Copyright © 1991-2000  Free Software Foundation, Inc.

Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies.

Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided also that the section entitled ``GNU General Public License'' is included exactly as in the original, and provided that the entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a permission notice identical to this one.

Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this manual into another language, under the above conditions for modified versions, except that the section entitled ``GNU General Public License'' and this permission notice may be included in translations approved by the Free Software Foundation instead of in the original English.

This info manual describes pcl-cvs which is a GNU Emacs front-end to CVS.  It works with CVS version 1.9 and newer.  This manual is updated to release 2.5 of pcl-cvs.

Installation
************

This section describes the installation of pcl-cvs, the GNU Emacs CVS front-end.  You should install not only the elisp files themselves, but also the on-line documentation so that your users will know how to use it.  You can create typeset documentation from the file pcl-cvs.texi as well as an on-line info file.  The following steps are also described in the file INSTALL in the source directory.

If you are running XEmacs 21.0 or later, pcl-cvs is available in pre-compiled package form.  Please skip ahead to XEmacs installation.

Installation of the pcl-cvs program
===================================

 1. Edit the file Makefile to reflect the situation at your site. The only things you have to change is the definition of lispdir and infodir.  The elisp files will be copied to lispdir, and the info file to infodir.

 2. This release of pcl-cvs requires parts of the Elib library, version 1.0 or later.  Elib is available via anonymous ftp from prep.ai.mit.edu in pub/gnu/elib-1.0.tar.gz, and from a lot of other sites that mirror prep.  Get Elib, and install it, before proceeding.

 3. Type make install in the source directory.  This will byte-compile all .el files and copy both the .el and the .elc into the directory you specified in step 1. It will also copy the info files (and add a corresponding entry to the info-dir file if install-info can be found).

     If you don't want to install the .el files but only the .elc files (the byte-compiled files), you can type `make install_elc' instead of `make install'.

     If you only want to create the compiled elisp files, but don't want to install them, you can type make elcfiles instead.  This is what happens if you only type make without parameters.

 4. Edit the file site-start.el in your emacs lisp directory (usually /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp or something similar) and enter the contents of the file pcl-cvs-startup.el into it.  It contains a couple of auto-loads that facilitates the use of pcl-cvs. Alternatively, you can just use `make install_startup'.

Installation of the on-line manual.
===================================

 1. Create the info file pcl-cvs from pcl-cvs.texi by typing make info.  If you don't have the program makeinfo you can get it by anonymous ftp from e.g. ftp.gnu.ai.mit.edu as pub/gnu/texinfo-2.14.tar.Z (there might be a newer version there when you read this), or you could use the pre-formatted info file pcl-cvs.info that is included in the distribution (type cp pcl-cvs.info pcl-cvs).

 2. Move the info file pcl-cvs to your standard info directory. This might be called something like /usr/local/info.

 3. Edit the file dir in the info directory and enter one line to contain a pointer to the info file pcl-cvs.  The line can, for instance, look like this:

          * Pcl-cvs: (pcl-cvs).       An Emacs front-end to CVS.

How to make typeset documentation from pcl-cvs.texi
===================================================

If you have TeX installed at your site, you can make a typeset manual from pcl-cvs.texi.

 1. Run TeX by typing `make pcl-cvs.dvi'.  You will not get the indices unless you have the texindex program.

 2. Convert the resulting device independent file pcl-cvs.dvi to a form which your printer can output and print it.  If you have a postscript printer there is a program, dvi2ps, which does.  There is also a program which comes together with TeX, dvips, which you can use.

Installing pcl-cvs for XEmacs.
==============================

If you are running XEmacs 21.0 or later, pcl-cvs is available in pre-compiled package form.  Please refer to the XEmacs manual for instructions regarding package selection and installation.  Currently, the pcl-cvs package also requires you to have installed the xemacs-base, elib, and dired packages.

Once you have installed these packages (manually or using the interactive installer), you should check the values of a couple pcl-cvs variables and override the default values in the site-start.el file if necessary.  These variables are:

cvs-program
     This is the name or full path of the cvs executable to be used by pcl-cvs.  If cvs will be automatically found on the user's PATH, there is no need to change this.  Otherwise, you should set this variable to the full path to your cvs program via

          (setq cvs-program "/FULL/PATH/TO/cvs")

     in the site-start.el file.

cvs-diff-program
     This is the name or full path of the diff executable to be used by pcl-cvs.  If diff will be automatically found on the user's PATH, there is no need to change this.  Otherwise, you should set this variable to the full path to your diff program via

          (setq cvs-diff-program "/FULL/PATH/TO/diff")

     Note that there are some nasty bugs in the context diff variants of some vendor versions, such as the one in SunOS-4.

cvs-bakprefix
     This should be set to the prefix that CVS prepends to files when rcsmergeing.  It is normally set to ".#".

Finally, if you have TeX, texinfo, and dvips installed at your site, you can make a typeset manual from pcl-cvs.texi:

 1. Run TeX by typing `texi2dvi pcl-cvs.texi'. The file pcl-cvs.texi can be found in your XEmacs package hierarchy in the directory man/pcl-cvs. You will not get the indices unless you have the texindex program.

 2. Convert the resulting device independent file pcl-cvs.dvi to a form which your printer can print.  If you have a postscript printer you can use the program dvips.

About pcl-cvs
*************

Pcl-cvs is a front-end to CVS versions 1.9 and later.  It integrates the most frequently used CVS commands into an emacs interface.

Contributors to pcl-cvs
=======================

Contributions to the package are welcome.  I have limited time to work on this project, but I will gladly add any code that you contribute to me to this package (see Bugs).

The following persons have made contributions to pcl-cvs.

  * Brian Berliner wrote CVS, together with some other contributors. Without his work on CVS this package would be useless...

