CVS Quick Reference

cvs --help
cvs -H commit
cvs -H add

cvs login

cvs checkout

cvs -q update [file]

cvs diff [file]

cvs -q commit -m "Comments:........" [file]

vi file.ext
cvs add -m "creation log:....." file.ext
cvs commit

mkdir new_dir
cvs add new_dir

Add New SubDir Tree:
cvs add dir_new
cvs add dir_new/*
cvs -q commit -m "- add directories"

cvs add -kb -m "creation log:....." file.bin
cvs -q commit !$

— commit right afterward

cvs log <dir/file>

cvs log -l <dir>

cvs admin -m1.2:"- new text" <dir/file>

rm -f file.ext
cvs remove file.ext

rm -rf dir_unwanted
cvs remove dir_unwanted/*
cvs update -P

mv f1 f2
cvs remove f1
cvs add f2
cvs -q commit -m 'Remove ...'

mkdir newdir
cvs add newdir
mv olddir/* newdir/

cvs -q update -D "YYYY-MM-DD"

Once you've set CVSROOT and download every file from the cvs server, you won't need to specify CVSROOT any more for cvs status and cvs update, because it is recorded in the cvs archive, under every directory, in file CVS/Root. You still have to issue cvs login (or equivalent) every time before you connect.

Note, yet for cvs checkout, you still need to set CVSROOT.