/contrib/cvs/README

  1				CVS Kit
  2
  3	   Copyright (C) 1986-2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
  4
  5	   Portions Copyright (C) 1998-2006 Derek Price,
  6	                                    & Ximbiot <http://ximbiot.com>.
  7	   Portions Copyright (C) 1993-1994 Brian Berliner.
  8	   Portions Copyright (C) 1992 Brian Berliner and Jeff Polk.
  9	   Portions Copyright (C) 1989-1992 Brian Berliner.
 10	   All Rights Reserved
 11
 12    This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
 13    it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
 14    the Free Software Foundation; either version 1, or (at your option)
 15    any later version.
 16
 17    This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
 18    but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
 19    MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
 20    GNU General Public License for more details.
 21
 22-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 23
 24Welcome to CVS!
 25
 26If you have problems or think you have found a bug in CVS, see the
 27section BUGS in the CVS manual (also known as Version Management with
 28CVS by Per Cederqvist et al, or cvs.texinfo--see below for details).
 29
 30If you are thinking of submitting changes to CVS, see the
 31file HACKING.
 32
 33Please consult the INSTALL file for information on tested
 34configurations.  If you have a comment about an already tested
 35configuration, or have tried CVS on a new configuration, please let us
 36know as described in INSTALL.  Free software only works if we all help
 37out.
 38
 39Finally, we cannot guarantee that this release will not completely wipe out
 40all of your work from your system.  We do some simple testing before each
 41release, but you are completely on your own.  We recommend testing this
 42release on a source repository that is not critical to your work.  THIS
 43SOFTWARE IS SUPPLIED COMPLETELY "AS IS".  NO WARRANTY....
 44
 45Thanks for your support!
 46
 47	-The CVS Team
 48
 49-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 50
 51What Is CVS?
 52
 53CVS is a version control system, which allows you to keep old versions
 54of files (usually source code), keep a log of who, when, and why
 55changes occurred, etc., like RCS or SCCS.  It handles multiple
 56developers, multiple directories, triggers to enable/log/control
 57various operations, and can work over a wide area network.  The
 58following tasks are not included; they can be done in conjunction with
 59CVS but will tend to require some script-writing and software other
 60than CVS: bug-tracking, build management (that is, make and make-like
 61tools), and automated testing.
 62
 63And a whole lot more.  See the manual for more information.
 64
 65-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 66
 67Notes to people upgrading from a previous release of CVS:
 68
 69See the NEWS file for a description of features new in this version.
 70
 71See the Compatibility section of the manual for information on
 72compatibility between CVS versions.  The quick summary is that as long
 73as you not using the optional watch features, there are no
 74compatibility problems with CVS 1.5 or later.
 75
 76-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 77
 78Verifying the Integrity of Downloads:
 79
 80The official CVS source and binary releases are signed by the CVS maintainer
 81who generated them.  This does not imply any sort of warranty, but it does mean
 82that you can verify that the file you downloaded did, in fact, come from a CVS
 83maintainer.
 84
 85The OpenPGP keys of the CVS maintainers who have submitted them are in the KEYS
 86file of the CVS distribution and are also available from many OpenPGP key
 87servers.  It is recommended that you verify the key fingerprints against an
 88external source, however you obtain the key.
 89
 90-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 91
 92Installation:
 93
 94Please read the INSTALL file for installation instructions.  Brief summary:
 95
 96	$ ./configure
 97	$ make
 98	(run the regression tests if desired)
 99	$ make install
100	(create a repository if you don't already have one)
101
102The documentation is in the doc subdirectory.  cvs.texinfo is the main
103manual; cvs.info* and cvs.ps are the info and postscript versions,
104respectively, generated from cvs.texinfo.  The postscript version is
105for US letter size paper; we do this not because we consider this size
106"better" than A4, but because we believe that the US letter version
107will print better on A4 paper than the other way around. If you want a
108version formatted for A4, add the line @afourpaper near the start of
109cvs.texinfo and re-generate cvs.ps using TeX.
110
111-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
112
113* How do I get up-to-date information and information about other
114versions of CVS?
115
116See also 
117	http://cvs.nongnu.org
118	http://www.cvsnt.org
119
120Anyone can add themselves to the following mailing lists:
121
122    bug-cvs:  This is the list which users are requested to send bug reports
123      to.  General CVS development and design discussions also tend to take
124      place on this list.
125    info-cvs:  This list is intended for user questions, including general
126      help requests.
127    cvs-announce:  CVS release announcements and other major
128      announcements about the project are sent to this list.
129    cvs-announce-binaries:  Announcements are made to this list
130      when binaries for various platforms are built and initially
131      posted for download.
132
133To subscribe to any of these lists, send mail to <list>-request@nongnu.org
134or visit http://savannah.nongnu.org/mail/?group=cvs and follow the instructions
135for the list you wish to subscribe to.
136
137The newsgroup for CVS (and other configuration management systems) is
138comp.software.config-mgmt.  The gnu.cvs.help newsgroup is a 2-way mirror
139of the info-cvs@nongnu.org mailing list and gnu.cvs.bug is similarly a 2-way
140mirror of bug-cvs@nongnu.org.
141
142-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
143
144Credits:  See the AUTHORS file.