Repository Structure

A CVS repository is composed of the special CVSROOT administrative directory and any project directories you create. All the CVS administrative files and configuration files are kept in CVSROOT.

The project directories contain the project’s files and subdirectories. The project’s files are stored in RCS format and have a ,v file suffix.

Any project directory or subdirectory may contain Attic or CVS directories. An Attic subdirectory stores any file from the directory it’s part of that doesn’t exist on the trunk (the main development line for the file). The Attic directory is explained in Chapter 3. A CVS subdirectory stores metadata for the files in its directory.

The server also stores files in a temporary directory set by either the TMPDIR environment variable or the -T command-line option. These files are under a directory called cvs-serverPID , where PID is the process ID of the server. If the server is shut down and unable to clean up after itself, the files may be left in place. They can be removed safely if there is no CVS process running with the relevant process ID.

CVS Subdirectory

The only file stored in the CVS subdirectories in a repository is fileattr, which lists the file attributes of the files in the parent directory. The file attributes are settings for the cvs watch commands. In later versions of CVS, the fileattr file may be used for other attributes or the CVS subdirectory may be used for other files.

The format for fileattr is one line ...

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