  * Per Cederqvist wrote most of the otherwise unattributed functions in pcl-cvs as well as all documentation.

  * Inge Wallin (inge@lysator.liu.se) wrote the skeleton to pcl-cvs.texi, and gave useful comments on it.  He also wrote the files elib-node.el and compile-all.el.  The file cookie.el was inspired by Inge.

  * Linus Tolke (linus@lysator.liu.se) contributed useful comments on both the functionality and the documentation.

  * Jamie Zawinski (jwz@jwz.com) contributed pcl-cvs-lucid.el, which was later renamed to pcl-cvs-xemacs.el.

  * Leif Lonnblad contributed RCVS support.  (Since superceded by the new remote CVS support.)

  * Jim Blandy (jimb@cyclic.com) contributed hooks to automatically guess CVS log entries from ChangeLog contents; and initial support of the new Cygnus / Cyclic remote CVS; as well as various sundry bug fixes and cleanups.

  * Jim Kingdon (kingdon@cyclic.com) contributed lots of fixes to the build and install procedure.

  * Greg A. Woods (woods@weird.com) contributed code to implement the use of per-file diff buffers; and vendor join diffs with emerge and ediff; as well as various and sundry bug fixes and cleanups.

  * Greg Klanderman (greg.klanderman@alum.mit.edu) implemented toggling of marked files; setting of CVS command flags via prefix arguments; updated the XEmacs support; updated the manual; and fixed numerous bugs.

  * Stefan Monnier (monnier@cs.yale.edu) added various other features and introduced even more new bugs.

  * Masatake YAMATO (masata-y@is.aist-nara.ac.jp) graciously contributed the cvstree code to display a tree of tags and that later was superseded by the new cvs-status-mode.

Apart from these, a lot of people have send us suggestions, ideas, requests, bug reports and encouragement.  Thanks a lot!  Without you there would be no new releases of pcl-cvs.

Where can I get pcl-cvs?
========================

As of January 1996, the original author of pcl-cvs, Per Cederqvist, is no longer maintaining pcl-cvs and responsibility has been passed to the PCL-CVS Trust, see Bugs.

As of this writing, there are several versions of pcl-cvs available on the net.  First, there is the old pcl-cvs version 1.05 distributed with CVS and in widespread use.  Next, there is version 2.0b2, distributed by the new primary maintainer, Greg Woods.  It is available via anonymous ftp from ftp.weird.com in the directory /pub/local. Then there is an XEmacs version based on 2.0b2 available with XEmacs 21.0 in packaged form (see ftp.xemacs.org in the directory /pub/xemacs/packages).  Finally, there is the 2.0.xx version from Stefan Monnier available from ftp://rum.cs.yale.edu/pub/monnier/pcl-cvs. Plans for merging these last three into a unified release are moving forward.  See also http://www.cyclic.com and in particular http://www.cyclic.com/cvs/soft-pcl.html for possibly more current information.

New releases will be announced to appropriate newsgroups.  If you send your email address to us at pcl-cvs@cyclic.com we will attempt to notify you of new releases.

Getting started
***************

This document assumes that you know what CVS is, and that you at least know the fundamental concepts of CVS.  If that is not the case you should read the man page for CVS.

Pcl-cvs is only useful once you have checked out a module.  So before you invoke it you must have a copy of a module somewhere in the file system.

You can invoke pcl-cvs by typing M-x cvs-examine RET.  If your emacs responds with [No match] your system administrator has not installed pcl-cvs properly.  Try M-x load-library RET pcl-cvs RET. If that also fails, talk to your system administrator.  If it succeeds you might put this line in your .emacs file so that you don't have to type the load-library command every time you wish to use pcl-cvs:

     (autoload 'cvs-examine "pcl-cvs" nil t)

The function cvs-examine will ask for a directory.  The command cvs -n update will be run in that directory.  (It should contain files that have been checked out from a CVS archive.)  The output from cvs will be parsed and presented in a table in a buffer called *cvs*.  It might look something like this:

     PCL-CVS release XXRELEASEXX.

     CVSROOT directory: /usr/CVSroot
     Working directory: /users/ceder/FOO/test

     In directory .:
                Updated                bar
                Updated                file.txt
                Modified   ci          namechange
                Updated                newer

     In directory sub:
                Modified   ci          ChangeLog

     --------------------- End ---------------------

In this example, your repository is in /usr/CVSroot and CVS has been run in the directory /users/ceder/FOO/test.  The three files (bar, file.txt and newer) that are marked with Updated have been copied from the CVS repository to /users/ceder/FOO/test/ since someone else has checked in newer versions of them.  Two files (namechange and sub/ChangeLog) have been modified locally, and need to be checked in.

You can move the cursor up and down in the buffer with C-n and C-p or n and p.  If you press c on one of the Modified files that file will be checked in to the CVS repository. See Committing changes.  You can press x to get rid of the "uninteresting" files that have only been Updated (and don't require any further action from you).

You can also easily get a diff between your modified file and the base version that you started from, and you can get the output from cvs log and cvs status on the listed files simply by pressing a key (see Getting info about files).

Buffer contents
***************

The display contains six columns, some of which are optional.  They contain, from left to right:

  * Optionally, the head revision of the file.  This is the latest version found in the repository.  It might also contain (instead of the head revision) a sub status.

  * An asterisk when the file is marked (see Selected files).

  * The status of the file.  See File status, for more information.

  * An optional marker indicating that some action needs to be taken on the file.  This may be com, indicating that the file needs to be checked in, upd, indicating that the file needs to be updated from the repository, or udo if the changes should probably be undone.

  * Optionally, the base revision of the file.  This is the version which the copy in your working directory is based upon.

