT}'++') >> $1

Keeping a checked out copy

It is often useful to maintain a directory tree which contains files which correspond to the latest version in the repository. For example, other developers might want to refer to the latest sources without having to check them out, or you might be maintaining a web site with CVS and want every checkin to cause the files used by the web server to be updated.

The way to do this is by having loginfo invoke cvs update. Doing so in the naive way will cause a problem with locks, so the cvs update must be run in the background. Here is an example (this should all be on one line): 

^cyclic-pages		(date; cat; (sleep 2; cd /u/www/local-docs;
 cvs -q update -d) &) >> $CVSROOT/CVSROOT/updatelog 2>&1

This will cause checkins to repository directories starting with cyclic-pages to update the checked out tree in `/u/www/local-docs'.

Rcsinfo

The `rcsinfo' file can be used to specify a form to edit when filling out the commit log. The `rcsinfo' file has a syntax similar to the `editinfo', `commitinfo' and `loginfo' files. See section The common syntax. Unlike the other files the second part is not a command-line template. Instead, the part after the regular expression should be a full pathname to a file containing the log message template.

If the repository name does not match any of the regular expressions in this file, the `DEFAULT' line is used, if it is specified.

All occurances of the name `ALL' appearing as a regular expression are used in addition to the first matching regular expression or `DEFAULT'.

The log message template will be used as a default log message. If you specify a log message with `cvs commit -m message' or `cvs commit -f file' that log message will override the template.

See section Editinfo example, for an example `rcsinfo' file.

When CVS is accessing a remote repository, the contents of `rcsinfo' at the time a directory is first checked out will specify a template which does not then change. If you edit `rcsinfo' or its templates, you may need to check out a new working directory.

Ignoring files via cvsignore

There are certain file names that frequently occur inside your working copy, but that you don't want to put under CVS control. Examples are all the object files that you get while you compile your sources. Normally, when you run `cvs update', it prints a line for each file it encounters that it doesn't know about (see section update output).

CVS has a list of files (or sh(1) file name patterns) that it should ignore while running update, import and release. This list is constructed in the following way.

In any of the 5 places listed above, a single exclamation mark (`!') clears the ignore list. This can be used if you want to store any file which normally is ignored by CVS.

The history file

The file `$CVSROOT/CVSROOT/history' is used to log information for the history command (see section history--Show status of files and users). This file must be created to turn on logging. This is done automatically if the cvs init command is used to set up the repository (see section Creating a repository).

The file format of the `history' file is documented only in comments in the CVS source code, but generally programs should use the cvs history command to access it anyway, in case the format changes with future releases of CVS.

Expansions in administrative files

Sometimes in writing an administrative file, you might want the file to be able to know various things based on environment CVS is running in. There are several mechanisms to do that.

To find the home directory of the user running CVS (from the HOME environment variable), use `~' followed by `/' or the end of the line. Likewise for the home directory of user, use `~user'. These variables are expanded on the server machine, and don't get any resonable expansion if pserver (see section Direct connection with password authentication) is in used; therefore user variables (see below) may be a better choice to customize behavior based on the user running CVS.

One may want to know about various pieces of information internal to CVS. A CVS internal variable has the syntax ${variable}, where variable starts with a letter and consists of alphanumberic characters and `_'. If the character following variable is a non-alphanumeric character other than `_', the `{' and `}' can be omitted. The CVS internal variables are:

CVSROOT
This is the value of the CVS root in use. See section The Repository, for a description of the various ways to specify this.
RCSBIN
This is the value CVS is using for where to find RCS binaries. See section Global options, for a description of how to specify this.
CVSEDITOR
VISUAL
EDITOR
These all expand to the same value, which is the editor that CVS is using. See section Global options, for how to specify this.
USER
Username of the user running CVS (on the CVS server machine).

If you want to pass a value to the administrative files which the user that is running CVS can specify, use a user variable. To expand a user variable, the administrative file contains ${=variable}. To set a user variable, specify the global option `-s' to CVS, with argument variable=value. It may be particularly useful to specify this option via `.cvsrc' (see section Default options and the ~/.cvsrc file).

For example, if you want the administrative file to refer to a test directory you might create a user variable TESTDIR. Then if CVS is invoked as cvs -s TESTDIR=/work/local/tests, and the administrative file contains sh ${=TESTDIR}/runtests, then that string is expanded to sh /work/local/tests/runtests.

All other strings containing `$' are reserved; there is no way to quote a `$' character so that `$' represents itself.

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