NAME
----
-git-cvsserver - A CVS server emulator for git
+git-cvsserver - A CVS server emulator for Git
SYNOPSIS
--------
+
+SSH:
+
[verse]
-export CVS_SERVER=git-cvsserver
+export CVS_SERVER="git cvsserver"
'cvs' -d :ext:user@server/path/repo.git co <HEAD_name>
+pserver (/etc/inetd.conf):
+
+[verse]
+cvspserver stream tcp nowait nobody /usr/bin/git-cvsserver git-cvsserver pserver
+
+Usage:
+
+[verse]
+'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 linkgit:git-daemon[1] options as
+closely as possible.
+
+--base-path <path>::
+Prepend 'path' to requested CVSROOT
+
+--strict-paths::
+Don't allow recursing into subdirectories
+
+--export-all::
+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.
+
+-V::
+--version::
+Print version information and exit
+
+-h::
+-H::
+--help::
+Print usage information and exit
+
+<directory>::
+You can specify a list of allowed directories. If no directories
+are given, all are allowed. This is an additional restriction, gitcvs
+access still needs to be enabled by the `gitcvs.enabled` config option
+unless '--export-all' was given, too.
+
+
DESCRIPTION
-----------
-This application is a CVS emulation layer for git.
+This application is a CVS emulation layer for Git.
It is highly functional. However, not all methods are implemented,
and for those methods that are implemented,
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.
-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.
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 git-cvsserver pserver
------
-Note: In some cases, you need to pass the 'pserver' argument twice for
-git-cvsserver to see it. So the line would look like
+Note: Some inetd servers let you specify the name of the executable
+independently of the value of argv[0] (i.e. the name the program assumes
+it was executed with). In this case the correct line in /etc/inetd.conf
+looks 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:
------
- cvspserver stream tcp nowait nobody git-cvsserver pserver pserver
+ 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:
------
-No special setup is needed for SSH access, other than having GIT tools
+ 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
-env 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
+
+------
+cvs -d ":ext;CVS_SERVER=git cvsserver:user@server/path/repo.git" co <HEAD_name>
+------
+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. 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.
+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 overriden for a specific method of
+All configuration variables can also be overridden for a specific method of
access. Valid method names are "ext" (for SSH access) and "pserver". The
following example configuration would disable pserver access while still
allowing access over SSH.
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
+ 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
-store information about the repository for faster access. The
-database doesn't contain any persitent data and can be completly
-regenerated from the git repository at any time. The database
-needs to be updated (i.e. written to) after every commit.
+'git-cvsserver' uses one database per Git head (i.e. CVS module) to
+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
-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
+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.
+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:
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
In `dbdriver` and `dbuser` you can use the following variables:
%G::
- git directory name
+ Git directory name
%g::
- git directory name, where all characters except for
+ Git directory name, where all characters except for
alpha-numeric ones, `.`, and `-` are replaced with
`_` (this should make it easier to use the directory
name in a filename if wanted)
%m::
- CVS module/git head name
+ CVS module/Git head name
%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.
+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
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
---------------------
All the operations required for normal use are supported, including
checkout, diff, status, update, log, add, remove, commit.
-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.
-Dependencies
-------------
+Most CVS command arguments that read CVS tags or revision numbers
+(typically -r) work, and also support any git refspec
+(tag, branch, commit ID, etc).
+However, CVS revision numbers for non-default branches are not well
+emulated, and cvs log does not show tags or branches at
+all. (Non-main-branch CVS revision numbers superficially resemble CVS
+revision numbers, but they actually encode a git commit ID directly,
+rather than represent the number of revisions since the branch point.)
+
+Note that there are two ways to checkout a particular branch.
+As described elsewhere on this page, the "module" parameter
+of cvs checkout is interpreted as a branch name, and it becomes
+the main branch. It remains the main branch for a given sandbox
+even if you temporarily make another branch sticky with
+cvs update -r. Alternatively, the -r argument can indicate
+some other branch to actually checkout, even though the module
+is still the "main" branch. Tradeoffs (as currently
+implemented): Each new "module" creates a new database on disk with
+a history for the given module, and after the database is created,
+operations against that main branch are fast. Or alternatively,
+-r doesn't take any extra disk space, but may be significantly slower for
+many operations, like cvs update.
+
+If you want to refer to a git refspec that has characters that are
+not allowed by CVS, you have two options. First, it may just work
+to supply the git refspec directly to the appropriate CVS -r argument;
+some CVS clients don't seem to do much sanity checking of the argument.
+Second, if that fails, you can use a special character escape mechanism
+that only uses characters that are valid in CVS tags. A sequence
+of 4 or 5 characters of the form (underscore (`"_"`), dash (`"-"`),
+one or two characters, and dash (`"-"`)) can encode various characters based
+on the one or two letters: `"s"` for slash (`"/"`), `"p"` for
+period (`"."`), `"u"` for underscore (`"_"`), or two hexadecimal digits
+for any byte value at all (typically an ASCII number, or perhaps a part
+of a UTF-8 encoded character).
-git-cvsserver depends on DBD::SQLite.
+Legacy monitoring operations are not supported (edit, watch and related).
+Exports and tagging (tags and branches) are not supported at this stage.
-Copyright and Authors
----------------------
+CRLF Line Ending Conversions
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-This program is copyright The Open University UK - 2006.
+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 end-of-line conversion on some platforms.
-Authors:
+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.
-- Martyn Smith <martyn@catalyst.net.nz>
-- Martin Langhoff <martin@catalyst.net.nz>
+Alternatively, if `gitcvs.usecrlfattr` config is not enabled
+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
+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.
-with ideas and patches from participants of the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.
+For best consistency with 'cvs', it is probably best to override the
+defaults by setting `gitcvs.usecrlfattr` to true,
+and `gitcvs.allbinary` to "guess".
-Documentation
---------------
-Documentation by Martyn Smith <martyn@catalyst.net.nz>, Martin Langhoff <martin@catalyst.net.nz>, and Matthias Urlichs <smurf@smurf.noris.de>.
+Dependencies
+------------
+'git-cvsserver' depends on DBD::SQLite.
GIT
---
-Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite
+Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite