<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" 
    "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">
<head>
  <title>ViewVC Help: General</title>
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="help.css" type="text/css" />
</head>
<body>
  <table>
    <col class="menu" />
    <col />
    <tr>
      <td colspan="2">
	<h1>ViewVC Help: General</h1>
      </td>
    </tr>
    <tr><td>
       <h3>Help</h3>
       <strong>General</strong><br />
       <a href="help_dirview.html">Directory&nbsp;View</a><br />
       <a href="help_log.html">Log&nbsp;View</a><br />

       <h3>Internet</h3>
       <a href="http://viewvc.org/index.html">Home</a><br />
       <a href="http://viewvc.org/upgrading.html">Upgrading</a><br />
       <a href="http://viewvc.org/contributing.html">Contributing</a><br />
       <a href="http://viewvc.org/license-1.html">License</a><br />
    </td><td colspan="2">

  <p><em>ViewVC</em> is a WWW interface for CVS and Subversion
  repositories. It allows you to browse the files and directories in a
  repository while showing you metadata from the repository history: log
  messages, modification dates, author names, revision numbers, copy
  history, and so on. It provides several different views of repository
  data to help you find the information you are looking for:</p>

  <ul>
    <li><a name="view-dir" href="help_dirview.html"><strong>Directory
    View</strong></a> - Shows a list of files and subdirectories in a
    directory of the repository, along with metadata like author names and
    log entries.</li>

    <li><a name="view-log" href="help_log.html"><strong>Log
    View</strong></a> - Shows a revision by revision list of all the
    changes that have made to a file or directory in the repository, with
    metadata and links to views of each revision.</li>

    <li><a name="view-markup"><strong>File Contents View (Markup
    View)</strong></a> - Shows the contents of a file at a particular
    revision, with revision information at the top of the page. File
    revisions which are GIF, PNG, or JPEG images are displayed inline on
    the page. Other file types are displayed as marked up text. The markup
    may be limited to turning URLs and email addresses into links, or
    configured to show colorized source code.</li>

    <li><a name="view-checkout"><strong>File Download (Checkout
    View)</strong></a> - Retrieves the unaltered contents of a file
    revision. Browsers may try to display the file, or just save it to
    disk.</li>

    <li><a name="view-annotate"><strong>File Annotate View</strong></a> -
    Shows the contents of a file revision and breaks it down line by line,
    showing the revision number where each one was last modified, along
    with links and other information. <em>This view is disabled in some
    ViewVC configurations</em></li>

    <li><a name="view-diff"><strong>File Diff View</strong></a> - Shows
    the changes made between two revisions of a file</li>

    <li><a name="view-tarball"><strong>Directory Tarball View</strong> -
    Retrieves a gzipped tar archive containing the contents of a
    directory.<em>This view is disabled in the default ViewVC
    configuration.</em></li>

    <li><a name="view-query"><strong>Directory Query View</strong></a> -
    Shows information about changes made to all subdirectories and files
    under a parent directory, sorted and filtered by criteria you specify.
    <em>This view is disabled in the default ViewVC configuration.</em>
    </li>

    <li><a name="view-rev"><strong>Revision View</strong> - Shows
    information about a revision including log message, author, and a list
    of changed paths. <em>For Subversion repositories only.</em></li>

    <li><a name="view-graph"><strong>Graph View</strong></a> - Shows a
    graphical representation of a file's revisions and branches complete
    with tag and author names and links to markup and diff pages.
    <em>For CVS repositories only, and disabled in the default
    configuration.</em></li>
  </ul>

  <h3><a name="multiple-repositories">Multiple Repositories</a></h3>

  <p>A single installation of ViewVC is often used to provide access to
  more than one repository. In these installations, ViewVC shows a
  <em>Project Root</em> drop down box in the top right corner of every
  generated page to allow for quick access to any repository.</p>

  <h3><a name="sticky-revision-tag">Sticky Revision and Tag</a></h3>

  <p>By default, ViewVC will show the files and directories and revisions
  that currently exist in the repository. But it's also possible to browse
  the contents of a repository at a point in its past history by choosing
  a "sticky tag" (in CVS) or a "sticky revision" (in Subversion) from the
  forms at the top of directory and log pages. They're called sticky
  because once they're chosen, they stick around when you navigate to
  other pages, until you reset them. When they're set, directory and log
  pages only show revisions preceding the specified point in history. In
  CVS, when a tag refers to a branch or a revision on a branch, only
  revisions from the branch history are shown, including branch points and
  their preceding revisions.</p>

  <h3><a name="dead-files">Dead Files</a></h3>

  <p>In CVS directory listings, ViewVC can optionally display dead files.
  Dead files are files which used to be in a directory but are currently
  deleted, or files which just don't exist in the currently selected
  <a href="#sticky-revision-tag">sticky tag</a>. Dead files cannot be
  shown in Subversion repositories. The only way to see a deleted file in
  a Subversion directory is to navigate to a sticky revision where the
  file previously existed.</p>

  <h3><a name="artificial-tags">Artificial Tags</a></h3>

  <p>In CVS Repositories, ViewVC adds artificial tags <em>HEAD</em> and
  <em>MAIN</em> to tag listings and accepts them in place of revision
  numbers and real tag names in all URLs. <em>MAIN</em> acts like a branch
  tag pointing at the default branch, while <em>HEAD</em> acts like a
  revision tag pointing to the latest revision on the default branch. The
  default branch is usually just the trunk, but may be set to other
  branches inside individual repository files. CVS will always check out
  revisions from a file's default branch when no other branch is specified
  on the command line.</p>

  <h3><a name="more-information">More Information</a></h3>

  <p>More information about <em>ViewVC</em> is available from
  <a href="http://viewvc.org/">viewvc.org</a>.
  See the links below for guides to CVS and Subversion</p>

  <h4>Documentation about CVS</h4>
  <blockquote>
    <p>
      <a href="http://cvsbook.red-bean.com/"><em>Open Source
      Development with CVS</em></a><br />
      <a href="http://www.loria.fr/~molli/cvs/doc/cvs_toc.html">CVS
      User's Guide</a><br />
      <a href="http://cellworks.washington.edu/pub/docs/cvs/tutorial/cvs_tutorial_1.html">Another CVS tutorial</a><br />
      <a href="http://www.csc.calpoly.edu/~dbutler/tutorials/winter96/cvs/">Yet another CVS tutorial (a little old, but nice)</a><br />
      <a href="http://www.cs.utah.edu/dept/old/texinfo/cvs/FAQ.txt">An old but very useful FAQ about CVS</a>
    </p>
  </blockquote>

  <h4>Documentation about Subversion</h3>
  <blockquote>
    <p>
      <a href="http://svnbook.red-bean.com/"><em>Version Control with
      Subversion</em></a><br />
    </p>
  </blockquote>

  </td></tr></table>
  </body>
</html>
