SCCS(1P) POSIX Programmer's Manual SCCS(1P)PROLOG
This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux
implementation of this interface may differ (consult the corresponding
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NAMEsccs — front end for the SCCS subsystem (DEVELOPMENT)
SYNOPSISsccs [−r] [−d path] [−p path] command [options...] [operands...]
DESCRIPTION
The sccs utility is a front end to the SCCS programs. It also includes
the capability to run set-user-id to another user to provide additional
protection.
The sccs utility shall invoke the specified command with the specified
options and operands. By default, each of the operands shall be modi‐
fied by prefixing it with the string "SCCS/s.".
The command can be the name of one of the SCCS utilities in this volume
of POSIX.1‐2008 (admin, delta, get, prs, rmdel, sact, unget, val, or
what) or one of the pseudo-utilities listed in the EXTENDED DESCRIPTION
section.
OPTIONS
The sccs utility shall conform to the Base Definitions volume of
POSIX.1‐2008, Section 12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines, except that
options operands are actually options to be passed to the utility named
by command. When the portion of the command:
command [options ... ] [operands ... ]
is considered, all of the pseudo-utilities used as command shall sup‐
port the Utility Syntax Guidelines. Any of the other SCCS utilities
that can be invoked in this manner support the Guidelines to the extent
indicated by their individual OPTIONS sections.
The following options shall be supported preceding the command operand:
−d path A pathname of a directory to be used as a root directory for
the SCCS files. The default shall be the current directory.
The −d option shall take precedence over the PROJECTDIR vari‐
able. See −p.
−p path A pathname of a directory in which the SCCS files are
located. The default shall be the SCCS directory.
The −p option differs from the −d option in that the −d
option-argument shall be prefixed to the entire pathname and
the −p option-argument shall be inserted before the final
component of the pathname. For example:
sccs −d /x −p y get a/b
converts to:
get /x/a/y/s.b
This allows the creation of aliases such as:
alias syssccs="sccs −d /usr/src"
which is used as:
syssccs get cmd/who.c
−r Invoke command with the real user ID of the process, not any
effective user ID that the sccs utility is set to. Certain
commands (admin, check, clean, diffs, info, rmdel, and tell)
cannot be run set-user-ID by all users, since this would
allow anyone to change the authorizations. These commands are
always run as the real user.
OPERANDS
The following operands shall be supported:
command An SCCS utility name or the name of one of the pseudo-utili‐
ties listed in the EXTENDED DESCRIPTION section.
options An option or option-argument to be passed to command.
operands An operand to be passed to command.
STDIN
See the utility description for the specified command.
INPUT FILES
See the utility description for the specified command.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
The following environment variables shall affect the execution of sccs:
LANG Provide a default value for the internationalization vari‐
ables that are unset or null. (See the Base Definitions vol‐
ume of POSIX.1‐2008, Section 8.2, Internationalization Vari‐
ables for the precedence of internationalization variables
used to determine the values of locale categories.)
LC_ALL If set to a non-empty string value, override the values of
all the other internationalization variables.
LC_CTYPE Determine the locale for the interpretation of sequences of
bytes of text data as characters (for example, single-byte as
opposed to multi-byte characters in arguments and input
files).
LC_MESSAGES
Determine the locale that should be used to affect the format
and contents of diagnostic messages written to standard
error.
NLSPATH Determine the location of message catalogs for the processing
of LC_MESSAGES.
PROJECTDIR
Provide a default value for the −d path option. If the value
of PROJECTDIR begins with a <slash>, it shall be considered
an absolute pathname; otherwise, the value of PROJECTDIR is
treated as a user name and that user's initial working direc‐
tory shall be examined for a subdirectory src or source. If
such a directory is found, it shall be used. Otherwise, the
value shall be used as a relative pathname.
Additional environment variable effects may be found in the utility
description for the specified command.
ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS
Default.
STDOUT
See the utility description for the specified command.
STDERR
See the utility description for the specified command.
OUTPUT FILES
See the utility description for the specified command.
EXTENDED DESCRIPTION
The following pseudo-utilities shall be supported as command operands.
All options referred to in the following list are values given in the
options operands following command.
check Equivalent to info, except that nothing shall be printed if
nothing is being edited, and a non-zero exit status shall be
returned if anything is being edited. The intent is to have
this included in an ``install'' entry in a makefile to ensure
that everything is included into the SCCS file before a version
is installed.
clean Remove everything from the current directory that can be recre‐
ated from SCCS files, but do not remove any files being edited.
If the −b option is given, branches shall be ignored in the
determination of whether they are being edited; this is danger‐
ous if branches are kept in the same directory.
create Create an SCCS file, taking the initial contents from the file
of the same name. Any options to admin are accepted. If the
creation is successful, the original files shall be renamed by
prefixing the basenames with a comma. These renamed files
should be removed after it has been verified that the SCCS
files have been created successfully.
delget Perform a delta on the named files and then get new versions.
The new versions shall have ID keywords expanded and shall not
be editable. Any −m, −p, −r, −s, and −y options shall be passed
to delta, and any −b, −c, −e, −i, −k, −l, −s, and −x options
shall be passed to get.
deledit Equivalent to delget, except that the get phase shall include
the −e option. This option is useful for making a checkpoint of
the current editing phase. The same options shall be passed to
delta as described above, and all the options listed for get
above except −e shall be passed to edit.
diffs Write a difference listing between the current version of the
files checked out for editing and the versions in SCCS format.
Any −r, −c, −i, −x, and −t options shall be passed to get; any
−l, −s, −e, −f, −h, and −b options shall be passed to diff. A
−C option shall be passed to diff as −c.
edit Equivalent to get −e.
fix Remove the named delta, but leave a copy of the delta with the
changes that were in it. It is useful for fixing small compiler
bugs, and so on. The application shall ensure that it is fol‐
lowed by a −r SID option. Since fix does not leave audit
trails, it should be used carefully.
info Write a listing of all files being edited. If the −b option is
given, branches (that is, SIDs with two or fewer components)
shall be ignored. If a −u user option is given, then only files
being edited by the named user shall be listed. A −U option
shall be equivalent to −u<current user>.
print Write out verbose information about the named files, equivalent
to sccs prs.
tell Write a <newline>-separated list of the files being edited to
standard output. Takes the −b, −u, and −U options like info and
check.
unedit This is the opposite of an edit or a get −e. It should be used
with caution, since any changes made since the get are lost.
EXIT STATUS
The following exit values shall be returned:
0 Successful completion.
>0 An error occurred.
CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS
Default.
The following sections are informative.
APPLICATION USAGE
Many of the SCCS utilities take directory names as operands as well as
specific filenames. The pseudo-utilities supported by sccs are not
described as having this capability, but are not prohibited from doing
so.
EXAMPLES
1. To get a file for editing, edit it and produce a new delta:
sccs get −e file.c
ex file.c
sccs delta file.c
2. To get a file from another directory:
sccs −p /usr/src/sccs/s. get cc.c
or:
sccs get /usr/src/sccs/s.cc.c
3. To make a delta of a large number of files in the current direc‐
tory:
sccs delta *.c
4. To get a list of files being edited that are not on branches:
sccs info −b
5. To delta everything being edited by the current user:
sccs delta $(sccs tell −U)
6. In a makefile, to get source files from an SCCS file if it does not
already exist:
SRCS = <list of source files>
$(SRCS):
sccs get $(REL) $@
RATIONALEsccs and its associated utilities are part of the XSI Development Util‐
ities option within the XSI option.
SCCS is an abbreviation for Source Code Control System. It is a mainte‐
nance and enhancement tracking tool. When a file is put under SCCS, the
source code control system maintains the file and, when changes are
made, identifies and stores them in the file with the original source
code and/or documentation. As other changes are made, they too are
identified and retained in the file.
Retrieval of the original and any set of changes is possible. Any ver‐
sion of the file as it develops can be reconstructed for inspection or
additional modification. History data can be stored with each version,
documenting why the changes were made, who made them, and when they
were made.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
None.
SEE ALSO
admin, delta, get, make, prs, rmdel, sact, unget, val, what
The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2008, Chapter 8, Environment
Variables, Section 12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines
COPYRIGHT
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2013 Edition, Standard for Information Technology
-- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
Specifications Issue 7, Copyright (C) 2013 by the Institute of Electri‐
cal and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. (This is
POSIX.1-2008 with the 2013 Technical Corrigendum 1 applied.) In the
event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and
The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard
is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online
at http://www.unix.org/online.html .
Any typographical or formatting errors that appear in this page are
most likely to have been introduced during the conversion of the source
files to man page format. To report such errors, see https://www.ker‐
nel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .
IEEE/The Open Group 2013 SCCS(1P)
