1GIT-CVSSERVER(1) Git Manual GIT-CVSSERVER(1)
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6 git-cvsserver - A CVS server emulator for git
7
9 SSH:
10 export CVS_SERVER=git-cvsserver
13 cvs -d :ext:user@server/path/repo.git co <HEAD_name>
14 pserver (/etc/inetd.conf):
15 cvspserver stream tcp nowait nobody /usr/bin/git-cvsserver git-cvsserver pserver
18 Usage:
19 git-cvsserver [options] [pserver|server] [<directory> ...]
22
24 All these options obviously only make sense if enforced by the server
25 side. They have been implemented to resemble the git-daemon(1) options
26 as closely as possible.
27 --base-path <path>
29 Prepend path to requested CVSROOT
30 --strict-paths
32 Don´t allow recursing into subdirectories
33 --export-all
35 Don´t check for gitcvs.enabled in config. You also have to specify
36 a list of allowed directories (see below) if you want to use this
37 option.
38 --version, -V
40 Print version information and exit
41 --help, -h, -H
43 Print usage information and exit
44 <directory>
46 You can specify a list of allowed directories. If no directories
47 are given, all are allowed. This is an additional restriction,
48 gitcvs access still needs to be enabled by the gitcvs.enabled
49 config option unless --export-all was given, too.
50
52 This application is a CVS emulation layer for git.
53 It is highly functional. However, not all methods are implemented, and
55 for those methods that are implemented, not all switches are
56 implemented.
57 Testing has been done using both the CLI CVS client, and the Eclipse
59 CVS plugin. Most functionality works fine with both of these clients.
60
62 Currently cvsserver works over SSH connections for read/write clients,
63 and over pserver for anonymous CVS access.
64 CVS clients cannot tag, branch or perform GIT merges.
66 git-cvsserver maps GIT branches to CVS modules. This is very different
68 from what most CVS users would expect since in CVS modules usually
69 represent one or more directories.
70
72 1. If you are going to offer anonymous CVS access via pserver, add a
73 line in /etc/inetd.conf like
74 cvspserver stream tcp nowait nobody git-cvsserver pserver
78 Note: Some inetd servers let you specify the name of the executable
81 independently of the value of argv[0] (i.e. the name the program
82 assumes it was executed with). In this case the correct line in
83 /etc/inetd.conf looks like
84 cvspserver stream tcp nowait nobody /usr/bin/git-cvsserver git-cvsserver pserver
88 No special setup is needed for SSH access, other than having GIT
91 tools in the PATH. If you have clients that do not accept the
92 CVS_SERVER environment variable, you can rename git-cvsserver to
93 cvs.
94 Note: Newer CVS versions (>= 1.12.11) also support specifying
96 CVS_SERVER directly in CVSROOT like
97 cvs -d ":ext;CVS_SERVER=git-cvsserver:user@server/path/repo.git" co <HEAD_name>
101 This has the advantage that it will be saved in your CVS/Root files
103 and you don´t need to worry about always setting the correct
104 environment variable.
105 2. For each repo that you want accessible from CVS you need to edit
107 config in the repo and add the following section.
108 [gitcvs]
112 enabled=1
113 # optional for debugging
114 logfile=/path/to/logfile
115 Note: you need to ensure each user that is going to invoke
118 git-cvsserver has write access to the log file and to the database
119 (see Database Backend. If you want to offer write access over SSH,
120 the users of course also need write access to the git repository
121 itself.
122 All configuration variables can also be overridden for a specific
124 method of access. Valid method names are "ext" (for SSH access) and
125 "pserver". The following example configuration would disable
126 pserver access while still allowing access over SSH.
127 [gitcvs]
131 enabled=0
132 [gitcvs "ext"]
134 enabled=1
135 3. On the client machine you need to set the following variables.
138 CVSROOT should be set as per normal, but the directory should point
139 at the appropriate git repo. For example:
140 For SSH access, CVS_SERVER should be set to git-cvsserver
142 Example:
144 export CVSROOT=:ext:user@server:/var/git/project.git
148 export CVS_SERVER=git-cvsserver
149 4. For SSH clients that will make commits, make sure their .bashrc
152 file sets the GIT_AUTHOR and GIT_COMMITTER variables.
153 5. Clients should now be able to check out the project. Use the CVS
155 module name to indicate what GIT head you want to check out.
156 Example:
157 cvs co -d project-master master
161
164 git-cvsserver uses one database per git head (i.e. CVS module) to store
165 information about the repository for faster access. The database
166 doesn´t contain any persistent data and can be completely regenerated
167 from the git repository at any time. The database needs to be updated
168 (i.e. written to) after every commit.
169 If the commit is done directly by using git (as opposed to using
171 git-cvsserver) the update will need to happen on the next repository
172 access by git-cvsserver, independent of access method and requested
173 operation.
