CVS Release

The release command releases or cancels the checkout command. This indicates that a local working copy is no longer in use. A release is logged in the CVS history file. This command is never invoked from the local working copy. It has to be invoked from a directory one level above it. You can specify an absolute path to the CVS repository using the –d global option. Using the –d option, you can delete the local working copy including new directories created in it. Using the release command, you can specify that the files will not be used. You can also check if there are any uncommitted changes and decide whether to add the file to the repository. For example, the following code invokes the release command from the parent directory:

$ cvs –d /usr/local/my_repository release –d my_project

In the above code, you need to specify an absolute path to the repository because CVS does not reside in the parent directory. The my_project directory is released from my_repository and deleted along with the subdirectories it contains.

This command is meant to safely cancel the effect of ‘cvs checkout’. Since CVS doesn't lock files, it isn't strictly necessary to use this command. You can always simply delete your working directory, if you like; but you risk losing changes you may have forgotten, and you leave no trace in the CVS history file that you've abandoned your checkout.

Use ‘cvs release’ to avoid these problems. This command checks that no uncommitted changes are present; that you are executing it from immediately above a CVS working directory; and that the repository recorded for your files is the same as the repository defined in the module database.

CVS Tutorial

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