Usage:
[verse]
-'git cvsserver' [options] [pserver|server] [<directory> ...]
+'git-cvsserver' [options] [pserver|server] [<directory> ...]
OPTIONS
-------
LIMITATIONS
-----------
-Currently cvsserver works over SSH connections for read/write clients, and
-over pserver for anonymous CVS access.
-
CVS clients cannot tag, branch or perform GIT merges.
'git-cvsserver' maps GIT branches to CVS modules. This is very different
INSTALLATION
------------
-1. If you are going to offer anonymous CVS access via pserver, add a line in
+1. If you are going to offer CVS access via pserver, add a line in
/etc/inetd.conf like
+
--
cvspserver stream tcp nowait nobody /usr/bin/git-cvsserver git-cvsserver pserver
------
+
+Only anonymous access is provided by pserve by default. To commit you
+will have to create pserver accounts, simply add a gitcvs.authdb
+setting in the config file of the repositories you want the cvsserver
+to allow writes to, for example:
+
+------
+
+ [gitcvs]
+ authdb = /etc/cvsserver/passwd
+
+------
+The format of these files is username followed by the crypted password,
+for example:
+
+------
+ myuser:$1Oyx5r9mdGZ2
+ myuser:$1$BA)@$vbnMJMDym7tA32AamXrm./
+------
+You can use the 'htpasswd' facility that comes with Apache to make these
+files, but Apache's MD5 crypt method differs from the one used by most C
+library's crypt() function, so don't use the -m option.
+
+Alternatively you can produce the password with perl's crypt() operator:
+-----
+ perl -e 'my ($user, $pass) = @ARGV; printf "%s:%s\n", $user, crypt($user, $pass)' $USER password
+-----
+
+Then provide your password via the pserver method, for example:
+------
+ cvs -d:pserver:someuser:somepassword <at> server/path/repo.git co <HEAD_name>
+------
No special setup is needed for SSH access, other than having GIT tools
in the PATH. If you have clients that do not accept the CVS_SERVER
environment variable, you can rename 'git-cvsserver' to `cvs`.
----------------
'git-cvsserver' uses one database per git head (i.e. CVS module) to
-store information about the repository for faster access. The
-database doesn't contain any persistent data and can be completely
-regenerated from the git repository at any time. The database
-needs to be updated (i.e. written to) after every commit.
+store information about the repository to maintain consistent
+CVS revision numbers. The database needs to be
+updated (i.e. written to) after every commit.
If the commit is done directly by using `git` (as opposed to
using 'git-cvsserver') the update will need to happen on the
'git-cvsserver' write access to the database file without granting
them write access to the directory, too.
+The database can not be reliably regenerated in a
+consistent form after the branch it is tracking has changed.
+Example: For merged branches, 'git-cvsserver' only tracks
+one branch of development, and after a 'git merge' an
+incrementally updated database may track a different branch
+than a database regenerated from scratch, causing inconsistent
+CVS revision numbers. `git-cvsserver` has no way of knowing which
+branch it would have picked if it had been run incrementally
+pre-merge. So if you have to fully or partially (from old
+backup) regenerate the database, you should be suspicious
+of pre-existing CVS sandboxes.
+
You can configure the database backend with the following
configuration variables:
If no name can be determined, the
numeric uid is used.
+ENVIRONMENT
+-----------
+
+These variables obviate the need for command-line options in some
+circumstances, allowing easier restricted usage through git-shell.
+
+GIT_CVSSERVER_BASE_PATH takes the place of the argument to --base-path.
+
+GIT_CVSSERVER_ROOT specifies a single-directory whitelist. The
+repository must still be configured to allow access through
+git-cvsserver, as described above.
+
+When these environment variables are set, the corresponding
+command-line arguments may not be used.
+
Eclipse CVS Client Notes
------------------------
Protocol notes: If you are using anonymous access via pserver, just select that.
Those using SSH access should choose the 'ext' protocol, and configure 'ext'
access on the Preferences->Team->CVS->ExtConnection pane. Set CVS_SERVER to
-"'git cvsserver'". Note that password support is not good when using 'ext',
+"`git cvsserver`". Note that password support is not good when using 'ext',
you will definitely want to have SSH keys setup.
Alternatively, you can just use the non-standard extssh protocol that Eclipse
which causes the cvs client to treat them as a text files, subject
to crlf conversion on some platforms.
-You can make the server use `crlf` attributes to set the '-k' modes
-for files by setting the `gitcvs.usecrlfattr` config variable.
-In this case, if `crlf` is explicitly unset ('-crlf'), then the
-server will set '-kb' mode for binary files. If `crlf` is set,
-then the '-k' mode will explicitly be left blank. See
-also linkgit:gitattributes[5] for more information about the `crlf`
-attribute.
+You can make the server use the end-of-line conversion attributes to
+set the '-k' modes for files by setting the `gitcvs.usecrlfattr`
+config variable. See linkgit:gitattributes[5] for more information
+about end-of-line conversion.
Alternatively, if `gitcvs.usecrlfattr` config is not enabled
-or if the `crlf` attribute is unspecified for a filename, then
+or the attributes do not allow automatic detection for a filename, then
the server uses the `gitcvs.allbinary` config for the default setting.
If `gitcvs.allbinary` is set, then file not otherwise
specified will default to '-kb' mode. Otherwise the '-k' mode