CHECKOUT(1)                 General Commands Manual                CHECKOUT(1)



NAME
       checkout - RCS check-out utility

USAGE
       checkout [options] [file-specifications]

SYNOPSIS
       Checkout  is  an  extension  of  the  RCS utility co.  It uses a file's
       check-in date to set the file's modification date after check-out.

DESCRIPTION
       Checkout uses the rcs utility co.  It is normally invoked from the rcs-
       get  script,  but may be invoked in a standalone manner.  Checkout dif-
       fers from co primarily in its treatment to the delta date: after invok-
       ing  co, checkout sets the file's modification date to match the delta-
       date for the extracted version.

   Set-UID Operation
       Like the checkin utility, checkout properly handles  set-uid  operation
       for a non-root effective user.  The archived files are owned by the ef-
       fective user, and the checked-out files are owned by the real user.

       Note that since checkin initializes the  access  list  in  the  archive
       files, the real user must appear on the access list to lock a file.  Of
       course, if no lock is made, then the user need not  be  on  the  access
       list.

OPTIONS
       Checkout  recognizes all of the "co" options except for the "-d" cutoff
       date.  Instead, the "-c" option is used:

       -c cutoff
           specifies the rcs cutoff date, in SCCS-format

                YY[MM[DD[HH[MM[SS]]]]]


           Punctuation in the date is permitted.  For example,

                -c 77/2/2 9:22:25
                -c 770202092225


           represent the same date.  This option is translated to the co  "-d"
           option.

       Use  the  "-x"  option  of checkout to direct it to retain the pathname
       when translating between working and archive  files,  e.g,  "path/name"
       becomes  "path/RCS/name,v".  If the "-x" option is not set, "path/name"
       becomes "./RCS/name,v", and "path/RCS/name,v" becomes "./name".

OPERATIONS
       To extract files using checkout, you must  provide  one  or  more  file
       names.   For  each name, checkout parses the leaf-name and extracts the
       specified version from the "./RCS" directory.

ENVIRONMENT
       Checkout is a C-language program.  It invokes co via an execlp call (so
       that  co must be in your path), and performs pre- and postprocessing of
       the archive and working file to determine the delta-date to use for the
       extracted file.  Environment variables used by checkout include:

       RCS_DIR
              if defined, specifies the directory in which rcs
               archive files are found.  Normally files are found in "./RCS".

       TZ     is  the  POSIX time zone, which is overridden internally so that
              file modification dates are independent of the local time zone.

FILES
       Checkout uses the following files:

       co     the RCS check-out program

ANTICIPATED CHANGES
       This does not handle rcs branches properly.

       Checkout does not handle the "-j" and "-p" options of co.

SEE ALSO
       checkin, rcsput, ded, ci (1), co (1)

AUTHOR:
       Thomas E. Dickey <dickey@invisible-island.net>



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