Re: tag vs rtag question

[Nick Patavalis]

On Wed, Oct 23, 2002 at 11:02:10PM +0300, Nick Patavalis wrote:
>
> ...Though I also have some confused ideas about what exactly HEAD
> means. Could please a CVS guru give us a precise *definition* of what
> the HEAD tag is?
> 

Looking arround I find this which comes close to being a precise
definition (posted in the cvs-bug list, by Philip Guenther, reference
below):

  I think the question needs to be asked: what do people expect (when
  they specify the -rHEAD option [npat])?  There are two logical
  possibilities:

    1) always return the last revision on the default branch.  Under
       normal circumstance (no use of cvs admin), this'll either be:

       a) the tip of the vendor branch for imported and still
          unmodified files; or

       b) the tip of the rcs main branch (a.k.a. the trunk) for all
          other files.

       Note that this is what a plain checkout will give you.

       cvs currently does this for all **but** cvs diff
        
    2) The tip of the current (logical) branch, i.e., follow sticky
       tags.  When no sticky tag is in effect, this reverts to the
       above.

       cvs diff does this.

Reference:

  http://mail.gnu.org/pipermail/bug-cvs/1996-June/002054.html

/npat

-- 
In the beginning the Universe was created.  This has made a lot
of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.
  -- Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy