Essential CVS

Reserving Files

CVS has a method of exclusive development that is based on reserving the ability to commit files, so that only a single user can commit a reserved file. This is useful when you want to enforce exclusive development, especially when you have files that cannot be merged and users who are not comfortable with the honor system that cvs watch relies on.

This method requires the rcslock script (distributed in the contrib subdirectory of the CVS source code), file locking set to strict (the CVS default), the assistance of the repository administrator, and the active support of the developers. The rcslock script is provided as is; currently, it is an unsupported part of the CVS distribution.

File locking is set to strict by default in CVS, so there should be no need to set it that way manually. You can confirm the lock status of a file with the command cvs log -h filename.

Warning

Do not use the cvs admin -U command on any files in your project. This sets file locking to nonstrict and can cause problems. File locks can be set strict again with cvs admin -L.

Installing and Configuring rcslock

The rcslock script is distributed with the CVS source code. Chapter 2 includes the URL for the CVS source code, and most Linux or Unix packaging systems include an option to install the source from the package. In CVS 1.11.5, the rcslock script is called rcslock.in (in previous versions, it was called rcslock.pl). The CVS build script attempts to generate a version called rcslock, with ...