Next: [[cvs: Telling CVS to notify you#Telling CVS to notify you|Getting Notified]], Up: [[cvs: Mechanisms to track who is editing files#Mechanisms to track who is editing files|Watches]] |[[cvs: Index#SEC_Contents|Contents]]||[[cvs: Index#Index|Index]]|

----

==== Telling CVS to watch certain files ====

To enable the watch features, you first specify that certain files are to be watched.

;
Command<nowiki>:</nowiki> cvs watch on <nowiki>[</nowiki>`-lR`<nowiki>]</nowiki> <nowiki>[</nowiki>files<nowiki>]</nowiki>…

: Specify that developers should run `cvs edit` before editing files. CVS will create working copies of files read-only, to remind developers to run the `cvs edit` command before working on them.

: If files includes the name of a directory, CVS arranges to watch all files added to the corresponding repository directory, and sets a default for files added in the future; this allows the user to set notification policies on a per-directory basis. The contents of the directory are processed recursively, unless the `-l` option is given. The `-R` option can be used to force recursion if the `-l` option is set in ‘`~/.cvsrc`’ (see [[cvs: Default options and the ~%47.cvsrc file#Default options and the ~/.cvsrc file|~/.cvsrc]]).

: If files is omitted, it defaults to the current directory.

;
Command<nowiki>:</nowiki> cvs watch off <nowiki>[</nowiki>`-lR`<nowiki>]</nowiki> <nowiki>[</nowiki>files<nowiki>]</nowiki>…

: Do not create files read-only on checkout; thus, developers will not be reminded to use `cvs edit` and `cvs unedit`.

: The files and options are processed as for `cvs watch on`.

This document was generated on a sunny day using [http://www.nongnu.org/texi2html/ texi2html].