Excluding Deltas from a Retrieved Version

Suppose that the changes that were made in delta 1.3 aren't applicable to the next version, 1.4. When you retrieve the file for editing, you can use the -x option to exclude delta 1.3 from the working copy:

$ sccs edit -x1.3 program.c

When you check in delta 1.5, that delta will include the changes made in delta 1.4, but not those from delta 1.3. In fact, you can exclude a list of deltas by supplying a comma-separated list to -x, or a range of deltas, separated with a dash. For example, if you want to exclude 1.3 and 1.4, you could use:

$ sccs edit -x1.3,1.4 program.c

or

$ sccs edit -x1.3-1.4 program.c

In this example SCCS excludes the range of deltas from 1.3 to the current highest delta in release 1:

$ sccs edit -x 1.3-1 program.c

In certain cases when using -x there will be conflicts between versions; for example, it may be necessary to both include and delete a particular line. If this happens, SCCS displays a message listing the range of lines affected. Examine these lines carefully to see if the version SCCS derived is correct.

Since each delta (in the sense of "a set of changes") can be excluded at will, it is most useful to include a related set of changes within each delta.