You only need to checkout a module once. Once a local copy of the module is on your system, you may continue to use it for additional work.

To checkout a module, use the following command:

cvs co module-name

For example, to checkout the example-tutorial module, change to your work directory, and execute the following command:

cvs co example-tutorial

A directory called example-tutorial/ is created in the current directory.

If a branch name is not specified when checking out a module, it is referred to as the HEAD of the CVS module.

cvs co -d directory -r branchname module-name

cvs co -d mymodule-1.2 -r BRANCH-VERSION-1.2 mymodule

cvs status -v filename

===================================================================
File: foo.xml     Status: Up-to-date

   Working revision:    1.47
   Repository revision: 1.47    /cvs/docs/foo-guide/foo.xml,v
   Sticky Tag:          (none)
   Sticky Date:         (none)
   Sticky Options:      (none)

   Existing Tags:
        BRANCH-VERSION-1.2              (branch: 1.25.2)

To retrieve the latest versions of the files in a module, change to the directory that contains the files for the module and execute the command:

cvs update

The latest versions of all the files in the module are downloaded into your local copy. If you notice a file conflict, refer to Section 8.4.8, “Resolving Conflicts”.

After modifying files in your local version of a module, commit them to save the changes on the CVS server:

cvs commit -m "some log message" filename

	Note
	If you would prefer to write your log message with your favorite text editor, as defined by the $VISUAL or the $EDITOR environment variable, just omit the -m "some log message". The buffer will already contain comments describing the change. You do not need to delete them as you enter your own text.

The log message should be as descriptive as possible so that you and anyone else working on the module understands what changed. Using a log message such as updated some files does not accurately describe what has changed and will not help you in the future. If you are correcting a bug, use the Bugzilla reference.

The filename can be one filename, a series of filenames separated by spaces, or a group of filenames specified using wildcards such as *.png or foo-*.xml.

If no filename or group of filenames is specified in the commit command, all outstanding changes of any kind are committed to the server. The command is recursive and will include changes in any subdirectories of the module.

	Committing Changes
	Use caution when issuing the commit command without any filenames because you might not remember exactly what files changed.

If you notice a file conflict, refer to Section 8.4.8, “Resolving Conflicts”.

To add a file to a module, create the file in your local copy then execute the following command:

cvs add file-to-add

After adding the file, you must commit the add to copy it to the server:

cvs commit -m "some log message" file-to-add

The most commonly-archived files are simple text files, but sometimes binary files are also archived. The cvs program recognizes most common filename extensions such as .png or .jpg, and usually behaves as the user intends.

When a copy of a file is checked out of the repository, cvs scans it for special keywords such as $id:$. The cvs program replaces the keyword with a generated value such as the file version number.

This keyword substitution usually corrupts binary files, so it must be turned off if cvs does not recognize your file as binary. To mark your file as being binary, and thus needing the keyword expansion turned off, use the command:

cvs admin -kk filename

Note that the file must already be checked in to the CVS repository before the admin command can be used. This is acceptable, since the keyword expansion is done as the file is checked out and copied to the local directory, not when the file is committed to the repository.

	Recovering a binary file
	If you check a binary file into the repository and then find it corrupted when it is checked out, do not panic. Use the admin command as described above, delete your local file copy, and check it out again.

If a file is no longer needed in the module, use the remove command to remove it from your local copy and then commit the removal to the server. Even though the file is removed from current version of the module, an archived copy is still kept on the server and can be retrieved at any time with the add command.

cvs rm -f file-to-remove

After removing the file, you must commit the removal:

cvs commit -m "some log message" file-to-remove

You can not use wildcards in the commit command to identify removed files. They must be specified with a exact filename.

If you need to rename a file, it is best to rename the file on the CVS server so that the history of the file is preserved. If you need to rename a file, send an email to cvsdocs-administrator@fedoraproject.org asking to have the file renamed.

Sometimes it is necessary to view the status of a file in a CVS module. To view the status of a file, use the command:

cvs status filename

The status report of a repository file is as follows:

If you modify a file and the same region is modified by someone else and committed first, you will probably see a message similar to the following when committing the file or updating your local copy of the module:

RCS file: /cvs/docs/module-name/filename.sgml,v
retrieving revision 1.12
retrieving revision 1.13
Merging differences between 1.12 and 1.13 into filename.sgml
rcsmerge: warning: conflicts during merge
cvs server: conflicts found in filename.sgml
C filename.sgml

To resolve the conflict, open the file, search for <<<<<<< and determine which version of the content is correct. For example:

<para>
  Some sentence.
<<<<<<< filename.sgml
  A sentence that was changed in the working copy.
=======
  A same sentence that was changed differently and committed.
>>>>>>> 1.13
</para>

The content between the <<<<<<<, and the ======= is the content from your working copy. The content between the ======= and the >>>>>>> is the content from the server.

Resolve the conflict by editing your copy, and commit the file.

All commands assume you are in the proper directory for the CVS module.

For more information, read the CVS manual available on your system at /usr/share/doc/cvs-<version-number>/cvs.ps (the CVS version might vary) and visit the CVS webpage available at http://www.cvshome.org/.

	Tip
	Since CVS is using ssh to connect to the CVS server, you will be prompted your password before performing your CVS request. If you want to configure your machine so that you do not have to enter a password, refer to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Deployment Guide for details about using ssh-agent.