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Adding ID keywords in an RCS file

An ID keyword is just a string of characters in your file that will be updated automatically by RCS to reflect the latest version number. It's not necessary to have ID keywords in your file, but it can help you keep different versions straight.

The easiest way to get the version number information into your file is to include the string "$Header$" somewhere in your file. Whenever you check out a new version with the co command, RCS will add version information before the second "$".

Here are all the possible ID keywords:

$Author$ expands to the author's login name.
$Date$ expands to the date of the last checkin.
$Revision$ expands to the revision number.
$Source$ expands to the pathname of the file within the RCS directory.
$RCSfile$ is the same as $Source$, but without the pathname.
$Header$ includes the pathname, revision, date, and author.

Next: Listing the current changes to an RCS file
See also: What does a source code control system do?
Previous: Locking a file under RCS control
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John Shipman, john@nmt.edu

Last updated: 1995/12/06 21:16:34 UT
URL: http://www.nmt.edu/tcc/help/tool/rcs/idkeys.html