174 That means that even if you offer only read access (e.g. by using the
176 pserver method), git-cvsserver should have write access to the database
177 to work reliably (otherwise you need to make sure that the database if
178 up-to-date all the time git-cvsserver is run).
179 By default it uses SQLite databases in the git directory, named
181 gitcvs.<module_name>.sqlite. Note that the SQLite backend creates
182 temporary files in the same directory as the database file on write so
183 it might not be enough to grant the users using git-cvsserver write
184 access to the database file without granting them write access to the
185 directory, too.
186 You can configure the database backend with the following configuration
188 variables:
189 Configuring database backend
191 git-cvsserver uses the Perl DBI module. Please also read its
192 documentation if changing these variables, especially about
193 DBI->connect().
194 gitcvs.dbname
196 Database name. The exact meaning depends on the used database
197 driver, for SQLite this is a filename. Supports variable
198 substitution (see below). May not contain semicolons (;). Default:
199 %Ggitcvs.%m.sqlite
200 gitcvs.dbdriver
202 Used DBI driver. You can specify any available driver for this
203 here, but it might not work. cvsserver is tested with DBD::SQLite,
204 reported to work with DBD::Pg, and reported not to work with
205 DBD::mysql. Please regard this as an experimental feature. May not
206 contain double colons (:). Default: SQLite
207 gitcvs.dbuser
209 Database user. Only useful if setting dbdriver, since SQLite has no
210 concept of database users. Supports variable substitution (see
211 below).
212 gitcvs.dbpass
214 Database password. Only useful if setting dbdriver, since SQLite
215 has no concept of database passwords.
216 All variables can also be set per access method, see above.
217 Variable substitution
219 In dbdriver and dbuser you can use the following variables:
220 %G
222 git directory name
223 %g
225 git directory name, where all characters except for
226 alpha-numeric ones, ., and - are replaced with _ (this
227 should make it easier to use the directory name in a
228 filename if wanted)
229 %m
231 CVS module/git head name
232 %a
234 access method (one of "ext" or "pserver")
235 %u
237 Name of the user running git-cvsserver. If no name can be
238 determined, the numeric uid is used.
239
241 To get a checkout with the Eclipse CVS client:
242 1. Select "Create a new project -> From CVS checkout"
245 2. Create a new location. See the notes below for details on how to
247 choose the right protocol.
248 3. Browse the modules available. It will give you a list of the heads
250 in the repository. You will not be able to browse the tree from
251 there. Only the heads.
252 4. Pick HEAD when it asks what branch/tag to check out. Untick the
254 "launch commit wizard" to avoid committing the .project file.
255 Protocol notes: If you are using anonymous access via pserver, just
256 select that. Those using SSH access should choose the ext protocol, and
257 configure ext access on the Preferences->Team->CVS->ExtConnection pane.
258 Set CVS_SERVER to git-cvsserver. Note that password support is not good
259 when using ext, you will definitely want to have SSH keys setup.
260 Alternatively, you can just use the non-standard extssh protocol that
262 Eclipse offer. In that case CVS_SERVER is ignored, and you will have to
263 replace the cvs utility on the server with git-cvsserver or manipulate
264 your .bashrc so that calling cvs effectively calls git-cvsserver.
265
267 · CVS 1.12.9 on Debian
268 · CVS 1.11.17 on MacOSX (from Fink package)
270 · Eclipse 3.0, 3.1.2 on MacOSX (see Eclipse CVS Client Notes)
272 · TortoiseCVS
274
276 All the operations required for normal use are supported, including
277 checkout, diff, status, update, log, add, remove, commit. Legacy
278 monitoring operations are not supported (edit, watch and related).
279 Exports and tagging (tags and branches) are not supported at this
280 stage.
281 The server should set the -k mode to binary when relevant, however,
283 this is not really implemented yet. For now, you can force the server
284 to set -kb for all files by setting the gitcvs.allbinary config
285 variable. In proper GIT tradition, the contents of the files are always
286 respected. No keyword expansion or newline munging is supported.
287
289 git-cvsserver depends on DBD::SQLite.
290
292 This program is copyright The Open University UK - 2006.
293 Authors:
295 · Martyn Smith <martyn@catalyst.net.nz>
298 · Martin Langhoff <martin@catalyst.net.nz>
300 with ideas and patches from participants of the git-list
301 <git@vger.kernel.org>.
302
304 Documentation by Martyn Smith <martyn@catalyst.net.nz>, Martin Langhoff
305 <martin@catalyst.net.nz>, and Matthias Urlichs <smurf@smurf.noris.de>.
306
308 Part of the git(7) suite
309Git 1.5.3.3 10/09/2007 GIT-CVSSERVER(1)