topic Re: RCS usage question in Operating System - HP-UX

RCS usage question

Mark Grossman — Tue, 03 Apr 2001 14:46:57 GMT

We have K,L,N hp-ux 11.0 systems.
The Oracle programmers have asked me to look at some kind of version control. They do a lot of revision to things like Oracle Reports 2.5 files. These files are non-text binary files. I was looking at RCS on unix and the various freeware window front ends from GNU, etc.
However, the man page for RCSINFO clearly states that rcs is for text only files and could corrupt binary files. But from what ive read on the web and from others here at work it sounds like people are using rcs for non-text files.
Am I missing something or does anyone have any suggestions?
thank you,
Mark Grossman

Re: RCS usage question

Kevin Wright — Tue, 03 Apr 2001 19:35:27 GMT

yes, you can store binary data in RCS files.

Re: RCS usage question

Philip Chan_1 — Wed, 04 Apr 2001 03:34:54 GMT

From what I remember, the Oracle guys from my last job did use RCS to store binaries file and they had no problem with it.

Re: RCS usage question

Mark Grossman — Wed, 04 Apr 2001 14:50:49 GMT

kevin, phillip - thanks for the input,
Mark

Re: RCS usage question

Joseph A Benaiah_1 — Sat, 07 Apr 2001 17:01:45 GMT

Try using SCCS rather than RCS as I believe that is has a binary file option.

Cheers,

Joseph.

Re: RCS usage question

Bill Thorsteinson — Tue, 10 Apr 2001 01:36:55 GMT

Recent versions of RCS handle binary files correctly if you flag the RCS file as binary when you create it. RCS keeps the most recent version intact and stores the changes required to get back to the prior version if needed. Make sure you have a current version if you choose RCS. I have used it for 250,000 lines of SQL and PL/SQL source code.

Unless the model has been changed, SCCS always start with the fist version checked in, then applies all intermediate edits to get to the latest version.

Consider CVS which is currently built on RCS to mange files in projects. It will check for binary files when importing the initial files and allows for binary and text addtions to the repository. WinCVS provides a browser type interface for Windows if that is desired. There is also an module that provides an SCC compliant interface.

Re: RCS usage question

Mark Grossman — Tue, 10 Apr 2001 13:58:39 GMT

Joseph - thank you for the info -
Bill - thanks much for the good detail!