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 Setting up the server for password authentication.

-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 section Direct connection with GSSAPI). 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 section The 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 section All environment variables which affect CVS). The default is to make working files writable, unless watches are on (see section Mechanisms to track who is editing files).

-s variable=value

Set a user variable (see section Expansions in administrative files).

-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 section Direct connection with GSSAPI) or a Kerberos connection (see section Direct connection with Kerberos). 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.