SYNOPSIS
--------
+
+SSH:
+
[verse]
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 gitlink: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.
+
+--version, -V::
+Print version information and exit
+
+--help, -h, -H::
+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
-----------
CVS clients cannot tag, branch or perform GIT merges.
+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
------------
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 git-cvsserver pserver pserver
+ cvspserver stream tcp nowait nobody /usr/bin/git-cvsserver git-cvsserver pserver
------
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.
--
2. For each repo that you want accessible from CVS you need to edit config in
the repo and add the following section.
SSH, the users of course also need write access to the git repository itself.
[[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.
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
+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. That
-means that even if you offer only read access (e.g. by using
+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
+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 database to work reliably (otherwise you need to make sure
that the database if up-to-date all the time git-cvsserver is run).
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
-them also write access to the directory.
+them write access to the directory, too.
You can configure the database backend with the following
configuration variables:
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'. Not 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
+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 will set the -k mode to binary when relevant. In proper GIT
-tradition, the contents of the files are always respected.
-No keyword expansion or newline munging is supported.
+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
------------