A.4 Global options

The available ‘cvs_options’ (that are given to the left of ‘cvs_command’) are:

--allow-root=rootdir

Specify legal CVSROOT directory. See Password authentication server.

-a

Authenticate all communication between the client and the server. Only has an effect on the CVS client. As of this writing, this is only implemented when using a GSSAPI connection (see GSSAPI authenticated). Authentication prevents certain sorts of attacks involving hijacking the active TCP connection. Enabling authentication does not enable encryption.

-b bindir

In CVS 1.9.18 and older, this specified that RCS programs are in the bindir directory. Current versions of CVS do not run RCS programs; for compatibility this option is accepted, but it does nothing.

-T tempdir

Use tempdir as the directory where temporary files are located. Overrides the setting of the $TMPDIR environment variable and any precompiled directory. This parameter should be specified as an absolute pathname. (When running client/server, ‘-T’ affects only the local process; specifying ‘-T’ for the client has no effect on the server and vice versa.)

-d cvs_root_directory

Use cvs_root_directory as the root directory pathname of the repository. Overrides the setting of the $CVSROOT environment variable. See Repository.

-e editor

Use editor to enter revision log information. Overrides the setting of the $CVSEDITOR and $EDITOR environment variables. For more information, see Committing your changes.

-f

Do not read the ~/.cvsrc file. This option is most often used because of the non-orthogonality of the CVS option set. For example, the ‘cvs log’ option ‘-N’ (turn off display of tag names) does not have a corresponding option to turn the display on. So if you have ‘-N’ in the ~/.cvsrc entry for ‘log’, you may need to use ‘-f’ to show the tag names.

-H

--help

Display usage information about the specified ‘cvs_command’ (but do not actually execute the command). If you don’t specify a command name, ‘cvs -H’ displays overall help for CVS, including a list of other help options.

-n

Do not change any files. Attempt to execute the ‘cvs_command’, but only to issue reports; do not remove, update, or merge any existing files, or create any new files.

Note that CVS will not necessarily produce exactly the same output as without ‘-n’. In some cases the output will be the same, but in other cases CVS will skip some of the processing that would have been required to produce the exact same output.

-Q

Cause the command to be really quiet; the command will only generate output for serious problems.

-q

Cause the command to be somewhat quiet; informational messages, such as reports of recursion through subdirectories, are suppressed.

-r

Make new working files read-only. Same effect as if the $CVSREAD environment variable is set (see Environment variables). The default is to make working files writable, unless watches are on (see Watches).

-s variable=value

Set a user variable (see Variables).

-t

Trace program execution; display messages showing the steps of CVS activity. Particularly useful with ‘-n’ to explore the potential impact of an unfamiliar command.

-v

--version

Display version and copyright information for CVS.

-w

Make new working files read-write. Overrides the setting of the $CVSREAD environment variable. Files are created read-write by default, unless $CVSREAD is set or ‘-r’ is given.

-x

Encrypt all communication between the client and the server. Only has an effect on the CVS client. As of this writing, this is only implemented when using a GSSAPI connection (see GSSAPI authenticated) or a Kerberos connection (see Kerberos authenticated). Enabling encryption implies that message traffic is also authenticated. Encryption support is not available by default; it must be enabled using a special configure option, --enable-encryption, when you build CVS.

-z gzip-level

Set the compression level. Valid levels are 1 (high speed, low compression) to 9 (low speed, high compression), or 0 to disable compression (the default). Only has an effect on the CVS client.