  * The file name.

File status
===========

The file status field can have the following values:

Modified
     The file is modified in  your  working  directory, and there was no modification to the same file in the repository.  This status can have the following sub status:

     Merged
          The file is modified in your working directory, and there were modifications in the repository as well as in your copy, but they were merged successfully, without conflict, in your working directory.

Conflict
     A conflict was detected while trying to merge your changes to FILE with changes from the source repository.  FILE (the copy in your working directory) is now the output of the rcsmerge command on the two versions; an unmodified copy of your file is also in your working directory, with the name .#FILE.VERSION, where VERSION is the RCS revision that your modified file started from.  See Viewing differences, for more details.

Added
     The file has been added by you, but it still needs to be checked in to the repository.

Removed
     The file has been removed by you, but it needs to be checked in to the repository.  You can resurrect it by typing a (see Adding and removing files).

Unknown
     A file that was detected in your directory, but that neither appears in the repository, nor is present on the list of files that CVS should ignore.

Removed by you, changed in repository
     You have removed a file, and before you committed the removal someone committed a change to that file.  You can use a to resurrect the file (see Adding and removing files).

Up-to-date
     The file is up to date with respect to the version in the repository. This status can have a sub status of:

     Commited
          The file was just committed by yourself.

     Added
          The file has been added by you (and has been checked into the repository).

     Updated
          The file was brought up to date with respect to the repository.  This is done for any file that exists in the repository but not in your source, and for files that you haven't changed but are not the most recent versions available in the repository.

     Patched
          The file was brought up to date with respect to a remote repository by way of fetching and applying a patch to the file in your source.  This is done for any file that exists in a remote repository and in your source; of which you haven't changed locally but is not the most recent version available in the remote repository.

Need-update
     Either a newer version than the one in your source is available in the repository and you have not modified your checked out version, or the file exists in the repository but not in your source.  Use cvs-mode-update bound to O to update the file.

Need-merge
     You have modified the checked out version of the file, and a newer version is available in the repository.  A merge will take place when you run a cvs update.

Need-remove
     The file has been removed from your working directory but not yet cvs removed.

Unresolved-conflict
     There was an unresolved conflict when merging changes from the repository into the file.

Selected files
==============

Many of the commands work on the current set of selected files.

  * If marks are not being ignored, and there are any files that are marked, they constitute the set of selected files.

  * Otherwise, if the cursor points to a file, that file is the selected file.

  * Otherwise, if the cursor points to a directory, all the files in that directory that appear in the buffer are the selected files.

By default, marks are always in effect.  You may change this, however, by setting either of the variables cvs-diff-ignore-marks or cvs-default-ignore-marks, which define whether marks are in effect by default for the diff commands and for the rest of the *cvs* buffer commands, respectively.  Both are nil by default.

In addition, you may use the command cvs-mode-toggle-marks normally bound to T to toggle the use of marks for the following command.

This scheme might seem a little complicated, but once one get used to it, it is quite powerful.

For commands to mark and unmark files, see Marking files.

Commands
********

The nodes in this menu contains explanations about all the commands that you can use in pcl-cvs.  They are grouped together by type.

Setting flags for CVS commands
==============================

This section describes the convention used by nearly all pcl-cvs commands for setting optional flags sent to CVS.  A single C-u prefix argument is used to cause the command to prompt for flags to be used for the current invocation of the command only.  Two C-u prefix arguments are used to prompt for flags which will be set permanently, for the current invocation and all that follow, until the flags are changed, or unless temporary flags are set which override them.

Perhaps an example or two is in order.  Say you are about to add a binary file to the repository, and want to specify the flags -kb to cvs add.  You can type C-u a -kb RET, enter the description, and the file will be added.  Subsequent adds will use the previously prevailing flags, found in cvs-add-flags.

As a second example, say you are about to perform a diff and want to see the result in unified diff format, i.e. you'd like to pass the flag -u to both cvs diff and diff.  You'd also like all subsequent diffs to use this flag.  You can type C-u C-u = -u RET and the diff will be performed, and cvs-diff-flags will be set to ("-u").  You can of course override this flag for a single diff by using a single C-u prefix argument.

Additionally to this, some commands can take special prefix arguments. These work as follows: when called with a C-u prefix, the user is prompted for a new value of the special prefix and the special prefix is activated for the next command.  When called without the C-u prefix, the special prefix is re-activated (with the same value as last time) for the next command.  The special prefixes are:

b
     Provide the next command with a branch (can be any version specifier) to work on.

Entering pcl-cvs
================

Most commands in pcl-cvs require that you have a *cvs* buffer.  The commands that you use to get one are listed below. For each, a cvs process will be run, the output will be parsed by pcl-cvs, and the result will be printed in the *cvs* buffer (see Buffer contents for a description of the contents).

M-x cvs-update
     Run a cvs update command.  You will be asked for the directory in which the cvs update will be run.

M-x cvs-examine
     Run a cvs -n update command.  This is identical to the previous command, except that it will only check what needs to be done but will not change anything.  You will be asked for the directory in which the cvs -n update will be run.

M-x cvs-status
     Run a cvs status command.  You will be asked for the directory in which the cvs status will be run.

M-x cvs-checkout
     Run a cvs checkout command.  You will be asked for the directory in which the cvs update will be run and the module to be checked out.

CVS uses lock files in the repository to ensure the integrity of the data files in the repository.  They might be left behind i.e. if a workstation crashes in the middle of a CVS operation.  CVS outputs a message when it is waiting for a lock file to go away.  Pcl-cvs will show the same message in the *cvs* buffer, together with instructions for deleting the lock files.  You should normally not have to delete them manually --- just wait a little while and the problem should fix itself.  But if the lock files do not disappear you can delete them with M-x cvs-mode-delete-lock RET.

