1git-cvsserver(1) 2================ 3 4NAME 5---- 6git-cvsserver - A CVS server emulator for git 7 8SYNOPSIS 9-------- 10[verse] 11export CVS_SERVER=git-cvsserver 12'cvs' -d :ext:user@server/path/repo.git co <HEAD_name> 13 14DESCRIPTION 15----------- 16 17This application is a CVS emulation layer for git. 18 19It is highly functional. However, not all methods are implemented, 20and for those methods that are implemented, 21not all switches are implemented. 22 23Testing has been done using both the CLI CVS client, and the Eclipse CVS 24plugin. Most functionality works fine with both of these clients. 25 26LIMITATIONS 27----------- 28 29Currently cvsserver works over SSH connections for read/write clients, and 30over pserver for anonymous CVS access. 31 32CVS clients cannot tag, branch or perform GIT merges. 33 34INSTALLATION 35------------ 36 371. If you are going to offer anonymous CVS access via pserver, add a line in 38 /etc/inetd.conf like 39+ 40-- 41------ 42 cvspserver stream tcp nowait nobody git-cvsserver pserver 43 44------ 45Note: In some cases, you need to pass the 'pserver' argument twice for 46git-cvsserver to see it. So the line would look like 47 48------ 49 cvspserver stream tcp nowait nobody git-cvsserver pserver pserver 50 51------ 52No special setup is needed for SSH access, other than having GIT tools 53in the PATH. If you have clients that do not accept the CVS_SERVER 54env variable, you can rename git-cvsserver to cvs. 55-- 562. For each repo that you want accessible from CVS you need to edit config in 57 the repo and add the following section. 58+ 59-- 60------ 61 [gitcvs] 62 enabled=1 63 # optional for debugging 64 logfile=/path/to/logfile 65 66------ 67Note: you need to ensure each user that is going to invoke git-cvsserver has 68write access to the log file and to the database (see 69<<dbbackend,Database Backend>>. If you want to offer write access over 70SSH, the users of course also need write access to the git repository itself. 71 72[[configaccessmethod]] 73All configuration variables can also be overriden for a specific method of 74access. Valid method names are "ext" (for SSH access) and "pserver". The 75following example configuration would disable pserver access while still 76allowing access over SSH. 77------ 78 [gitcvs] 79 enabled=0 80 81 [gitcvs "ext"] 82 enabled=1 83------ 84-- 853. On the client machine you need to set the following variables. 86 CVSROOT should be set as per normal, but the directory should point at the 87 appropriate git repo. For example: 88+ 89-- 90For SSH access, CVS_SERVER should be set to git-cvsserver 91 92Example: 93 94------ 95 export CVSROOT=:ext:user@server:/var/git/project.git 96 export CVS_SERVER=git-cvsserver 97------ 98-- 994. For SSH clients that will make commits, make sure their .bashrc file 100 sets the GIT_AUTHOR and GIT_COMMITTER variables. 101 1025. Clients should now be able to check out the project. Use the CVS 'module' 103 name to indicate what GIT 'head' you want to check out. Example: 104+ 105------ 106 cvs co -d project-master master 107------ 108 109[[dbbackend]] 110Database Backend 111---------------- 112 113git-cvsserver uses one database per git head (i.e. CVS module) to 114store information about the repository for faster access. The 115database doesn't contain any persitent data and can be completly 116regenerated from the git repository at any time. The database 117needs to be updated (i.e. written to) after every commit. 118 119If the commit is done directly by using git (as opposed to 120using git-cvsserver) the update will need to happen on the 121next repository access by git-cvsserver, independent of 122access method and requested operation. 123 124That means that even if you offer only read access (e.g. by using 125the pserver method), git-cvsserver should have write access to 126the database to work reliably (otherwise you need to make sure 127that the database if up-to-date all the time git-cvsserver is run). 128 129By default it uses SQLite databases in the git directory, named 130`gitcvs.<module_name>.sqlite`. Note that the SQLite backend creates 131temporary files in the same directory as the database file on 132write so it might not be enough to grant the users using 133git-cvsserver write access to the database file without granting 134them write access to the directory, too. 135 136You can configure the database backend with the following 137configuration variables: 138 139Configuring database backend 140~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 141 142git-cvsserver uses the Perl DBI module. Please also read 143its documentation if changing these variables, especially 144about `DBI->connect()`. 