Update by State

[Karl Martin]

CVS users,

I am trying to use CVS in a corporate environment where the designation
of a "released version" requires a set of permissions and controls.
Some users are "read only", and they will have their WinCVS clients set
up with sticky update options to always get the released version.  Other
users are "read write":  they will be able to check in new updates of a
file, but will not be able to change which version is the "released
version".  Only a few users will be "administrative releasers", able to
set which version of a file is the released version.

The State of a file, changed using 'cvs admin -s', is something that can
only be changed by archive administrators, so it is attractive for this
purpose.  Tags are not attractive, as I don't think that file
permissions can be set up so that any one user can check in files but
cannot change tags.

Cederqvist refers to State as "useful with CVS."  However, I really
can't figure out how.  It does not seem to be an option for sticky
updates, or any other use except for keyword substitution.  We want to
use CVS for binary files, not text files, so I don't see how to use
keyword substitution.

Can anyone give me any information regarding use of State in updates, or
some other mechanism for marking files as released that is accessible as
a sticky option for updates, but people who are able to check in files
can still be restricted from changing the "released" mark.

Thanks in advance for the help.

Karl Martin