Using CVS

[Sam]

Before my question, I want to say that I just started using FutureQuest, and you guys have a sweet server setup - lastest versions of stuff, good tech support - leaps and bounds beyond my former difficult to contact hosting provider.

Here's my question: Before signing up, I asked if I could use CVS on your servers to set up a repository that remote developers working with me could access with their CVS clients, and the answer was yes. How do I go about setting that up? Where does my CVS password file and repository go?

[Terra]

CVS is available on the server for your usage, but we cannot provide technical support for it since it falls outside the technical realm as we do not offer it with any of our packages... It is just a side effect of running a Linux server, and my having a need for internal CVS and RCS services... In other words, the tools are available in the server - it is for you to implement them...

You will need to research the primary CVS documentation, as well as the cvs-client information... You will be the first to utilize this facet of our servers...

From my understanding, primary CVS uses the R services, but the cvs-client seems to use a different methadology...

Send me a writeup of your requirements, and how to best implement anonymous CVS within the server and I will work with that information to fulfill your needs...

--
Terra
sysAdmin
FutureQuest

[Sam]

Hi Terra,

I have Linux running at home, and I just did a test drive installation to try out the remote CVS thing, and it seemed to work nicely. Here's what I did to install it:

- Added the following to /etc/services:
"cvspserver 2401/tcp # CVS remote server function"
- Added to following to /etc/inetd.conf (all on one line):
"2401 stream tcp nowait root /usr/bin/cvs cvs --allow-root=/big/dom/xnurelm/nurelm/cvs-repository pserver"
Where the path after --allow-root= is the path to the place where a repository and a cvs password file for that repository is allowed.
- Finally, restart services with "killall -HUP inetd"

I got the info from page 20 of the document on your servers at /usr/doc/cvs-1.10.2/cvs.ps and from http://durak.org/cvswebsites/howto-cvs/node37.html. I don't know anything about the security impilcations of this, but there seems to be a fairly detailed description of the client protocol used under /usr/doc/cvs-1.10.2/cvsclient.ps.

As for no tech support on this, no problem. If the data repository's in my account, I'll take care of it without any whining http://www.aota.net/ubb/smile.gif

Let me know if I can offer any more info.

Thanks!

[Terra]

Thanks for the info Sam, I'm looking through the CVS how-to now...

In the meantime, I just put up our info2www gateway that you might want to look at... It has the CVS and cvsclient info files in there directly out of our core documentation library...

http://www.futurequest.net/cgi-bin/dox/info2www

Future project is getting our man page gateway online as well...

--
Terra
sysAdmin
FutureQuest

[Terra]

The setup you have given will work for now...

Details of implementation may change later if I need to provide this service for others by setting up shared xdom access methadology...

I will have to research further into this, but we will work with the quick-and-dirty methods for now... http://www.aota.net/ubb/wink.gif

Please test out your access as inetd has been HUP'd...

--
Terra
sysAdmin
FutureQuest

PS: The --allow-root is in relation to CVSROOT, and not system root capability...

[Sam]

Hey, it seems to work great - thanks for you efforts, I am eternally grateful http://www.aota.net/ubb/wink.gif

If it turns out not to be too much trouble to administer and not too sinister of a security risk, the CVS feature might even be a cool advertising point. Just give me a yell if you need to change something about the way things are setup to allow other users.

Thanks again,

Sam

[Jacob Stetser]

Howdy- Sam, Terra...

[nbsp]How would I go about getting CVSability on my site? I've been reading up on the things, and tried to set up a few trial CVSes, but things just aren't working correctly for me..

Is there some sort of modification you need to make, Terra, or do I just need to dig deeper? :) Sam, if you've got any pointers, it would help- I've got several PHP projects I really should be using CVS on so I don't royally screw them up. :)

Thanks!

------------------
icongarden.com/?fq (http://icongarden.com/?fq)
icongarden: making good ideas grow.

[Dean B]

Anyone care to elaborate on CVS ?[nbsp][nbsp]What is it and how is it used etc..

Dean.

[Sam]

CVS is great if you want to have multiple people from remote locations working on a project together, since the cvs client lets you do things like checking files in and out remotely. But, if you're working alone and always do work on the same computer, most people prefer to use cvs' little brother, rcs, as it's much less of a pain to use and still gets the job done right. If you choose rcs, check out the man page for pretty good documentation.

But, if you are working alone and you'd rather use cvs over rcs, you can use cvs locally, which makes all operations go much faster than with a remote setup. A pretty good tutorial for doing this is located at http://www.csc.calpoly.edu/~dbutler/tutorials/winter96/cvs/

If you do want remote storage of data so that you can work with multiple developers that aren't on the same network, setting it up is beyond my meager level of experience with cvs. The folks at FutureQuest were kind enough to set things up so that my data repository would be in my home directory. Unfortunately, I don't know how to set up multiple repositories, although I'm sure that cvs allows it. If you decide to pursue this option, some research at http://www.loria.fr/~molli/cvs-index.html (a good compilation of cvs info) will probably give you the info you need about setting things up this way. Once you have it fairly well figured out, you can probably get the goodly folks of FutureQuest to evaluate setting it up (correct me if I'm putting words in anyone's mouth :) ).

Hope that helps some. Let me know if you need more info,

Sam

[Terra]

I have yet to get a multi-repository CVS daemon configured to work properly... :(

In getting Sam setup, I took the path of least resistance (after 8 hours of fighting with multi) and gave him exclusive usage of our CVS (single repository) daemon...

It is not a mainstream item, and may never be implemented as something we do, but with Sam I took the time to evaluate if it was something I wanted to administrate...[nbsp][nbsp]With all the current projects on my plate, I seriously doubt I will have the time to properly maintain another 'niche' offering... ;)

--
Terra
--Sorry Jacob, I couldn't resist coming full circle on the niche comment-- :)
FutureQuest

PS: I use RCS for all my coding and never found the need for the complexities of CVS...

[LenKasday]

There's a tutorial on RCS at

http://www.csc.calpoly.edu/~dbutler/tutorials/winter96/rcs/