• CVS is layered on top of RCS
• RCS or SCCS use a lock-modify-unlock model CVS uses a copy-modify-merge model.
• Uses a repository to hold resources and revision histories.
• Operates on an individual file or directory or a directory tree.
• More than one user may change the same document at the same time, but the CVS program will alert each reviser when their changes conflict with changes made by other concurrent revisers of the same document.
• All functions of of Revision Control System (RCS) are retained, but locking and multiple updates are dealt with gracefully.
• CVS allows several developers to work on sources at once
• CVS can work as a client-server system

Basic commands:

• cvs add [ filename ]: Adds a new file/directory to the repository
• cvs admin filename: Administration front end for rcs
• cvs checkout filename: Checkout sources for editing
• cvs commit [ filename ]: Checks files into the repository
• cvs diff filename: Runs diffs between revisions
• cvs history [ filename ]:: Shows status of files and users
• cvs status [ filename ]: Status info on the revisions
• cvs release [ filename ]: Status info on the revisions
• cvs update [ filename ]: Brings work tree in sync with repository