Go to the previous, next section.

Overall structure of CVS commands

The first release of CVS consisted of a number of shell-scripts. Today CVS is implemented as a single program that is a front-end to RCS and diff. The overall format of all CVS commands is:

cvs [ cvs_options ] cvs_command [ command_options ] [ command_args ]

cvs

The program that is a front-end to RCS.

cvs_options

Some options that affect all sub-commands of CVS. These are described below.

cvs_command

One of several different sub-commands. Some of the commands have aliases that can be used instead; those aliases are noted in the reference manual for that command. There are only two situations where you may omit `cvs_command': `cvs -H' elicits a list of available commands, and `cvs -v' displays version information on CVS itself.

command_options

Options that are specific for the command.

command_args

Arguments to the commands.

There is unfortunately some confusion between cvs_options and command_options. For example, `-q' can often (but not always) be given as both a cvs_option and a command_option. `-l', when given as a cvs_option, only affects some of the commands. When it is given as a command_option is has a different meaning, and is accepted by more commands. In other words, do not take the above categorization too seriously. Look at the documentation instead.

Go to the previous, next section.