How to Add a User to RCS

You can allow users to access RCS files on a file-by-file basis.

When multiple users are editing a common set of project files, such as when they are editing the same suite of documents, or when they are collaborating on application development, two people editing the same document at the same time can lead to problems. For example, both can read an original version and make independent changes to it. After one of them saves the new version, the second person is not aware that the baseline has changed, and can overwrite all changes made by the first if he just saves his modifications. Revision control systems such as RCS prevent this from happening and keep track of all versions of all files. When you want a file under RCS to be accessible by multiple users, you need to explicitly configure RCS to allow access to those users.

Instructions

1. Log in as the user who first checked the file into RCS (i.e., the user who performed the original "ci" operation.)

2. Compile a list of all user names that must receive access to the file. Those may be people in the same programming team, or collaborators on the joint project being managed by RCS. For example, the list can consist of user names "jamesc" and "pdawson."

3. Add all usernames to RCS's access control list for that specific file, one by one. For example, if the file is named "proposal.txt," execute:

   rcs -ajamesc proposal.txt

   rcs -apdawson proposal.txt

   Note that there is no space between the "-a" command line option to "rcs" and the user name that follows. After executing these commands, users "jamesc" and "pdawson" have full access to "proposal.txt."

References

• Colorado State University: Using RCS: an ancient Unix tool