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RCSCLEAN(1)                                    General Commands Manual                                    RCSCLEAN(1)



NAME
       rcsclean - clean up working files

SYNOPSIS
       rcsclean [options] [ file ... ]

DESCRIPTION
       rcsclean  removes  files  that  are  not being worked on.  rcsclean -u also unlocks and removes files that are
       being worked on but have not changed.

       For each file given, rcsclean compares the working file and a revision in the corresponding RCS file.   If  it
       finds  a difference, it does nothing.  Otherwise, it first unlocks the revision if the -u option is given, and
       then removes the working file unless the working file is writable and the revision is  locked.   It  logs  its
       actions by outputting the corresponding rcs -u and rm -f commands on the standard output.

       Files  are  paired as explained in ci(1).  If no file is given, all working files in the current directory are
       cleaned.  Filenames matching an RCS suffix denote RCS files; all others denote working files.

       The number of the revision to which the working file is compared may be attached to any of the options -n, -q,
       -r, or -u.  If no revision number is specified, then if the -u option is given and the caller has one revision
       locked, rcsclean uses that revision; otherwise rcsclean uses the latest revision on the default  branch,  nor‐
       mally the root.

       rcsclean is useful for clean targets in makefiles.  See also rcsdiff(1), which prints out the differences, and
       ci(1), which normally reverts to the previous revision if a file was not changed.

OPTIONS
       -ksubst
              Use subst style keyword substitution when retrieving  the  revision  for  comparison.   See  co(1)  for
              details.

       -n[rev]
              Do  not  actually  remove  any  files  or  unlock  any revisions.  Using this option will tell you what
              rcsclean would do without actually doing it.

       -q[rev]
              Do not log the actions taken on standard output.

       -r[rev]
              This option has no effect other than specifying the revision for comparison.

       -T     Preserve the modification time on the RCS file even if the RCS file changes because a lock is  removed.
              This  option  can suppress extensive recompilation caused by a make(1) dependency of some other copy of
              the working file on the RCS file.  Use this option with care; it can suppress recompilation  even  when
              it  is  needed,  i.e. when the lock removal would mean a change to keyword strings in the other working
              file.

       -u[rev]
              Unlock the revision if it is locked and no difference is found.

       -V     Print RCS's version number.

       -Vn    Emulate RCS version n.  See co(1) for details.

       -xsuffixes
              Use suffixes to characterize RCS files.  See ci(1) for details.

FILES
       rcsclean accesses files much as ci(1) does.

ENVIRONMENT
       RCSINIT
              Options prepended to the argument list, separated by spaces.  A  backslash  escapes  spaces  within  an
              option.   The RCSINIT options are prepended to the argument lists of most RCS commands.  Useful RCSINIT
              options include -q, -V, -x, and -z.

       RCS_MEM_LIMIT
              An integer lim, measured in kilobytes, specifying the threshold under which commands will  try  to  use
              memory-based  operations for processing the RCS file.  (For RCS files of size lim kilobytes or greater,
              RCS will use the slower standard input/output routines.)  Default value is 256.

       TMPDIR Name of the temporary directory.  If not set, the environment variables  TMP  and  TEMP  are  inspected
              instead  and the first value found is taken; if none of them are set, a host-dependent default is used,
              typically /tmp.

DIAGNOSTICS
       The exit status is zero if and only if all operations were successful.  Missing working files  and  RCS  files
       are silently ignored.

IDENTIFICATION
       Author: Walter F. Tichy.
       Manual Page Revision: 5.9.0; Release Date: 2014-06-10.
       Copyright © 2010-2013 Thien-Thi Nguyen.
       Copyright © 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993 Paul Eggert.
       Copyright © 1982, 1988, 1989 Walter F. Tichy.

SEE ALSO
       ci(1), co(1), ident(1), rcs(1), rcsdiff(1), rcsmerge(1), rlog(1), rcsfile(5).

       Walter  F.  Tichy,  RCS--A  System  for  Version  Control,  Software--Practice & Experience 15, 7 (July 1985),
       637-654.

       The full documentation for RCS is maintained as a Texinfo manual.  If the info(1) and RCS programs  are  prop‐
       erly installed at your site, the command

              info rcs

       should give you access to the complete manual.  Additionally, the RCS homepage:

              http://www.gnu.org/software/rcs/

       has news and links to the latest release, development site, etc.

BUGS
       At least one file must be given in older Unix versions that do not provide the needed directory scanning oper‐
       ations.



GNU RCS 5.9.0                                         2014-06-10                                          RCSCLEAN(1)