By default, the commands above will descend recursively into subdirectories.  You can avoid that behavior by including -l in the flags for the command.  These flags can be set by giving a prefix argument to the command (e.g., by typing C-u M-x cvs-update RET -l RET).

Updating the *cvs* buffer
=========================

The following commands can be used from within the *cvs* buffer to update the display:

M-u
     This will run cvs update and prompt for a new directory to update.  This runs the command cvs-update.

M-e
     This will run cvs -n update and prompt for a new directory to examine.  This runs the command cvs-examine.

M-s
     This will run cvs status and prompt for a new directory to status.  This runs the command cvs-status.

Movement Commands
=================

You can use most normal Emacs commands to move forward and backward in the buffer.  Some keys are rebound to functions that take advantage of the fact that the buffer is a pcl-cvs buffer:

SPC
C-n
n
     These keys move the cursor one file forward, towards the end of the buffer (cookie-next-cookie).

C-p
p
     These keys move one file backward, towards the beginning of the buffer (cookie-previous-cookie).

Marking files
=============

Pcl-cvs works on a set of selected files (see Selected files). You can mark and unmark files with these commands:

m
     This marks the file that the cursor is positioned on.  If the cursor is positioned on a directory all files in that directory will be marked. (cvs-mode-mark).

u
     Unmark the file that the cursor is positioned on. If the cursor is on a directory, all files in that directory will be unmarked. (cvs-mode-unmark).

M
     Mark all files in the buffer (cvs-mode-mark-all-files).

ESC DEL
     Unmark all files (cvs-mode-unmark-all-files).

DEL
     Unmark the file on the previous line, and move point to that line (cvs-mode-unmark-up).

%
     Mark all files matching a regular expression (cvs-mode-mark-matching-files).

T
     Toggle use of marks for the next command (cvs-mode-toggle-marks).

Committing changes
==================

c
     All files that have a "need to be checked in"-marker (see Buffer contents) can be checked in with the c command.  It checks in all selected files (see Selected files) (except those who lack the "com"-marker - they are ignored).  Pressing c causes cvs-mode-commit to be run.

     When you press c you will get a buffer called *cvs-commit-message*.  Enter the log message for the file(s) in it.  When you are ready you should press C-c C-c to actually commit the files (using cvs-edit-done).

     Normally the *cvs-commit-message* buffer will retain the log message from the previous commit, but if the variable cvs-erase-input-buffer is set to a non-nil value the buffer will be erased.  Point and mark will always be located around the entire buffer so that you can easily erase it with C-w (kill-region).

     If you are editing the files in your emacs an automatic revert-buffer will be performed.  (If the file contains $Id$ keywords cvs commit will write a new file with the new values substituted.  The auto-revert makes sure that you get them into your buffer).  The revert will not occur if you have modified your buffer, or if cvs-auto-revert is set to nil.

C
     This is just like cvs-mode-commit, except that it tries to provide appropriate default log messages by looking at the ChangeLogs handling the files to be checked in.  The idea is to write your ChangeLog entries first, and then use this command to commit your changes.  Pressing C causes cvs-mode-changelog-commit to be run.

     To select default log text, pcl-cvs:

       - finds the ChangeLogs for the files to be checked in;

       - verifies that the top entry in the ChangeLog is on the current date and by the current user; if not, no default text is provided;

       - searchs the ChangeLog entry for paragraphs containing the names of the files being checked in; and finally

       - uses those paragraphs as the default log text in the *cvs-commit-message* buffer.

     You can then commit the ChangeLog file once per day without any log message.

Editing files
=============

There are currently three commands that can be used to find a file (that is, load it into a buffer and start editing it there).  These commands work on the line that the cursor is situated at.  They always ignore any marked files.

f
     Find the file that the cursor points to.  Run dired (see Dired (Emacs)) if the cursor points to a directory (cvs-mode-find-file).

o
     Like f, but use another window (cvs-mode-find-file-other-window).

A
     Invoke add-change-log-entry-other-window to edit a ChangeLog file.  The ChangeLog will be found in the directory or a parent of the directory of the file the cursor points to. (cvs-mode-add-change-log-entry-other-window).

Getting info about files
========================

Both of the following commands can be customized. See Customization.

l
     Run cvs log on all selected files, and show the result in a temporary buffer (cvs-mode-log).

s
     Run cvs status on all selected files, and show the result in a temporary buffer (cvs-mode-status).

Adding and removing files
=========================

The following commands are available to make it easy to add and remove files from the CVS repository.

a
     Add all selected files.  This command can be used on Unknown files (see File status).  The status of the file will change to Added, and you will have to use c (cvs-mode-commit, see Committing changes) to really add the file to the repository.

     This command can also be used on Removed files (before you commit them) to resurrect them.

     Selected files that are neither Unknown nor Removed will be ignored by this command.

     The command that is run is cvs-mode-add.

r
     This command removes the selected files (after prompting for confirmation).  The files are rmed from your directory and (unless the status was Unknown; see File status) they will also be cvs removed.  If the files were Unknown they will disappear from the buffer.  Otherwise their status will change to Removed, and you must use c (cvs-mode-commit, see Committing changes) to commit the removal.

     The command that is run is cvs-mode-remove-file.

Undoing changes
===============

U
     If you have modified a file, and for some reason decide that you don't want to keep the changes, you can undo them with this command.  It works by removing your working copy of the file and then getting the latest version from the repository (cvs-mode-undo-local-changes.

Removing handled entries
========================

x
     This command allows you to remove all entries that you have processed. More specifically, the lines for Up-to-date files (see File status are removed from the buffer.  If a directory becomes empty the heading for that directory is also removed.  This makes it easier to get an overview of what needs to be done.

