12.4 Substitution modes

Each file has a stored default substitution mode, and each working directory copy of a file also has a substitution mode. The former is set by the ‘-k’ option to cvs add and cvs admin; the latter is set by the ‘-k’ or ‘-A’ options to cvs checkout or cvs update. cvs diff and cvs rdiff also have ‘-k’ options. For some examples, see Handling binary files, and Merging and keywords.

The modes available are:

‘-kkv’

Generate keyword strings using the default form, e.g. $Revision: 5.7 $ for the Revision keyword.

‘-kkvl’

Like ‘-kkv’, except that a locker's name is always inserted if the given revision is currently locked. The locker's name is only relevant if cvs admin -l is in use.

‘-kk’

Generate only keyword names in keyword strings; omit their values. For example, for the Revision keyword, generate the string $Revision$ instead of $Revision: 5.7 $. This option is useful to ignore differences due to keyword substitution when comparing different revisions of a file (see section Merging and keywords).

‘-ko’

Generate the old keyword string, present in the working file just before it was checked in. For example, for the Revision keyword, generate the string $Revision: 1.1 $ instead of $Revision: 5.7 $ if that is how the string appeared when the file was checked in.

‘-kb’

Like ‘-ko’, but also inhibit conversion of line endings between the canonical form in which they are stored in the repository (linefeed only), and the form appropriate to the operating system in use on the client. For systems, like unix, which use linefeed only to terminate lines, this is the same as ‘-ko’. For more information on binary files, see Handling binary files.

‘-kv’

Generate only keyword values for keyword strings. For example, for the Revision keyword, generate the string 5.7 instead of $Revision: 5.7 $. This can help generate files in programming languages where it is hard to strip keyword delimiters like $Revision: $ from a string. However, further keyword substitution cannot be performed once the keyword names are removed, so this option should be used with care.

One often would like to use ‘-kv’ with cvs export—see section export—Export sources from CVS, similar to checkout. But be aware that doesn't handle an export containing binary files correctly.