RCS 5.6.3 for OS/2 release notes

This version of RCS is released to comp.binaries.os2 although the
RCS 5.6.3 source code has not yet been officially released. The
official release will not only contain the original Unix version
but also support code for MS-DOS and OS/2 (with Microsoft C or
Borland C compilers).

The Unix and OS/2 versions are finished but the MS-DOS version is
still worked on because of bugs/problems in MS-DOS/DOS C
library/DOS LAN software which currently prevent use of the MS-DOS
version in LAN's (such as Novell).

Because of high demand, the OS/2 version is released with source &
executables already now. DON'T USE THE SOURCE CODE TO BUILD AN
MS-DOS VERSION FOR USE IN A LAN ENVIRONMENT.

The source code and executables are distributed in two separate
archives, both include this text (README) and contents lists
(FILES.SRC and FILES.BIN).

This distribution does not only include RCS source code and
executables but also a few other programs which are either
required to use RCS successfully or which are nice to have
together with RCS.

Included are:

- RCS 5.6.3          source/rcs

- RCSFRONT           source/rcsfront

  This program is a front end for RCS and allows simple
  maintenance of entire trees of source code and RCS files.

- GNU diff 1.15      source/diff

  This program is required to use RCS and will be included for the
  PC versions (MS-DOS and OS/2) in the original RCS 5.6.3
  distribution.

- patch 2.0.12u5     source/patch

  This program is the opposite to GNU diff and should be available
  to everyone who has diff, although it is not required for use of
  RCS.

- CVS 1.2            source/cvs

  This is also a front end for RCS but is more sophisticated than
  RCSFRONT. It allows full multi-user access to a common master
  source repository consisting of a tree of RCS files.

  This CVS version is a preliminary release and not yet fully
  tested. It is released with RCS to give me feedback about bugs
  and problems. A newer release of CVS (1.3) is already in beta
  test (but not yet ported to OS/2).

- GNU gdbm           source/gdbm

  This database library is required to compile CVS.

- GNU grep           source/grep

  Grep is required to use CVS. It is convenient to have it when
  working with lots of source code anyway. The distribution
  included grep/egrep as well as fgrep.

The archive with the executables does also contain preformatted
manual pages and documents (in PostScript format and plain ASCII).
See these documents for further description of the programs and
how to use them.

Installation is simple, just put the programs somewhere in your
PATH. No configuration files are needed. Eventually the
environment variable RCSINIT should be set to the RCS options you
use most. You may have to put a -x option (see manual) into
RCSINIT at least.

The use of RCS, RCSFRONT and CVS is much more convenient when HPFS
is used on drives which contain the RCS files but this is not
required. HPFS will allow the use of the traditional RCS file
extension ,v which cannot be used on FAT drives.

Not to use ,v is the default of the RCS programs in this
distribution. When you want to use ,v then you have to set RCSINIT
to the value "-x,v/". Otherwise, the ./RCS subdirectory is used for
RCS files.

One change in this version against the previous releases of RCS
is, that now the path name component /RCS/ is recognized anywhere
in a file name specification, not only if it is the last path name
component. This feature allows the use of RCS with RCSFRONT and
CVS on FAT drives.

Note that the /RCS/ path name component must be in upper case,
even though the OS/2 file systems are not case sensitive.
Otherwise, /rcs/ or any other mixed case version is not
recognized, which allows, for example, the use of rcs on a source
directory which has /rcs/ in the path name, such as the RCS 5.6.3
source code tree itself. The RCS programs take the file names as
given on the command line. If wildcard expansion takes place and
affects the /RCS/ component, /RCS/ will be uppercase on FAT and as
it is stored in the directory on HPFS drives.

The RCS port to OS/2 was done by Frank Whaley and Kai Uwe Rommel,
RCS version 5 is currently maintained and developed by Paul
Eggert, previous versions of RCS were built by Walter F. Tichy and
others.

Please send bug reports about RCS to:

  Paul Eggert, eggert@twinsun.com

reports about problems uniquely on OS/2 to:

  Frank Whaley, few@well.sf.ca.us

  Kai Uwe Rommel, rommel@informatik.tu-muenchen.de
                  rommel@jonas.bofe.sub.org (only short messages)

The other programs, i.e. GNU diff, GNU gdbm, GNU grep, RCSFRONT,
CVS and patch, were ported to OS/2 by Kai Uwe Rommel. Please send bug
reports to:

  Kai Uwe Rommel, rommel@informatik.tu-muenchen.de
                  rommel@jonas.bofe.sub.org (only short messages)



March 12th, 1992


Kai Uwe Rommel                                      Muenchen, Germany

rommel@jonas.bofe.sub.org                       Phone +49 89 723 4101
rommel@informatik.tu-muenchen.de                  Fax +49 89 723 7889