     The command is called cvs-mode-remove-handled.  If cvs-auto-remove-handled is set to non-nil this will automatically be performed after every commit.

C-k
     This command can be used for lines that cvs-mode-remove-handled would not delete, but that you want to delete (cvs-mode-acknowledge).

Ignoring files
==============

i
     Arrange so that CVS will ignore the selected files.  The file names are added to the .cvsignore file in the corresponding directory.  If the .cvsignore doesn't exist it will be created.

     The .cvsignore file should normally be added to the repository, but you could ignore it also if you like it better that way.

     This runs cvs-mode-ignore.

Viewing differences
===================

=
d =
     Display a cvs diff between the selected files and the RCS version that they are based on. (cvs-mode-diff).

d b
     If CVS finds a conflict while merging two versions of a file (during a cvs update, see Updating the directory) it will save the original file in a file called .#FILE.VERSION where FILE is the name of the file, and VERSION is the RCS version number that your file was based on.

     With the b command you can run a diff on the files .#FILE.VERSION and FILE.  This command only works on files that have status Conflict or Merged. (cvs-mode-diff-backup).

d h
     Display a cvs diff between the selected files and the head revision in the repository. (cvs-mode-diff-head).

d v
     Display a cvs diff between the selected files and the head revision of the vendor branch in the repository. (cvs-mode-diff-vendor).

For all of the diffing commands, if cvs-diff-ignore-marks is set to a non-nil value or if the command T (cvs-mode-toggle-marks) is given immediately preceding the command, any marked files will not be considered to be selected.

Also, you can get a context- or unified diff by setting cvs-diff-flags.  See Customization, and also Setting flags.

Running ediff
=============

e
     This command uses ediff (or emerge depending on cvs-idiff-imerge-handlers) to allow you to view diffs. If a prefix argument is give, pcl-cvs will prompt for a revision against which the diff should be made, else the default will be to use the BASE revision.

E
     This command use ediff (or emerge, see above) to allow you to do an interactive 3-way merge.

     Note:  When the file status is Merged or Conflict, CVS has already performed a merge.  The resulting file is not used in any way if you use this command.  If you use the q command inside ediff (to successfully terminate a merge) the file that CVS created will be overwritten.

Updating files
==============

O
     Update all selected files with status Need-update by running cvs update on them.  This command is only meaningful after M-x cvs-status has been run. (cvs-mode-update).

Tagging files
=============

t
     Tag all selected files by running cvs tag on them. (cvs-mode-tag).  It's usually preferable to tag directories at a time.  Rather than selecting all files (which too often doesn't select all files but only the few that are displayed), clear the selection with M-DEL (cvs-mode-unmark-all-files), position the cursor on the directory you want to tag and hit t.

Miscellaneous commands
======================

M-x cvs-mode-byte-compile-files
     Byte compile all selected files that end in .el.

M-x cvs-mode-delete-lock
     This command deletes the lock files that the *cvs* buffer informs you about.  You should normally never have to use this command since CVS tries very carefully to always remove the lock files itself.

     You can only use this command when a message in the *cvs* buffer tells you so.  You should wait a while before using this command in case someone else is running a cvs command.

?
h
     Show a summary of common command key bindings in the echo area. (cvs-help).

q
     Quit pcl-cvs, killing the *cvs* buffer. (cvs-mode-quit).

Customization
*************

If you have an idea about any customization that would be handy but isn't present in this list, please tell me! For info on how to reach me, see Bugs.

cvs-erase-input-buffer
     If set to anything other than nil the edit buffer will be erased before you write the log message (see Committing changes).

cvs-diff-flags
     A list of strings to pass as arguments to the cvs diff and diff programs.  This is used by cvs-mode-diff-cvs and cvs-mode-diff-backup (key b, see Viewing differences).  If you prefer the Unidiff format you could add this line to your .emacs file:

          (setq cvs-diff-flags '("-u"))

     Note: For the above example to take effect, you must make sure that CVS-DIFF-FLAGS is set before PCL-CVS is loaded.

     PCL-CVS gets the values for these flags directly from your .cvsrc file, so you wouldn't normally need to set them in your .emacs file.

cvs-default-ignore-marks
     If this variable is non-nil the non-diffing commands will not consider marked files to be selected by default.  The command cvs-mode-toggle-marks bound to T can be used to toggle the use of marks for the following command.

cvs-diff-ignore-marks
     If this variable is non-nil the diffing commands will not consider marked files to be selected by default.  The command cvs-mode-toggle-marks bound to T can be used to toggle the use of marks for the following command.

cvs-log-flags
     List of strings to send to cvs log.  Used by cvs-mode-log (key l, see Getting info about files).

cvs-status-flags
     List of strings to send to cvs status.  Used by cvs-mode-status (key s, see Getting info about files).

cvs-auto-remove-handled
     If this variable is set to any non-nil value cvs-mode-remove-handled will be called every time you check in files, after the check-in is ready.  See Removing handled entries.

cvs-auto-remove-handled-directories
     If this variable is set to any non-nil value, directories that do not contain any files to be checked in will not be listed in the *cvs* buffer.

cvs-auto-revert
     If this variable is set to any non-nil value any buffers you have that visit a file that is committed will be automatically reverted. This variable defaults to t. See Committing changes.

cvs-update-prog-output-skip-regexp
     The -u flag in the modules file can be used to run a command whenever a cvs update is performed (see cvs(5)).  This regexp is used to search for the last line in that output.  It is normally set to "$".  That setting is only correct if the command outputs nothing.  Note that pcl-cvs will get very confused if the command outputs anything to stderr.

cvs-cvsroot
     This variable can be set to override CVSROOT.  It should be a string. If it is set then every time a cvs command is run it will be called as cvs -d CVS-CVSROOT...  This can be useful if your site has several repositories.

cvs-commit-buffer-require-final-newline
     When you enter a log message in the *cvs-commit-message* buffer pcl-cvs will normally automatically insert a trailing newline, unless there already is one.  This behavior can be controlled via cvs-commit-buffer-require-final-newline.  If it is t (the default behavior), a newline will always be appended.  If it is nil, newlines will never be appended.  Any other value causes pcl-cvs to ask the user whenever there is no trailing newline in the commit message buffer.

cvs-changelog-full-paragraphs
     If this variable is non-nil, include full ChangeLog paragraphs in the CVS log created by cvs-mode-changelog-commit. This may be set in the local variables section of a ChangeLog, to indicate the policy for that ChangeLog.