145 146gitcvs.dbname:: 147 Database name. The exact meaning depends on the 148 used database driver, for SQLite this is a filename. 149 Supports variable substitution (see below). May 150 not contain semicolons (`;`). 151 Default: '%Ggitcvs.%m.sqlite' 152 153gitcvs.dbdriver:: 154 Used DBI driver. You can specify any available driver 155 for this here, but it might not work. cvsserver is tested 156 with 'DBD::SQLite', reported to work with 157 'DBD::Pg', and reported *not* to work with 'DBD::mysql'. 158 Please regard this as an experimental feature. May not 159 contain double colons (`:`). 160 Default: 'SQLite' 161 162gitcvs.dbuser:: 163 Database user. Only useful if setting `dbdriver`, since 164 SQLite has no concept of database users. Supports variable 165 substitution (see below). 166 167gitcvs.dbpass:: 168 Database password. Only useful if setting `dbdriver`, since 169 SQLite has no concept of database passwords. 170 171All variables can also be set per access method, see <<configaccessmethod,above>>. 172 173Variable substitution 174^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 175In `dbdriver` and `dbuser` you can use the following variables: 176 177%G:: 178 git directory name 179%g:: 180 git directory name, where all characters except for 181 alpha-numeric ones, `.`, and `-` are replaced with 182 `_` (this should make it easier to use the directory 183 name in a filename if wanted) 184%m:: 185 CVS module/git head name 186%a:: 187 access method (one of "ext" or "pserver") 188%u:: 189 Name of the user running git-cvsserver. 190 If no name can be determined, the 191 numeric uid is used. 192 193Eclipse CVS Client Notes 194------------------------ 195 196To get a checkout with the Eclipse CVS client: 197 1981. Select "Create a new project -> From CVS checkout" 1992. Create a new location. See the notes below for details on how to choose the 200 right protocol. 2013. Browse the 'modules' available. It will give you a list of the heads in 202 the repository. You will not be able to browse the tree from there. Only 203 the heads. 2044. Pick 'HEAD' when it asks what branch/tag to check out. Untick the 205 "launch commit wizard" to avoid committing the .project file. 206 207Protocol notes: If you are using anonymous access via pserver, just select that. 208Those using SSH access should choose the 'ext' protocol, and configure 'ext' 209access on the Preferences->Team->CVS->ExtConnection pane. Set CVS_SERVER to 210'git-cvsserver'. Not that password support is not good when using 'ext', 211you will definitely want to have SSH keys setup. 212 213Alternatively, you can just use the non-standard extssh protocol that Eclipse 214offer. In that case CVS_SERVER is ignored, and you will have to replace 215the cvs utility on the server with git-cvsserver or manipulate your .bashrc 216so that calling 'cvs' effectively calls git-cvsserver. 217 218Clients known to work 219--------------------- 220 221- CVS 1.12.9 on Debian 222- CVS 1.11.17 on MacOSX (from Fink package) 223- Eclipse 3.0, 3.1.2 on MacOSX (see Eclipse CVS Client Notes) 224- TortoiseCVS 225 226Operations supported 227-------------------- 228 229All the operations required for normal use are supported, including 230checkout, diff, status, update, log, add, remove, commit. 231Legacy monitoring operations are not supported (edit, watch and related). 232Exports and tagging (tags and branches) are not supported at this stage. 233 234The server will set the -k mode to binary when relevant. In proper GIT 235tradition, the contents of the files are always respected. 236No keyword expansion or newline munging is supported. 237 238Dependencies 239------------ 240 241git-cvsserver depends on DBD::SQLite. 242 243Copyright and Authors 244--------------------- 245 246This program is copyright The Open University UK - 2006. 247 248Authors: 249 250- Martyn Smith <martyn@catalyst.net.nz> 251- Martin Langhoff <martin@catalyst.net.nz> 252 253with ideas and patches from participants of the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>. 254 255Documentation 256-------------- 257Documentation by Martyn Smith <martyn@catalyst.net.nz>, Martin Langhoff <martin@catalyst.net.nz>, and Matthias Urlichs <smurf@smurf.noris.de>. 258 259GIT 260--- 261Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite