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GNU RCS 5.8 available

Item posted by Thien-Thi Nguyen <ttn> on Tue 30 Aug 2011 01:23:28 PM UTC.

RCS 5.8 is available

GNU RCS (Revision Control System) 5.8 is available. RCS is a set of programs to manage multiple revisions of files. RCS can store, retrieve, log, identify, and merge revisions. It is useful for files that are revised frequently, e.g., programs, documentation, graphics, and papers. You can download it from:

http://ftpmirror.gnu.org/rcs/ (try this first)
http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/rcs/

Here are the changes since 5.7:

License now GPLv3+ (see COPYING)
Change in terminology: from "path" to "file name" (or "file-name")
Changes to the RCS package
- New documentation in Info format
- Dropped configure option: --with-diffutils
- Configuration more strict in some ways, more lax in others.
- New configure option: --enable-suid[=setreuid]
- New configure option: --disable-mmap
- New configure option: --enable-mailer=PROG
- New configure option: --enable-compat2
- You can "make check" prior to "make install".
Bug fixes
- Remove all edit info when removing all revisions.
- Code no longer uses mktemp(3).
- Misc manpage tweaks / fixes.
Other changes
- All commands accept ‘--help’ and ‘--version’.
- A string of all digits is now valid for author, state.
- Env var RCS_MEM_LIMIT controls stdio threshold.
- RCS can now work with files larger than 2 gigabytes.
- Pass-through for RCS file ‘commitid SYMBOL’ now builtin.
- RCS file top-level grammar frozen.
- RCS file syntax-validated earlier, completely.
- Possible to specify an empty log message with ci -m, rcs -m.
- Date option accepts some more date-only formats
- Changes to rcsdiff
  - New handling for option: -U N
  - Refined "same-revision don't call diff" optimization

As this is the first (non-pretest) release under new maintainership, a big thanks go to the following people for reporting bugs, suggesting fixes and generally making the transition a smooth experience:

Karl Berry
Keith Thompson
Klaus T. Aehlig
Ludovic Courtès
Mike Mestnik
Nelson H. F. Beebe
Paul Eggert
Ralf Wildenhues
Rob Vermaas

For more information, including online documentation in many formats, please see <http://www.gnu.org/software/rcs/>.