     A ChangeLog paragraph is a bunch of log text containing no blank lines; a paragraph usually describes a set of changes with a single purpose, but perhaps spanning several functions in several files.  Changes in different paragraphs are unrelated.

     You could argue that the CVS log entry for a file should contain the full ChangeLog paragraph mentioning the change to the file, even though it may mention other files, because that gives you the full context you need to understand the change.  This is the behavior you get when this variable is set to t, the default.

     On the other hand, you could argue that the CVS log entry for a change should contain only the text for the changes which occurred in that file, because the CVS log is per-file.  This is the behavior you get when this variable is set to nil.

cvs-sort-ignore-file
     If this variable is set to any non-nil value the .cvsignore will always be sorted whenever you use cvs-mode-ignore to add a file to it.  This option is on by default.

cvs-update-cmd-flags
     List of strings to send to cvs update.  Used by cvs-update and cvs-examine.

cvs-status-cmd-flags
     List of strings to send to cvs status.  Used by cvs-status.

cvs-checkout-cmd-flags
     List of strings to send to cvs checkout.  Used by cvs-checkout.

cvs-add-flags
     List of strings to send to cvs add.  Used by cvs-mode-add, normally bound to a.

cvs-commit-flags
     List of strings to send to cvs commit.  Used by the commands cvs-mode-commit and cvs-mode-changelog-commit, normally bound to c and C, respectively.

cvs-remove-flags
     List of strings to send to cvs remove.  Used by cvs-mode-remove-file, normally bound to r.

cvs-undo-flags
     List of strings to send to cvs update after removing a locally modified file.  Used by cvs-mode-undo-local-changes, normally bound to U.

cvs-update-flags
     List of strings to send to cvs update.  Used by cvs-mode-update, normally bound to O and used to update a file after using cvs-status.

cvs-tag-flags
     List of strings to send to cvs tag.  Used by cvs-mode-tag, normally bound to t.

cvs-rtag-flags
     List of strings to send to cvs rtag.  Used by cvs-mode-rtag, normally bound to M-t.

XEmacs Customization
********************

The emacs lisp file pcl-cvs-xemacs.el included with pcl-cvs adds a few extra features for XEmacs, including menus, mouse bindings, and fontification the the *cvs* buffer.  The faces defined for fontification are listed below:

cvs-header-face
     This face is used to highlight directory changes.

cvs-filename-face
     This face is used to highlight file names.

cvs-unknown-face
     This face is used to highlight the status of files which are UNKNOWN.

cvs-handled-face
     This face is used to highlight the status of files which are handled and need no further action.

cvs-need-action-face
     This face is used to highlight the status of files which still need action.

cvs-marked-face
     This face is used to highlight the marked file indicator (*).

Future enhancements
*******************

Pcl-cvs is still under development and needs a number of enhancements to be called complete.  Below is my current wish-list for future releases of pcl-cvs.  Please, let me know which of these features you want most. They are listed below in approximately the order that I currently think I will implement them in.

  * Log mode.  When this mode is finished you will be able to move around (using n and p) between the revisions of a file, mark two of them, and run a diff between them.  You will be able to hide branches (similar to the way you can hide sub-paragraphs in outline-mode) and do merges between revisions.  Other ideas about this are welcome.

  * Dired support.  I have an experimental dired-cvs.el that works together with CVS 1.2.  Unfortunately I wrote it on top of a non-standard dired.el, so it must be rewritten.

  * Pcl-cvs is not at all clever about what it should do when cvs update runs a program (due to the -u option in the modules file --- see cvs(5)).  The current release uses a regexp to search for the end.  At the very least that regexp should be configured for different modules.  Tell me if you have any idea about what is the right thing to do.  In a perfect world the program should also be allowed to print to stderr without causing pcl-cvs to crash.

If you miss something in this wish-list, let me know!  I don't promise that I will write it, but I will at least try to coordinate the efforts of making a good Emacs front end to CVS. For information about how to reach me, see Bugs.

So far, I have written most of pcl-cvs in my all-to-rare spare time. If you want pcl-cvs to be developed faster you can write a contract with Signum Support to do the extension.  You can reach Signum Support by email to info@signum.se or via mail to Signum Support AB, Box 2044, S-580 02 Linkoping, Sweden. Phone: +46 (0) 13 - 21 46 00. Fax: +46 (0) 13 - 21 47 00.

Bugs (known and unknown)
************************

If you find a bug or misfeature, don't hesitate to tell us!  Send email to pcl-cvs@cyclic.com.  We prefer discussing one thing at a time.  If you find several unrelated bugs, please report them separately.  That way our bug-tracking software will work better.  If you report several problems in a single email we might miss one or two of them.  If you are running pcl-cvs under XEmacs, you should also send a copy of bug reports to xemacs-beta@xemacs.org.

If you have ideas for improvements, or if you have written some extensions to this package, we would like to hear from you.  We hope that you find this package useful!

Below is a partial list of currently known problems with pcl-cvs version 2.0.

