7.4.3 Copying the history file

This way also involves direct modifications to the repository. It is safe, but not without drawbacks.

# Copy the RCS file inside the repository
$ cd $CVSROOT/dir
$ cp old,v new,v
# Remove the old file
$ cd ~/dir
$ rm old
$ cvs remove old
$ cvs commit old
# Remove all tags from new
$ cvs update new
$ cvs log new             # Remember the non-branch tag names
$ cvs tag -d tag1 new
$ cvs tag -d tag2 new
…

By removing the tags you will be able to check out old revisions.

Advantages:

• Checking out old revisions works correctly, as long as you use ‘-rtag’ and not ‘-Ddate’ to retrieve the revisions.
• The log of changes is maintained intact.
• The revision numbers are not affected.

Disadvantages:

• You cannot easily see the history of the file across the rename.