Usage:
[verse]
-'git-cvsserver' [options] [pserver|server] [<directory> ...]
+'git cvsserver' [options] [pserver|server] [<directory> ...]
OPTIONS
-------
All these options obviously only make sense if enforced by the server side.
-They have been implemented to resemble the gitlink:git-daemon[1] options as
+They have been implemented to resemble the linkgit:git-daemon[1] options as
closely as possible.
--base-path <path>::
Don't check for `gitcvs.enabled` in config. You also have to specify a list
of allowed directories (see below) if you want to use this option.
---version, -V::
+-V::
+--version::
Print version information and exit
---help, -h, -H::
+-h::
+-H::
+--help::
Print usage information and exit
<directory>::
CVS clients cannot tag, branch or perform GIT merges.
-git-cvsserver maps GIT branches to CVS modules. This is very different
+'git-cvsserver' maps GIT branches to CVS modules. This is very different
from what most CVS users would expect since in CVS modules usually represent
one or more directories.
------
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.
+environment variable, you can rename 'git-cvsserver' to `cvs`.
Note: Newer CVS versions (>= 1.12.11) also support specifying
CVS_SERVER directly in CVSROOT like
------
This has the advantage that it will be saved in your 'CVS/Root' files and
you don't need to worry about always setting the correct environment
-variable.
+variable. SSH users restricted to 'git-shell' don't need to override the default
+with CVS_SERVER (and shouldn't) as 'git-shell' understands `cvs` to mean
+'git-cvsserver' and pretends that the other end runs the real 'cvs' better.
--
2. For each repo that you want accessible from CVS you need to edit config in
the repo and add the following section.
logfile=/path/to/logfile
------
-Note: you need to ensure each user that is going to invoke git-cvsserver has
+Note: you need to ensure each user that is going to invoke 'git-cvsserver' has
write access to the log file and to the database (see
<<dbbackend,Database Backend>>. If you want to offer write access over
SSH, the users of course also need write access to the git repository itself.
+You also need to ensure that each repository is "bare" (without a git index
+file) for `cvs commit` to work. See linkgit:gitcvs-migration[7].
+
[[configaccessmethod]]
All configuration variables can also be overridden for a specific method of
access. Valid method names are "ext" (for SSH access) and "pserver". The
enabled=1
------
--
-3. On the client machine you need to set the following variables.
- CVSROOT should be set as per normal, but the directory should point at the
- appropriate git repo. For example:
+3. If you didn't specify the CVSROOT/CVS_SERVER directly in the checkout command,
+ automatically saving it in your 'CVS/Root' files, then you need to set them
+ explicitly in your environment. CVSROOT should be set as per normal, but the
+ directory should point at the appropriate git repo. As above, for SSH clients
+ _not_ restricted to 'git-shell', CVS_SERVER should be set to 'git-cvsserver'.
+
--
-For SSH access, CVS_SERVER should be set to git-cvsserver
-
-Example:
-
------
export CVSROOT=:ext:user@server:/var/git/project.git
export CVS_SERVER=git-cvsserver
------
--
-4. For SSH clients that will make commits, make sure their .bashrc file
- sets the GIT_AUTHOR and GIT_COMMITTER variables.
+4. For SSH clients that will make commits, make sure their server-side
+ .ssh/environment files (or .bashrc, etc., according to their specific shell)
+ export appropriate values for GIT_AUTHOR_NAME, GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL,
+ GIT_COMMITTER_NAME, and GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL. For SSH clients whose login
+ shell is bash, .bashrc may be a reasonable alternative.
5. Clients should now be able to check out the project. Use the CVS 'module'
- name to indicate what GIT 'head' you want to check out. Example:
+ name to indicate what GIT 'head' you want to check out. This also sets the
+ name of your newly checked-out directory, unless you tell it otherwise with
+ `-d <dir_name>`. For example, this checks out 'master' branch to the
+ `project-master` directory:
+
------
cvs co -d project-master master
Database Backend
----------------
-git-cvsserver uses one database per git head (i.e. CVS module) to
+'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.
