rcsdiff - Man Page

rcsdiff [ -ksubst ] [ -q ] [ -rrev1 [ -rrev2 ] ] [ -T ] [ -V[n] ] [ -xsuffixes ] [ -zzone ] [ diff options ] file ...

rcsdiff runs diff(1) to compare two revisions of each RCS file given.

Filenames matching an RCS suffix denote RCS files; all others denote working files. Names are paired as explained in ci(1).

The option -q suppresses diagnostic output. Zero, one, or two revisions may be specified with -r. The option -ksubst affects keyword substitution when extracting revisions, as described in co(1); for example, -kk -r1.1 -r1.2 ignores differences in keyword values when comparing revisions 1.1 and 1.2. To avoid excess output from locker name substitution, -kkvl is assumed if (1) at most one revision option is given, (2) no -k option is given, (3) -kkv is the default keyword substitution, and (4) the working file's mode would be produced by co -l. See co(1) for details about -T, -V, -x and -z. Otherwise, all options of diff(1) that apply to regular files are accepted, with the same meaning as for diff.

If both rev1 and rev2 are omitted, rcsdiff compares the latest revision on the default branch (by default the trunk) with the contents of the corresponding working file.  This is useful for determining what you changed since the last checkin.

If rev1 is given, but rev2 is omitted, rcsdiff compares revision rev1 of the RCS file with the contents of the corresponding working file.

If both rev1 and rev2 are given, rcsdiff compares revisions rev1 and rev2 of the RCS file.

Both rev1 and rev2 may be given numerically or symbolically.

The command

       rcsdiff  f.c

compares the latest revision on the default branch of the RCS file to the contents of the working file f.c.

RCSINIT

Options prepended to the argument list, separated by spaces. A backslash escapes spaces within an option. The RCSINIT options are prepended to the argument lists of most RCS commands. Useful RCSINIT options include -q, -V, -x, and -z.

RCS_MEM_LIMIT

Normally, for speed, commands either memory map or copy into memory the RCS file if its size is less than the memory-limit, currently defaulting to “unlimited”. Otherwise (or if the initially-tried speedy ways fail), the commands fall back to using standard i/o routines. You can adjust the memory limit by setting RCS_MEM_LIMIT to a numeric value lim (measured in kilobytes). An empty value is silently ignored. As a side effect, specifying RCS_MEM_LIMIT inhibits fall-back to slower routines.

TMPDIR

Name of the temporary directory. If not set, the environment variables TMP and TEMP are inspected instead and the first value found is taken; if none of them are set, a host-dependent default is used, typically /tmp.

Exit status is 0 for no differences during any comparison, 1 for some differences, 2 for trouble.

Author: Walter F. Tichy.
Manual Page Revision: 5.10.1; Release Date: 2024-07-20.
Copyright © 2010-2022 Thien-Thi Nguyen.
Copyright © 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993 Paul Eggert.
Copyright © 1982, 1988, 1989 Walter F. Tichy.

ci(1), co(1), diff(1), ident(1), rcs(1), rcsmerge(1), rlog(1).

Walter F. Tichy, RCS—A System for Version Control, Software—Practice & Experience 15, 7 (July 1985), 637-654.

The full documentation for RCS is maintained as a Texinfo manual. If the info(1) and RCS programs are properly installed at your site, the command

info rcs

should give you access to the complete manual. Additionally, the RCS homepage:

http://www.gnu.org/software/rcs/

has news and links to the latest release, development site, etc.

ci(1), co(1), ident(1), rcs(1), rcsclean(1), rcsfile(5), rcsmerge(1), rlog(1).