SKEL(1)

NAME
skel - copy the structure of an RCS-managed source tree

SYNOPSIS
skel master-directory [copy-directory]

DESCRIPTION
Skel makes a copy of the structure of an RCS-managed master source tree. It then makes symbolic links from the new tree to the RCS directories of the master. The master directory must be specified as a full pathname; this requirement is to ensure that all the symbolic links created have absolute pathnames.

Each directory of the master tree may contain either RCS v files, or an RCS subdirectory, but not both.

RCS directories may be symbolic links; if so, the symbolic link created in the copy directory will point to the symbolic link in the master - not to the target of the latter.

The new tree is placed in the named copy-directory, which is created if it does not exist. If none is specified the tree is made in the current directory, such that each subdirectory of the master directory appears in the current directory.

DIAGNOSTICS
Skel provides a running commentary of its position in the master tree on stderr.

If a directory in the master cannot be opened, skel issues a warning but continues to the next directory.

If the master source directory is specified as a relative path the program terminates with an error message.

SEE ALSO
ci (1), co(1), coall(1), ident(1), rcs (1), rcsdiff (1), rcsintro (1), rcsmerge (1), rlog (1), rcsfile (5), sccstorcs (8).

Walter F. Tichy, "Design, Implementation, and Evaluation of a Revision Control System," in Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Software Engineering, IEEE, Tokyo, Sept. 1982.

LIMITATIONS
The following limits are hardwired into the program. Maximum number of subdirectories in each directory: 50. Maximum length of subdirectory name: 30 characters. These limits will be removed in a later revision. If these limits are exceeded, skel displays an error message and terminates with exit code 2.