Creating a branch

The rtag command can be used to create a branch. The rtag command is much like tag, but it does not require that you have a working copy of the module. See section rtag--Add a symbolic tag to a module. (You can also use the tag command; see section tag--Add a symbolic tag to checked out versions of files).

$ cvs rtag -b -r release-1-0 release-1-0-patches tc

The `-b' flag makes rtag create a branch (rather than just a symbolic revision name). `-r release-1-0' says that this branch should be rooted at the node (in the revision tree) that corresponds to the tag `release-1-0'. Note that the numeric revision number that matches `release-1-0' will probably be different from file to file. The name of the new branch is `release-1-0-patches', and the module affected is `tc'.

To fix the problem in release 1.0, you need a working copy of the branch you just created.

$ cvs checkout -r release-1-0-patches tc
$ cvs status -v driver.c backend.c
===================================================================
File: driver.c          Status: Up-to-date

    Version:            1.7     Sat Dec  5 18:25:54 1992
    RCS Version:        1.7     /usr/local/cvsroot/yoyodyne/tc/driver.c,v
    Sticky Tag:         release-1-0-patches (branch: 1.7.2)
    Sticky Date:        (none)
    Sticky Options:     (none)

    Existing Tags:
        release-1-0-patches             (branch: 1.7.2)
        release-1-0                     (revision: 1.7)

===================================================================
File: backend.c         Status: Up-to-date

    Version:            1.4     Tue Dec  1 14:39:01 1992
    RCS Version:        1.4     /usr/local/cvsroot/yoyodyne/tc/backend.c,v
    Sticky Tag:         release-1-0-patches (branch: 1.4.2)
    Sticky Date:        (none)
    Sticky Options:     (none)

    Existing Tags:
        release-1-0-patches             (branch: 1.4.2)
        release-1-0                     (revision: 1.4)
        release-0-4                     (revision: 1.4)

As the output from the status command shows the branch number is created by adding a digit at the tail of the revision number it is based on. (If `release-1-0' corresponds to revision 1.4, the branch's revision number will be 1.4.2. For obscure reasons CVS always gives branches even numbers, starting at 2. See section Revision numbers).