-If the commit is done directly by using git (as opposed to
-using git-cvsserver) the update will need to happen on the
-next repository access by git-cvsserver, independent of
+If the commit is done directly by using `git` (as opposed to
+using 'git-cvsserver') the update will need to happen on the
+next repository access by 'git-cvsserver', independent of
access method and requested operation.
That means that even if you offer only read access (e.g. by using
-the pserver method), git-cvsserver should have write access to
+the pserver method), 'git-cvsserver' should have write access to
the database to work reliably (otherwise you need to make sure
-that the database if up-to-date all the time git-cvsserver is run).
+that the database is up-to-date any time 'git-cvsserver' is executed).
By default it uses SQLite databases in the git directory, named
`gitcvs.<module_name>.sqlite`. Note that the SQLite backend creates
temporary files in the same directory as the database file on
write so it might not be enough to grant the users using
-git-cvsserver write access to the database file without granting
+'git-cvsserver' write access to the database file without granting
them write access to the directory, too.
You can configure the database backend with the following
Configuring database backend
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-git-cvsserver uses the Perl DBI module. Please also read
+'git-cvsserver' uses the Perl DBI module. Please also read
its documentation if changing these variables, especially
about `DBI->connect()`.
gitcvs.dbname::
Database name. The exact meaning depends on the
- used database driver, for SQLite this is a filename.
+ selected database driver, for SQLite this is a filename.
Supports variable substitution (see below). May
not contain semicolons (`;`).
Default: '%Ggitcvs.%m.sqlite'
with 'DBD::SQLite', reported to work with
'DBD::Pg', and reported *not* to work with 'DBD::mysql'.
Please regard this as an experimental feature. May not
- contain double colons (`:`).
+ contain colons (`:`).
Default: 'SQLite'
gitcvs.dbuser::
Database password. Only useful if setting `dbdriver`, since
SQLite has no concept of database passwords.
+gitcvs.dbTableNamePrefix::
+ Database table name prefix. Supports variable substitution
+ (see below). Any non-alphabetic characters will be replaced
+ with underscores.
+
All variables can also be set per access method, see <<configaccessmethod,above>>.
Variable substitution
%a::
access method (one of "ext" or "pserver")
%u::
- Name of the user running git-cvsserver.
+ Name of the user running 'git-cvsserver'.
If no name can be determined, the
numeric uid is used.
Alternatively, you can just use the non-standard extssh protocol that Eclipse
offer. In that case CVS_SERVER is ignored, and you will have to replace
-the cvs utility on the server with git-cvsserver or manipulate your `.bashrc`
-so that calling 'cvs' effectively calls git-cvsserver.
+the cvs utility on the server with 'git-cvsserver' or manipulate your `.bashrc`
+so that calling 'cvs' effectively calls 'git-cvsserver'.
Clients known to work
---------------------
Legacy monitoring operations are not supported (edit, watch and related).
Exports and tagging (tags and branches) are not supported at this stage.
-The server should set the '-k' mode to binary when relevant, however,
-this is not really implemented yet. For now, you can force the server
-to set '-kb' for all files by setting the `gitcvs.allbinary` config
-variable. In proper GIT tradition, the contents of the files are
-always respected. No keyword expansion or newline munging is supported.
+CRLF Line Ending Conversions
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+By default the server leaves the '-k' mode blank for all files,
+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.
+
+Alternatively, if `gitcvs.usecrlfattr` config is not enabled
+or if the `crlf` attribute is unspecified 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
+is left blank. But if `gitcvs.allbinary` is set to "guess", then
+the correct '-k' mode will be guessed based on the contents of
+the file.
+
+For best consistency with 'cvs', it is probably best to override the
+defaults by setting `gitcvs.usecrlfattr` to true,
+and `gitcvs.allbinary` to "guess".
Dependencies
------------
-
-git-cvsserver depends on DBD::SQLite.
+'git-cvsserver' depends on DBD::SQLite.
Copyright and Authors
---------------------
GIT
---
-Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite
+Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite