---
name: "rcsclean"
section: "1"
platform: "openbsd"
package: "man"
version: "8.0-current-20261101"
release: "OpenBSD 8.0-current (2026-11-01)"
platforms: ["linux", "openbsd"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/rcsclean"
---

# rcsclean(1)

clean up working files

## NAME

**rcsclean** – clean up working files

## SYNOPSIS

**rcsclean** \[**-TV**\] \[**-k***mode*\] \[**-n**\[*rev*\]\] \[**-q**\[*rev*\]\] \[**-r**\[*rev*\]\] \[**-u**\[*rev*\]\] \[**-x***suffixes*\] \[**-z***tz*\] \[*file ...*\]

## DESCRIPTION

The **rcsclean** program is used to clean up (remove) files that are not being worked on. Only checked out files from the current working directory are removed – **rcsclean** does not remove files from the RCS repository.

If no *file* operand is specified, **rcsclean** cleans up all working files in the current directory.

**rcsclean** also supports keyword substitution – see the [rcs(1)](/rcs/1.md) man page for more information.

The following options are supported:

- **-k***mode*

  Specify the keyword substitution mode.

- **-n**\[*rev*\]

  Dry-run mode. When this option is specified, **rcsclean** will show you what it would normally do without doing it.

- **-q**\[*rev*\]

  Be quiet about reporting.

- **-r**\[*rev*\]

  Remove revision *rev*. If *rev* does not match the revision of the currently checked out file, **rcsclean** will do nothing.

- **-T**

  Preserve the modification time of RCS files.

- **-u**\[*rev*\]

  Unlock the revision if it's currently locked. This is only possible if no changes have been made to the file since it was checked out.

- **-V**

  Print RCS's version number.

- **-x***suffixes*

  Specify the suffixes for RCS files. Suffixes should be separated by the ‘/’ character.

- **-z***tz*

  Specify the time zone for keyword substitution.

## ENVIRONMENT

- RCSINIT

  If set, this variable should contain a list of space-delimited options that are prepended to the argument list.

## EXIT STATUS

The **rcsclean** utility exits 0 on success, and \>0 if an error occurs.

## EXAMPLES

Remove all working files (locked or not) in the current directory that were not changed since last checkout:

```
$ rcsclean -u
```

## SEE ALSO

[ci(1)](/ci/1.md), [co(1)](/co/1.md), [ident(1)](/ident/1.md), [rcs(1)](/rcs/1.md), [rcsdiff(1)](/rcsdiff/1.md), [rcsmerge(1)](/rcsmerge/1.md), [rlog(1)](/rlog/1.md)