@mwl@io.mwl.ioMichael Lucas ’s post made me revisit RCS in a very small role: a safety net for individual files.
Paired with nvi, a tiny wrapper lets me snapshot configs before risky edits. Simple, local, no magic.

Example wrapper I’m using:

#!/bin/sh
#
# safeedit — RCS-backed safe editing with nvi
#

set -e

if [ $# -ne 1 ]; then
    echo "usage: safeedit <file>" >&2
    exit 1
fi

FILE="$1"

if [ ! -f "$FILE" ]; then
    echo "safeedit: file not found: $FILE" >&2
    exit 1
fi

DIR=$(dirname "$FILE")
BASE=$(basename "$FILE")
RCS_DIR="$DIR/RCS"
RCS_FILE="$RCS_DIR/$BASE,v"

mkdir -p "$RCS_DIR"
chmod 700 "$RCS_DIR"

if [ ! -f "$RCS_FILE" ]; then
    ci -l "$FILE"
else
    ci -u "$FILE" || true
    co -l "$FILE"
fi

exec nvi "$FILE"

nvi protects the session; RCS protects the decision.

Original post by @mwl@snac.bsd.cafe: https://io.mwl.io/@mwl/115814245521209100

#nvi #RCS #Unix #SysAdmin #ConfigManagement