CVS-RCS-HOWTO Document for Linux (Source Code Control System): CVS Documentation

7. CVS Documentation

At Unix prompt type:

cvs --help
cvs --help-options
cvs --help-commands
cvs -H checkout
cvs -H commit
man cvs
man tkcvs
Visit http://www.cyclic.com
Visit http://www.loria.fr/~molli/cvs-index.html

The tkcvs http://www.tkcvs.org is the Tcl/Tk GUI interface to CVS. It also has online help. Try the following:

cd $HOME/src/foo.cpp
tkcvs
Click on foo.cpp
Click on 'Revision Log Icon' which is located next to 'spectacle' icon.
This will display the branch TREE in the window. Now click the RIGHT Mouse button on the text '1.3' and click the LEFT Mouse button on text '1.1'. Then click on "Diff" button. This will display a two-pane window!!
Click on the "Next" button to step thru more diffs. Click on "Center" to center the text.

There is also a Windows 95 client for CVS called WinCVS (see: http://www.wincvs.org and cyclicsite). WinCVS can be used along with Samba(on cdrom samba*.rpm) - http://www.samba.org

The essential command are:

cvs checkout <filename >
cvs update <filename>
cvs add <file, ..>
cvs remove <file, ..>
cvs commit <file>
cvs status <filename>
cvs log <filename>
cvs diff -r1.4 -r1.5 <filename> This gives a diff between version 1.4 and 1.5 on filename.

7.1 Online Documentation

On Linux systems, you can find the CVS documentation in postscript format at /usr/doc/cvs*/*.ps. Also there is an FAQ and other useful information.