Unexpected output from CVS
     Unexpected output from CVS may confuse pcl-cvs.  It will create warning messages in the *cvs* buffer alerting you to any parse errors. If you get these messages, please send a bug report to the email addresses listed above.  Include the contents of the *cvs* buffer, the output of the CVS process (which should be found in the *cvs-tmp* emacs buffer), and the versions of emacs, pcl-cvs and CVS you are using.

GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
**************************

Version 2, June 1991

     Copyright © 1989, 1991 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
     675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA

     Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies
     of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.

Preamble
========

The licenses for most software are designed to take away your freedom to share and change it.  By contrast, the GNU General Public License is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change free software---to make sure the software is free for all its users.  This General Public License applies to most of the Free Software Foundation's software and to any other program whose authors commit to using it.  (Some other Free Software Foundation software is covered by the GNU Library General Public License instead.)  You can apply it to your programs, too.

When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not price.  Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for this service if you wish), that you receive source code or can get it if you want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it in new free programs; and that you know you can do these things.

To protect your rights, we need to make restrictions that forbid anyone to deny you these rights or to ask you to surrender the rights. These restrictions translate to certain responsibilities for you if you distribute copies of the software, or if you modify it.

For example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether gratis or for a fee, you must give the recipients all the rights that you have.  You must make sure that they, too, receive or can get the source code.  And you must show them these terms so they know their rights.

We protect your rights with two steps: (1) copyright the software, and (2) offer you this license which gives you legal permission to copy, distribute and/or modify the software.

Also, for each author's protection and ours, we want to make certain that everyone understands that there is no warranty for this free software.  If the software is modified by someone else and passed on, we want its recipients to know that what they have is not the original, so that any problems introduced by others will not reflect on the original authors' reputations.

Finally, any free program is threatened constantly by software patents.  We wish to avoid the danger that redistributors of a free program will individually obtain patent licenses, in effect making the program proprietary.  To prevent this, we have made it clear that any patent must be licensed for everyone's free use or not licensed at all.

The precise terms and conditions for copying, distribution and modification follow.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION

 1. This License applies to any program or other work which contains a notice placed by the copyright holder saying it may be distributed under the terms of this General Public License.  The ``Program'', below, refers to any such program or work, and a ``work based on the Program'' means either the Program or any derivative work under copyright law: that is to say, a work containing the Program or a portion of it, either verbatim or with modifications and/or translated into another language.  (Hereinafter, translation is included without limitation in the term ``modification''.)  Each licensee is addressed as ``you''.

     Activities other than copying, distribution and modification are not covered by this License; they are outside its scope.  The act of running the Program is not restricted, and the output from the Program is covered only if its contents constitute a work based on the Program (independent of having been made by running the Program). Whether that is true depends on what the Program does.

 2. You may copy and distribute verbatim copies of the Program's source code as you receive it, in any medium, provided that you conspicuously and appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate copyright notice and disclaimer of warranty; keep intact all the notices that refer to this License and to the absence of any warranty; and give any other recipients of the Program a copy of this License along with the Program.

     You may charge a fee for the physical act of transferring a copy, and you may at your option offer warranty protection in exchange for a fee.

 3. You may modify your copy or copies of the Program or any portion of it, thus forming a work based on the Program, and copy and distribute such modifications or work under the terms of Section 1 above, provided that you also meet all of these conditions:

      a. You must cause the modified files to carry prominent notices stating that you changed the files and the date of any change.

      b. You must cause any work that you distribute or publish, that in whole or in part contains or is derived from the Program or any part thereof, to be licensed as a whole at no charge to all third parties under the terms of this License.

      c. If the modified program normally reads commands interactively when run, you must cause it, when started running for such interactive use in the most ordinary way, to print or display an announcement including an appropriate copyright notice and a notice that there is no warranty (or else, saying that you provide a warranty) and that users may redistribute the program under these conditions, and telling the user how to view a copy of this License.  (Exception: if the Program itself is interactive but does not normally print such an announcement, your work based on the Program is not required to print an announcement.)

     These requirements apply to the modified work as a whole.  If identifiable sections of that work are not derived from the Program, and can be reasonably considered independent and separate works in themselves, then this License, and its terms, do not apply to those sections when you distribute them as separate works.  But when you distribute the same sections as part of a whole which is a work based on the Program, the distribution of the whole must be on the terms of this License, whose permissions for other licensees extend to the entire whole, and thus to each and every part regardless of who wrote it.

     Thus, it is not the intent of this section to claim rights or contest your rights to work written entirely by you; rather, the intent is to exercise the right to control the distribution of derivative or collective works based on the Program.

     In addition, mere aggregation of another work not based on the Program with the Program (or with a work based on the Program) on a volume of a storage or distribution medium does not bring the other work under the scope of this License.

 4. You may copy and distribute the Program (or a work based on it, under Section 2) in object code or executable form under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above provided that you also do one of the following:

      a. Accompany it with the complete corresponding machine-readable source code, which must be distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software interchange; or,

      b. Accompany it with a written offer, valid for at least three years, to give any third party, for a charge no more than your cost of physically performing source distribution, a complete machine-readable copy of the corresponding source code, to be distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software interchange; or,

      c. Accompany it with the information you received as to the offer to distribute corresponding source code.  (This alternative is allowed only for noncommercial distribution and only if you received the program in object code or executable form with such an offer, in accord with Subsection b above.)

     The source code for a work means the preferred form of the work for making modifications to it.  For an executable work, complete source code means all the source code for all modules it contains, plus any associated interface definition files, plus the scripts used to control compilation and installation of the executable.  However, as a special exception, the source code distributed need not include anything that is normally distributed (in either source or binary form) with the major components (compiler, kernel, and so on) of the operating system on which the executable runs, unless that component itself accompanies the executable.

