Re: Timestamps on workfiles

[david]

> I'm about to switch to CVS from PVCS.
> 
> I've been using a flag for PVCS to touch workfiles when I get changed ones 
> from the repository. (For PVCS users, I use "get -u -t *.??v" to get 
> updated files and touch them.) This ensures that my build process will 
> rebuild the binaries that depend on those files. (The latest local binary 
> may have a timestamp later than the last edit shown in the repository, so I 
> want the checkout time, not the time of the edit, on the workfile.)
> 
> What happens when I switch to CVS? Is there something similar, or how do 
> others handle this?
> 
When CVS checks out files, it uses the repository timestamp.  When it
updates, the changed files get the current timestamp, and so are in
effect already touched.  This is normally the desired behavior.  If
you want to see when the file was last changed in the repository, use
"cvs log".  This is not usually what your automated tools want.  Your
automated tools probably want to know when the local file was last
changed.

For example, if you have a makefile set up, type "make", do a "cvs
update", and then another "make", make will treat any files changed
by the update as new.

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