(cvs.info.gz) Common options

 
 Common command options
 ======================
 
    This section describes the `command_options' that are available
 across several CVS commands.  These options are always given to the
 right of `cvs_command'. Not all commands support all of these options;
 each option is only supported for commands where it makes sense.
 However, when a command has one of these options you can almost always
 count on the same behavior of the option as in other commands.  (Other
 command options, which are listed with the individual commands, may have
 different behavior from one CVS command to the other).
 
    *Warning:* the `history' command is an exception; it supports many
 options that conflict even with these standard options.
 
 `-D DATE_SPEC'
      Use the most recent revision no later than DATE_SPEC.  DATE_SPEC
      is a single argument, a date description specifying a date in the
      past.
 
      The specification is "sticky" when you use it to make a private
      copy of a source file; that is, when you get a working file using
      `-D', CVS records the date you specified, so that further updates
      in the same directory will use the same date (for more information
      on sticky tags/dates,  Sticky tags).
 
      `-D' is available with the `annotate', `checkout', `diff',
      `export', `history', `rdiff', `rtag', and `update' commands.  (The
      `history' command uses this option in a slightly different way;
       history options).
 
      A wide variety of date formats are supported by CVS.  The most
      standard ones are ISO8601 (from the International Standards
      Organization) and the Internet e-mail standard (specified in
      RFC822 as amended by RFC1123).
 
      ISO8601 dates have many variants but a few examples are:
 
           1972-09-24
           1972-09-24 20:05
 
      There are a lot more ISO8601 date formats, and CVS accepts many of
      them, but you probably don't want to hear the _whole_ long story
      :-).
 
      In addition to the dates allowed in Internet e-mail itself, CVS
      also allows some of the fields to be omitted.  For example:
 
           24 Sep 1972 20:05
           24 Sep
 
      The date is interpreted as being in the local timezone, unless a
      specific timezone is specified.
 
      These two date formats are preferred.  However, CVS currently
      accepts a wide variety of other date formats.  They are
      intentionally not documented here in any detail, and future
      versions of CVS might not accept all of them.
 
      One such format is `MONTH/DAY/YEAR'.  This may confuse people who
      are accustomed to having the month and day in the other order;
      `1/4/96' is January 4, not April 1.
 
      Remember to quote the argument to the `-D' flag so that your shell
      doesn't interpret spaces as argument separators.  A command using
      the `-D' flag can look like this:
 
           $ cvs diff -D "1 hour ago" cvs.texinfo
 
 `-f'
      When you specify a particular date or tag to CVS commands, they
      normally ignore files that do not contain the tag (or did not
      exist prior to the date) that you specified.  Use the `-f' option
      if you want files retrieved even when there is no match for the
      tag or date.  (The most recent revision of the file will be used).
 
      Note that even with `-f', a tag that you specify must exist (that
      is, in some file, not necessary in every file).  This is so that
      CVS will continue to give an error if you mistype a tag name.
 
      `-f' is available with these commands: `annotate', `checkout',
      `export', `rdiff', `rtag', and `update'.
 
      *Warning:*  The `commit' and `remove' commands also have a `-f'
      option, but it has a different behavior for those commands.  See
       commit options, and  Removing files.
 
 `-k KFLAG'
      Alter the default processing of keywords.   Keyword
      substitution, for the meaning of KFLAG.  Your KFLAG
      specification is "sticky" when you use it to create a private copy
      of a source file; that is, when you use this option with the
      `checkout' or `update' commands, CVS associates your selected
      KFLAG with the file, and continues to use it with future update
      commands on the same file until you specify otherwise.
 
      The `-k' option is available with the `add', `checkout', `diff',
      `import' and `update' commands.
 
 `-l'
      Local; run only in current working directory, rather than
      recursing through subdirectories.
 
      *Warning:* this is not the same as the overall `cvs -l' option,
      which you can specify to the left of a cvs command!
 
      Available with the following commands: `annotate', `checkout',
      `commit', `diff', `edit', `editors', `export', `log', `rdiff',
      `remove', `rtag', `status', `tag', `unedit', `update', `watch',
      and `watchers'.
 
 `-m MESSAGE'
      Use MESSAGE as log information, instead of invoking an editor.
 
      Available with the following commands: `add', `commit' and
      `import'.
 
 `-n'
      Do not run any checkout/commit/tag program.  (A program can be
      specified to run on each of these activities, in the modules
      database ( modules); this option bypasses it).
 
      *Warning:* this is not the same as the overall `cvs -n' option,
      which you can specify to the left of a cvs command!
 
      Available with the `checkout', `commit', `export', and `rtag'
      commands.
 
 `-P'
      Prune empty directories.  See  Removing directories.
 
 `-p'
      Pipe the files retrieved from the repository to standard output,
      rather than writing them in the current directory.  Available with
      the `checkout' and `update' commands.
 
 `-R'
      Process directories recursively.  This is on by default.
 
      Available with the following commands: `annotate', `checkout',
      `commit', `diff', `edit', `editors', `export', `rdiff', `remove',
      `rtag', `status', `tag', `unedit', `update', `watch', and
      `watchers'.
 
 `-r TAG'
      Use the revision specified by the TAG argument instead of the
      default "head" revision.  As well as arbitrary tags defined with
      the `tag' or `rtag' command, two special tags are always
      available: `HEAD' refers to the most recent version available in
      the repository, and `BASE' refers to the revision you last checked
      out into the current working directory.
 
      The tag specification is sticky when you use this with `checkout'
      or `update' to make your own copy of a file: CVS remembers the tag
      and continues to use it on future update commands, until you
      specify otherwise (for more information on sticky tags/dates,
       Sticky tags).
 
      The tag can be either a symbolic or numeric tag, as described in
       Tags, or the name of a branch, as described in 
      Branching and merging.
 
      Specifying the `-q' global option along with the `-r' command
      option is often useful, to suppress the warning messages when the
      RCS file does not contain the specified tag.
 
      *Warning:* this is not the same as the overall `cvs -r' option,
      which you can specify to the left of a CVS command!
 
      `-r' is available with the `checkout', `commit', `diff',
      `history', `export', `rdiff', `rtag', and `update' commands.
 
 `-W'
      Specify file names that should be filtered.  You can use this
      option repeatedly.  The spec can be a file name pattern of the
      same type that you can specify in the `.cvswrappers' file.
      Available with the following commands: `import', and `update'.
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