RCS v4 on SunOS

[Paul Eggert]

In Sun-Spots 8:216:7 grubin at toadwar.ucar.edu (Rick Grubin) writes:

|The problem is with the latest version of RCS (version 4).  It seems that
|RCS writes out the RCS file (source-filename,v) in different formats on
|different machines.  On the Sun, there is a line there that specifies the
|current branch of revision.  On the DECstation, this line is not there.
|This difference causes the following error to be generated on execution of
|commands such as co, ci, etc. :
|
|	(command-name) error, line 2: Missing access list

This is an RCS v3 vs RCS v4 problem.  RCS v4 can read RCS v3 files, but
the reverse isn't true: if you change a file with RCS v4, and read it with
RCS v3, you'll get messages like the above.  Check your PATH environment
variable; you're probably running RCS v3 on the DECstation.

Alas, there will probably be a v5 format in the not-too-distant future,
because the old formats won't work after 1999.  Make your format
suggestions now!

In Sun-Spots 8:216:10 virtech!jje at uunet.uu.net (Jeremy J. Epstein) writes:

|This has probably been hashed over before, but...I can't seem to find RCS
|(either software or documentation) anywhere on SunOS.  Am I missing
|something?  Is it hidden somewhere?  Do you have to purchase it
|separately?  Is it available public-domain somewhere?

RCS is now part of the GNU distribution and is covered the GNU copyleft.
I got my copy from uunet:gnu/rcs.tar.Z.  If you build it under SunOS 4.*,
don't forget to change SIGNAL_TYPE in rcs/src/Makefile as directed.