Java Glossary : WINCVS

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A graphical front end for the CVS version control system. It is utterly excellent and free. It has greatly improved over earlier versions. There are only a few tricks to using it. The rest you can guess from the hover help.

To a add a module to the repository, you must do it in two steps. First click Modify | Add Selection to add it, then right click | commit selection to commit it. I don't understand why you need to do it in two steps.
To delete a module from the repository, likewise you do it in two steps. First click Modify | Remove Selection, (not erase!) then right click | commit selection to commit the deletion. It abort the remove, click add.
There is no way to delete a directory from the repository. The best you can do is remove all the files in it. Just leave the empty directories there in case you ever need to bring back old files. You will need the embedded CVS directories. So think twice before creating any new directories. You will live with them forever.
Before you can add any modules from a directory, you must first add the directory. You don't need to commit it. To add a new project tree, not a subdirectory of the existing project, you must navigate to the project, then do an import module followed by a checkout module, via right clicks. When you checkout, you usually give the name of the root directory as the target, rather than the name of the project, otherwise you will get a project within a project. During the import you will be asked which types of files you want to treat as text, binary and ignore. You must import from one place and checkout to another so you will still have the original files if something goes wrong. If you try to checkout back to the original import directory, it will complain about files "in the way"
There may be simpler ways than this, but here is a plan. Copy the files you want to put in the repository to a new import directory tree. Also copy everything to a backup directory. Then import from the import directory and checkout to the root containing an empty directory named the same as the project. Then refresh the missing files in the project directory from the backup directory, or just copy everything and let WinCVS sort it out on the next update. Import actually copies files to the server, adds the entire tree and commits it in one step. The first checkout copies them all back. Any junk you let be committed during the import will physically be in the repository forever, so prune the import directory before you import and be careful with the text/binary filters. You have to get them right first time. If you are clever you can pull this off with renaming and copying just the project CVS directory around which contains no absolute references to where on your disk the project tree is. WinCVS tracks several copies of the same project checked out on the same disk. Keep an eye on the absolute directory status line to be sure you are working on the copy you think you are. In any case, do a backup before you start. You could get confused and delete the wrong copy. Be very sure you have all the files.
WinCVS maintains configuration files for each project/checkout in Program Files\GNU\WinCvs 1.2\Settings\xxxxxx.txt. It stores the .cvspass file which contains your encrypted password, in the CVSHOME directory. If your project were called virtue, usually you would call the checkout virtue as well and wincvs would look in the c:\program files\gnu\wincvs 1.2\settings\virtue.txt. If you had two copies checked out in different parts of your hard disk you might call the second one goodness, with the corresponding config file: c:\program files\gnu\wincvs 1.2\settings\goodness.txt. The settings files are text files you can snoop and modify fairly safely. You can always create new ones from scratch with view | browse location | save settings. As a general rule, don't delete CVS or WinCVS files. They are small and they may be crucial. So long as the repository is intact though, you can always start from scratch.
You need to create lists of files and wildcards for CVS to ignore. There is no mention of how to do this in the WinCVS help and precious little in the CVS help. I have pieced together how cvsignore is supported to work and have documented it in the CVS section.
WinCVS sits on top of CVS.exe. It automatically installs in the wincvs directory.

The buttons show-committable, show-changed, show-added, show-removed, show-conflicts, show-missing, show-unknown, show-ignored can be turned on or off in any combination. They are not mutually exclusive. The more buttons you click the more you see. Clicking a second time turns that selection off. They are not immediately intuitive. Here is how I found them to work:

WinCVS show Buttons
Icon	Name	Purpose	Mnemonic
	Show Committable	Show changed, added, and removed files, all of which are ready to be committed. Pressing this presses the Changed, Added and Removed buttons for you. If you want to see the files that have already been committed, as well as those yet to be committed, unpress all the buttons.	The arrow signifies stuff that needs to go to the repository.
	Show Changed	Show files that have changed, but have not yet been committed.	The lines of text are bright, signifying they have changed. This icon is very bland. Changes to files are ordinary.
	Show Added	files added, but not yet committed.	A for added.
	Show Removed	files removed, but not yet committed.	X for removed
	Show Conflicts	Show files that need manual editing to merge updates from two different people.	C for Conflicts, not Changed.
	Show Unknown	Show new files that have not been added yet.	Magnifying glass signifies you want to look at the ? unknown.
	Hide Unknown	Hide new files that have not been added yet, files as yet unknown to CVS, but probably should be, and reveal everything else, even stuff that has not been commited. The show unknown and hide unknown buttons have three possible combinations of on/off. Try them all to notice the effects.	X indicates you don't want to see the ? unknown files.
	Show Missing	Show files that you improperly deleted, rather than using remove to remove them from the repository as well.	Broken line signifies missing files. This icon is hard to read. Just remember it is just to the left of the easy to pick out ignored icon.
	Show Ignored	Show files that cvsignore says you never want to put in the repository.	Bold blue slash is same symbol that WinCVS uses to mark file cvsignore says don't belong in the repository.
	Refresh	Refresh the display. Usually happens automatically if other programs change the files.	Looks like a recycle symbol.

Sometimes, no matter what you click, no files appear. Try exiting and restarting WinCVS.

WinCVS works with 32 bit timestamps. It uses the number -1 to indicate an invalid timestamp. This corresponds to 1969 December 31. If the create date of your file is this date, CVS pedantically won't deal with it, even though it deals with last change dates, not create dates. The easiest way to fix the create date is just to copy the file to a different directory. It will get today's date as the create date.

Tortoise CVS is a variant of WinCVS that works inside Explorer letting you do your work with right clicks. It is not quite a full-featured, but it is simpler since is uses the familiar directory displays.

CVS ¤ Tortoise CVS ¤ WinCVS guide ¤ WinCVS installation guide

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