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Getting started

This document assumes that you know what CVS is, and that you at least knows 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 invoke pcl-cvs by typing M-x pcl-cvs 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 root. 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-update "pcl-cvs" nil t)

The function cvs-update will ask for a directory. The command `cvs 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 1.02.

In directory /users/ceder/FOO/test:
  Updated     bar
  Updated     file.txt
  Modified ci namechange
  Updated     newer

In directory /users/ceder/FOO/test/sub:
  Modified ci ChangeLog
---------- End -----

In this example 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 have checked in newer versions of them. Two files (`namechange' and `sub/ChangeLog') have been modified locally, and needs 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 section 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 section Getting info about files).

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