Messages, Logs and History

Once you have used CVS to store a version control history--what files have changed when, how, and by whom, there are a variety of mechanisms for looking through the history.

Log Messages

Whenever you commit a file you specify a log message.
To look through the log messages which have been specified for every revision which has been committed, use the `cvs log' command:

 log [options] [files...]

log displays log information for files, including the "head" revision (the latest revision on the trunk), all symbolic names (tags).

The History Database

You can use the history file to log various CVS actions.

To retrieve the information from the history file, use the `cvs history' command:

 history [-report] [-flags] [-options args] [files...]

CVS can keep a history file that tracks each use of the `checkout', `commit', `rtag', `update', and `release' commands.

User-Defined Logging

You can customize CVS to log various kinds of actions, in whatever manner you choose.

These mechanisms operate by executing a script at various times. The script might append a message to a file listing the information and the programmer who created it, or send mail to a group of developers, or, perhaps, post a message to a particular newsgroup. To log commits, use the `loginfo' file.

To log commits, checkouts, exports, and tags, respectively, you can also use the `-i', `-o', `-e', and `-t' options in the modules file.

Annotate Command

annotate prints the head revision of the trunk, together with information on the last modification for each line and file.

 cvs annotate [`-flR'] [`-r rev'|`-D date'] files ...

Example:

working> cvs annotate swoop

Annotations for swoop/index.html
***************
...

2.0          (john  18-Oct-03): I added this 
2.1          (john  18-Oct-03): .. and this and that
1.1          (fred    16-Oct-03): 

1.1          (fred    16-Oct-03): 
1.6          (fred    18-Oct-03): Fred: some more ....

CVS Info Features

It is possible to automatically inform others about commits.

CVS offers mechanisms (watches) to track who is editing files.