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Basic CVS Client Info
=====================


Client usage

	"client" basically means the `cvs` command or some wrapper
for it. 


Basic concepts

	Anything located in a subdirectory of a CVSROOT is considered
a cvs module. In our server example, the "shell_scripts" is a module.
cvs commands tend to deal with either a module at a time, or individual
files.

Setting up a CVSROOT

	examples:

	export CVSROOT=/usr/local/cvsroot
	
	export CVSROOT=:ext:foo@somehost.com:/usr/local/cvsroot

	export CVSROOT=:pserver:bar@somewhere.net:/usr/local/cvsroot


Logging into cvs

		cvs login

	then the appropriate passwd. This is really only needed for
pserver methods.

Checking out a module

		cvs checkout module_name

	example:

	for checking gimp out of gnome from scratch:

		export CVSROOT=:pserver:anonymous@anoncvs.gnome.org:/cvs/gnome
		cvs login
		(hit return, there is no passwd)
		cvs -z3 checkout gimp
		(wait....)

	Thats it.

	The -z3 is a cvs option telling it to use compression level 3
	for files it transfers.


Updating a module

	We'll assume were using pserver type configuration from here
	on out.

		cd dir/
		cvs -z3 update -Pd

	(the -Pd isnt absoultly necessary, but what the heck).

Adding a file to the cvs repo

		(create the new file)
		cvs add new_file
		cvs commit

	This will add the new file to the repo.


Committing changes

		(change something with the files)
		cvs -z3 commit

	(this will pop up a text editor. What this is for is
	for you to enter in some sort of meaningful messages about
	what changes you made)

	Then it will commit those files to cvs. 

	If you get "uptodate" errors here, you will need to update
	your local tree first. See the section on updating.	

 
		
Merge conflicts

	Occasionally, if patch can figure how to handle the diffs between
	what you have locally, and whats in the repo, you will get merge
	conflicts when you update.

	If you need to merge these by hand, the conflicts get marked in
	the file with

	>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
	Your stuff
	==============
	The stuff from the rep
	<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

	So you will need to figure out which one is correct, and
	then clean up all the ">>>>" and "======="'s

	Or if you don't care about the conflicts, rm the file and update
	again.


Removing a file from the repo

		rm file_name
		cvs remove file_name
		cvs commit

	Note that you have to remove the file locally first, then
	`cvs remove` it. 


Diffing what you have with the repo

	Very often you will need to get a diff between what you
	have locally, and what is in the tree. You might need to
	do this to send a patch, or just to see what all you
	have changed.

		cvs diff -u 
		(for the whole module)

		cvs diff -u filename
		(for a specific file)

	the -u just tells it to used "unified" diff format, which
	tends to be a little easier to read.


Thats about 99% of the commands you need to know to use cvs
on a day to day basis. For keeping up with most projects
that are cvs based, just login, checkout, and update are
all you need. add, remove, diff, commit are about it
for using a cvs tree. Of course, there are lots of
other tricks involved.


Different "Branches" and trees

	Cvs has the ability to maintain different
"branches" or forks or a code base, and keep them in
the same cvs server. This is primarily used when
someone is doing something that might break a program
or otherwise would be best left out of the main or
HEAD branch for a while.

	To check out a non-HEAD (HEAD is the primary branch),
you use the -r command line option to checkout,update, etc.

	to check out the HOLLYWOOD version of gimp

	cvs -z3 co -r HOLLYWOOD gimp

	Once its checked out, it knows its HOLLYWOOD branch,
so you don't need to use the -r option. However, if you wanted
to go back to the main HEAD branch, you would have to
specify that. 


Reverting or checking older versions

	One of the primary advantages of revision control is
the ability to go back to older revisions of modules or
trees.

	For example, if for some reason, you needed to get
a version of a file from , 1, 1999.

	cvs -z3 update -D "Nov 1 1999"

	The date string is pretty flexible.