     If distribution of executable or object code is made by offering access to copy from a designated place, then offering equivalent access to copy the source code from the same place counts as distribution of the source code, even though third parties are not compelled to copy the source along with the object code.

 5. You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Program except as expressly provided under this License.  Any attempt otherwise to copy, modify, sublicense or distribute the Program is void, and will automatically terminate your rights under this License. However, parties who have received copies, or rights, from you under this License will not have their licenses terminated so long as such parties remain in full compliance.

 6. You are not required to accept this License, since you have not signed it.  However, nothing else grants you permission to modify or distribute the Program or its derivative works.  These actions are prohibited by law if you do not accept this License.  Therefore, by modifying or distributing the Program (or any work based on the Program), you indicate your acceptance of this License to do so, and all its terms and conditions for copying, distributing or modifying the Program or works based on it.

 7. Each time you redistribute the Program (or any work based on the Program), the recipient automatically receives a license from the original licensor to copy, distribute or modify the Program subject to these terms and conditions.  You may not impose any further restrictions on the recipients' exercise of the rights granted herein. You are not responsible for enforcing compliance by third parties to this License.

 8. If, as a consequence of a court judgment or allegation of patent infringement or for any other reason (not limited to patent issues), conditions are imposed on you (whether by court order, agreement or otherwise) that contradict the conditions of this License, they do not excuse you from the conditions of this License.  If you cannot distribute so as to satisfy simultaneously your obligations under this License and any other pertinent obligations, then as a consequence you may not distribute the Program at all.  For example, if a patent license would not permit royalty-free redistribution of the Program by all those who receive copies directly or indirectly through you, then the only way you could satisfy both it and this License would be to refrain entirely from distribution of the Program.

     If any portion of this section is held invalid or unenforceable under any particular circumstance, the balance of the section is intended to apply and the section as a whole is intended to apply in other circumstances.

     It is not the purpose of this section to induce you to infringe any patents or other property right claims or to contest validity of any such claims; this section has the sole purpose of protecting the integrity of the free software distribution system, which is implemented by public license practices.  Many people have made generous contributions to the wide range of software distributed through that system in reliance on consistent application of that system; it is up to the author/donor to decide if he or she is willing to distribute software through any other system and a licensee cannot impose that choice.

     This section is intended to make thoroughly clear what is believed to be a consequence of the rest of this License.

 9. If the distribution and/or use of the Program is restricted in certain countries either by patents or by copyrighted interfaces, the original copyright holder who places the Program under this License may add an explicit geographical distribution limitation excluding those countries, so that distribution is permitted only in or among countries not thus excluded.  In such case, this License incorporates the limitation as if written in the body of this License.

 10. The Free Software Foundation may publish revised and/or new versions of the General Public License from time to time.  Such new versions will be similar in spirit to the present version, but may differ in detail to address new problems or concerns.

     Each version is given a distinguishing version number.  If the Program specifies a version number of this License which applies to it and ``any later version'', you have the option of following the terms and conditions either of that version or of any later version published by the Free Software Foundation.  If the Program does not specify a version number of this License, you may choose any version ever published by the Free Software Foundation.

 11. If you wish to incorporate parts of the Program into other free programs whose distribution conditions are different, write to the author to ask for permission.  For software which is copyrighted by the Free Software Foundation, write to the Free Software Foundation; we sometimes make exceptions for this.  Our decision will be guided by the two goals of preserving the free status of all derivatives of our free software and of promoting the sharing and reuse of software generally.

     NO WARRANTY

 12. BECAUSE THE PROGRAM IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW.  EXCEPT WHEN OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES PROVIDE THE PROGRAM ``AS IS'' WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU.  SHOULD THE PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION.

 13. IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MAY MODIFY AND/OR REDISTRIBUTE THE PROGRAM AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS

Appendix: How to Apply These Terms to Your New Programs
=======================================================

If you develop a new program, and you want it to be of the greatest possible use to the public, the best way to achieve this is to make it free software which everyone can redistribute and change under these terms.

To do so, attach the following notices to the program.  It is safest to attach them to the start of each source file to most effectively convey the exclusion of warranty; and each file should have at least the ``copyright'' line and a pointer to where the full notice is found.

     ONE LINE TO GIVE THE PROGRAM'S NAME AND A BRIEF IDEA OF WHAT IT DOES.
     Copyright (C) YYYY  NAME OF AUTHOR

     This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
     it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
     the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
     (at your option) any later version.

     This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
     but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
     MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
     GNU General Public License for more details.

     You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
     along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
     Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.

Also add information on how to contact you by electronic and paper mail.

If the program is interactive, make it output a short notice like this when it starts in an interactive mode:

     Gnomovision version 69, Copyright (C) 19YY NAME OF AUTHOR
     Gnomovision comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details type `show w'.
     This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it
     under certain conditions; type `show c' for details.

The hypothetical commands show w and show c should show the appropriate parts of the General Public License.  Of course, the commands you use may be called something other than show w and show c; they could even be mouse-clicks or menu items---whatever suits your program.

You should also get your employer (if you work as a programmer) or your school, if any, to sign a ``copyright disclaimer'' for the program, if necessary.  Here is a sample; alter the names:

     Yoyodyne, Inc., hereby disclaims all copyright interest in the program
     `Gnomovision' (which makes passes at compilers) written by James Hacker.

     SIGNATURE OF TY COON, 1 April 1989
     Ty Coon, President of Vice

This General Public License does not permit incorporating your program into proprietary programs.  If your program is a subroutine library, you may consider it more useful to permit linking proprietary applications with the library.  If this is what you want to do, use the GNU Library General Public License instead of this License.