/contrib/cvs/contrib/descend.man

  1.TH DESCEND 1 "31 March 1992"
  2.SH NAME 
  3descend \- walk directory tree and execute a command at each node
  4.SH SYNOPSIS 
  5.B descend
  6[
  7.B \-afqrv
  8]
  9.I command
 10[
 11.I directory
 12\&.\|.\|.
 13]
 14.SH DESCRIPTION
 15.B descend
 16walks down a directory tree and executes a command at each node.  It
 17is not as versatile as
 18.BR find (1),
 19but it has a simpler syntax.  If no
 20.I directory
 21is specified,
 22.B descend
 23starts at the current one.
 24.LP
 25Unlike
 26.BR find ,
 27.B descend
 28can be told to skip the special directories associated with RCS,
 29CVS, and SCCS.  This makes
 30.B descend
 31especially handy for use with these packages.  It can be used with
 32other commands too, of course.
 33.LP
 34.B descend
 35is a poor man's way to make any command recursive.  Note:
 36.B descend
 37does not follow symbolic links to directories unless they are
 38specified on the command line.
 39.SH OPTIONS
 40.TP 15
 41.B \-a
 42.I All.
 43Descend into directories that begin with '.'.
 44.TP
 45.B \-f
 46.I Force.
 47Ignore errors during descent.  Normally,
 48.B descend
 49quits when an error occurs.
 50.TP
 51.B \-q
 52.I Quiet.
 53Suppress the message `In directory
 54.IR directory '
 55that is normally printed during the descent.
 56.TP
 57.B \-r
 58.I Restricted.
 59Don't descend into the special directories 
 60.SB RCS,
 61.SB CVS,
 62.SB CVS.adm,
 63and
 64.SB SCCS.
 65.TP
 66.B \-v
 67.I Verbose.
 68Print 
 69.I command
 70before executing it.
 71.SH EXAMPLES
 72.TP 15
 73.B "descend ls"
 74Cheap substitute for `ls -R'.
 75.TP 15
 76.B "descend -f 'rm *' tree"
 77Strip `tree' of its leaves.  This command descends the `tree'
 78directory, removing all regular files.  Since 
 79.BR rm (1)
 80does not remove directories, this command leaves the directory
 81structure of `tree' intact, but denuded.  The
 82.B \-f
 83option is required to keep
 84.B descend
 85from quitting.  You could use `rm \-f' instead.
 86.TP 
 87.B "descend -r 'co RCS/*'" /project/src/
 88Check out every RCS file under the directory
 89.BR "/project/src" .
 90.TP
 91.B "descend -r 'cvs diff'"
 92Perform CVS `diff' operation on every directory below (and including)
 93the current one.
 94.SH DIAGNOSTICS
 95Returns 1 if errors occur (and the
 96.B \-f
 97option is not used).  Otherwise returns 0.
 98.SH SEE ALSO
 99.BR find (1),
100.BR rcsintro (1),
101.BR cvs (1),
102.BR sccs (1)
103.SH AUTHOR
104Lowell Skoog
105.br
106Software Technology Group
107.br
108John Fluke Mfg. Co., Inc.
109.SH BUGS
110Shell metacharacters in
111.I command
112may have bizarre effects.  In particular, compound commands
113(containing ';', '[', and ']' characters) will not work.  It is best
114to enclose complicated commands in single quotes \(aa\ \(aa.