The administrative files

The directory $CVSROOT/CVSROOT contains some administrative files. Appendix B, Reference manual for Administrative files, for a complete description. You can use cvsnt without any of these files, but some commands work better when at least the modules file is properly set up.

The most important of these files is the modules file. It defines all modules in the repository. This is a sample modules file.

CVSROOT         CVSROOT
modules         CVSROOT modules
cvs             gnu/cvs
rcs             gnu/rcs
diff            gnu/diff
tc              yoyodyne/tc

The modules file is line oriented. In its simplest form each line contains the name of the module, whitespace, and the directory where the module resides. The directory is a path relative to $CVSROOT. The last four lines in the example above are examples of such lines.

The line that defines the module called modules uses features that are not explained here. the section called “The modules file”, for a full explanation of all the available features.

In many cases the modules2 file may be more suitable for defining modules. See the section called “The modules2 file” for details.

Editing administrative files

You edit the administrative files in the same way that you would edit any other module. Use cvs checkout CVSROOT to get a working copy, edit it, and commit your changes in the normal way.

It is possible to commit an erroneous administrative file. You can often fix the error and check in a new revision, but sometimes a particularly bad error in the administrative file makes it impossible to commit new revisions.