john@hpnmdla.hp.com (John McLaughlin) (03/07/91)
A while back I asked a question regarding a SCCS or RCS package available in the public domain that works. This posting is a summary of what I learned, what works, and How is works. My many thanks to all of the people who responded giving me help. The only PD RCS package I was able to find was in SIMTEL20, in the PD:<MSDOS.PGMUTIL> directory.... "PD1:","<MSDOS.PGMUTL>","DOSRCSEX.ZIP",1,136791,8,900829,"Revision Control System for text files, 1of3" "PD1:","<MSDOS.PGMUTL>","DOSRCSMP.ZIP",1,24412,8,900829,"Revision Control System for text files, 2of3" "PD1:","<MSDOS.PGMUTL>","SH_RCSEX.ZIP",1,170318,8,900829,"Revision Control System for text files, 3of3" DOSRCSMP continas the manual pages (documentation) for RCS and however both DOSRCSEX.ZIP and SH_RCSE.ZIP contined executable versio ns of ci, co, rcs, etc....... Why? what were the differences? why have 3 parts? Additio nally SH_RCSEX.ZIP seemed to contain KSH scripts (not much good for dos... I think...) so we had a mystery on our hands (oh yes, of course None of them work straight out of the box).... THe first thing that had to be done was find a compatible diff, now at first glance this may seem pretty easy, "diff is diff" you might say... And that is where you would be wrong. Below is just a partial listing of the 'diff' versions we found "PD1:","<MSDOS.ARC-LBR>","LDARC.ARC",1,25566,8,890713,"Compare 2 files, create compressed diff file" "PD1:","<MSDOS.FILUTL>","DIFFER.SPT",1,11316,7,840214,"SPITBOL pgm displays diffs between 2 txt files" "PD1:","<MSDOS.GNUISH>","DIFF114.ARC",1,118540,8,901004,"GNU Text file differences finder" "PD1:","<MSDOS.TXTUTL>","DIFFRNC2.ARC",1,41464,8,880407,"Displays differences between 2 files" "PD1:","<MSDOS.TXTUTL>","HDIFF122.ARC",1,37698,8,880627,"File 'diff' utility" diff.arc 15-Mar-89 47557 14 diff.lzh 12-Aug-90 40955 2 hdiff.lzh 18-Jan-90 30141 5 vdiff.arc 17-Jun-88 23026 17 We tried using several of these 'diffs' but none of them seemed to work they either had the wrong options (rcs expected different options) or RCS just chocked on them. However thanks to the help of Leila Burrel-Davis Frank Whaley, and Tom Wicklund I was steered to GNU diff (PD!:<MSDOS.GNUISH>DIFF114.ARC) This version seemed to work fine, however I could still not get RCS to work. Finially I figured out that SH_RCSEX.ZIP works but you have to set logname in your enviornment, i.e. the executables in SH_RCSEX.ZIP work just fine as long as you set LOGNAME=<some log name> If you dont do this you get an error message. I never did get the DOSRCSEX.ZIP executables to work and I am not really sure why 2 versio ns of the executables even exist. Oh well I am happy enough having a package that works. I just wanted to post this informatio n so anyone else trying to use RCS could avoid wasting as much time as I did getting this package running. Once the above changes were put into effect it works like a champ! My thanks to everyone who replied to my original posting!!! -John
eggert@twinsun.com (Paul Eggert) (03/07/91)
john@hpnmdla.hp.com (John McLaughlin) writes: >A while back I asked a question regarding a SCCS or RCS package >available in the public domain that works... Legal note: RCS is copyrighted, and is not in the public domain. However, recent versions of RCS have been placed under the GNU ``copyleft'', a license that lets you freely distribute RCS executables if you also distribute their source. This is all described in the file COPYING that comes with the RCS distribution; if your copy of RCS lacks COPYING, please write to gnu@prep.ai.mit.edu.
ccsdra@gdt.bath.ac.uk (Dave Allum) (03/07/91)
In article <11270006@hpnmdla.hp.com> john@hpnmdla.hp.com (John McLaughlin) writes: > ... stuff deleted ... > >DOSRCSMP continas the manual pages (documentation) for RCS and however >both DOSRCSEX.ZIP and SH_RCSE.ZIP contined executable versio ns >of ci, co, rcs, etc....... Why? what were the differences? >why have 3 parts? Additio nally SH_RCSEX.ZIP seemed to contain >KSH scripts (not much good for dos... I think...) so we had >a mystery on our hands (oh yes, of course None of them work >straight out of the box).... > > ... stuff deleted ... As I understand it the SH_RCSEX.ZIP executables are designed to work under the MKS shell and provide command line expansion etc. The shell scripts are intended for that environment too.
gkrone@pcserver2.naitc.com (Gary Krone) (03/12/91)
In article <1991Mar7.041215.19021@twinsun.com> eggert@twinsun.com (Paul Eggert) writes: >john@hpnmdla.hp.com (John McLaughlin) writes: > >>A while back I asked a question regarding a SCCS or RCS package >>available in the public domain that works... > >Legal note: RCS is copyrighted, and is not in the public domain. >However, recent versions of RCS have been placed under the GNU ``copyleft'', >a license that lets you freely distribute RCS executables >if you also distribute their source. >This is all described in the file COPYING that comes with the RCS distribution; >if your copy of RCS lacks COPYING, please write to gnu@prep.ai.mit.edu. The copy of RCS that I got off of simtel didn't have the source but I was able to get the source from another location. I didn't fully read the copying file. Has anyone ported RCS to the Borland line of compilers? If anyone has could you please point me to the source? I would like the DOS version to save the log files with the .?_v extension so I can make the dependency statement in the makefile. Thanks in advance. Gary Krone gkrone@bbs.naitc.com
NU013809@NDSUVM1.BITNET (Greg Wettstein) (03/14/91)
> In article <1991Mar7.041215.19021@twinsun.com> eggert@twinsun.com (Paul Eggert) write > >john@hpnmdla.hp.com (John McLaughlin) writes: > > > >>A while back I asked a question regarding a SCCS or RCS package > >>available in the public domain that works... > > > >Legal note: RCS is copyrighted, and is not in the public domain. > >However, recent versions of RCS have been placed under the GNU ``copyleft'', > >a license that lets you freely distribute RCS executables > >if you also distribute their source. > >This is all described in the file COPYING that comes with the RCS distribution; > >if your copy of RCS lacks COPYING, please write to gnu@prep.ai.mit.edu. > > The copy of RCS that I got off of simtel didn't have the source but I was able > to get the source from another location. I didn't fully read the copying file. > > Has anyone ported RCS to the Borland line of compilers? If anyone has could > you please point me to the source? I would like the DOS version to save the > log files with the .?_v extension so I can make the dependency statement in > the makefile. > > Thanks in advance. > > Gary Krone > gkrone@bbs.naitc.com We have just completed porting RCS 5.5 to MS-DOS using MSC 6.00A and the virgin sources as obtained from prep.ai.mit.edu. The resultant product passes the rcstest.sh script which is bundled with the 5.5 product. I have tried to maintain a product which is as consistent with the UNIX(c) product as possible. Since commas(,) are not legal in MS-DOS filenames we opted to use the apostrophe(') as the RCS archive designator. This of course poses the unfortunate limitation of single character filename extensions. The binaries are packaged and ready to be delivered to Mr. Davidsen and of course ultimately to comp.sys.ibm.pc.binaries. I sent a copy of the patches to a fine gentleman up in Canada who expressed an interest in the project and I am waiting for him to confirm that the binaries perform in his environment as well as mine. One of our mutual ambitions (The Canadian group and mine) is to provide the community with an RCS port whose stability is not in any type of question. This has resulted in delaying the release of the package but a delay which will hopefully be of benefit to everyone ultimately involved with the binaries. I will post a short notice to this group and the pc binaries discussion group when the package gets shipped. If anyone would like to converse about the distribution please use the e-mail address in my sig as this will insure that communications get routed directly to my office. As always, Dr. G.W. Wettstein Oncology Research Division Computing Facility Fargo Clinic / MeritCare UUCP: uunet!plains!wind!greg INTERNET: greg%wind.uucp@plains.nodak.edu Phone: 7001-234-2833 `The truest mark of a man's wisdom is his ability to listen to other men expound their wisdom.'