xref: /src/external/gpl2/xcvs/dist/README

				CVS Kit

	   Copyright (C) 1986-2005 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

	   Portions Copyright (C) 1998-2005 Derek Price,
	                                    & Ximbiot <http://ximbiot.com>.
	   Portions Copyright (C) 1993-1994 Brian Berliner.
	   Portions Copyright (C) 1992 Brian Berliner and Jeff Polk.
	   Portions Copyright (C) 1989-1992 Brian Berliner.
	   All Rights Reserved

    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 1, 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.

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Welcome to CVS!

If you have problems or think you have found a bug in CVS, see the
section BUGS in the CVS manual (also known as Version Management with
CVS by Per Cederqvist et al, or cvs.texinfo--see below for details).

If you are thinking of submitting changes to CVS, see the
file HACKING.

Please consult the INSTALL-CVS file for information on tested
configurations.  If you have a comment about an already tested
configuration, or have tried CVS on a new configuration, please let us
know as described in INSTALL-CVS.  Free software only works if we all help
out.

Finally, we cannot guarantee that this release will not completely wipe out
all of your work from your system.  We do some simple testing before each
release, but you are completely on your own.  We recommend testing this
release on a source repository that is not critical to your work.  THIS
SOFTWARE IS SUPPLIED COMPLETELY "AS IS".  NO WARRANTY....

Thanks for your support!

	-The CVS Team

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What Is CVS?

CVS is a version control system, which allows you to keep old versions
of files (usually source code), keep a log of who, when, and why
changes occurred, etc., like RCS or SCCS.  It handles multiple
developers, multiple directories, triggers to enable/log/control
various operations, and can work over a wide area network.  The
following tasks are not included; they can be done in conjunction with
CVS but will tend to require some script-writing and software other
than CVS: bug-tracking, build management (that is, make and make-like
tools), and automated testing.

And a whole lot more.  See the manual for more information.

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Notes to people upgrading from a previous release of CVS:

See the NEWS file for a description of features new in this version.

See the Compatibility section of the manual for information on
compatibility between CVS versions.  The quick summary is that as long
as you not using the optional watch features, there are no
compatibility problems with CVS 1.5 or later.

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Installation:

Please read the INSTALL-CVS file for installation instructions.  The brief
summary is:

	$ ./configure
	$ make
	(run the regression tests, if desired, via `make check')
	$ make install
	(create a repository if you don't already have one)

The documentation is in the doc subdirectory.  cvs.texinfo is the main
manual; cvs.info* and cvs.ps are the info and postscript versions,
respectively, generated from cvs.texinfo.  The postscript version is
for US letter size paper; we do this not because we consider this size
"better" than A4, but because we believe that the US letter version
will print better on A4 paper than the other way around. If you want a
version formatted for A4, add the line @afourpaper near the start of
cvs.texinfo and re-generate cvs.ps using TeX.

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* How do I get up-to-date information and information about other
versions of CVS?

See also 
	http://cvs.nongnu.org
	http://www.cvsnt.org

Anyone can add themselves to the following mailing lists:

    bug-cvs:  This is the list which users are requested to send bug reports
      to.  General CVS development and design discussions also tend to take
      place on this list.
    info-cvs:  This list is intended for user questions, including general
      help requests.
    cvs-announce:  CVS release announcements and other major
      announcements about the project are sent to this list.
    cvs-announce-binaries:  Announcements are made to this list
      when binaries for various platforms are built and initially
      posted for download.

To subscribe to any of these lists, send mail to <list>-request (a] nongnu.org
or visit http://savannah.nongnu.org/mail/?group=cvs and follow the instructions
for the list you wish to subscribe to.

The newsgroup for CVS (and other configuration management systems) is
comp.software.config-mgmt.  The gnu.cvs.help newsgroup is a 2-way mirror
of the info-cvs (a] nongnu.org mailing list and gnu.cvs.bug is similarly a 2-way
mirror of bug-cvs (a] nongnu.org.

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Credits:  See the AUTHORS file.