1804701c5c8e7e6eb347d201e96cf834b6ca4391
1 git-cvsserver(1)
2 ================
4 NAME
5 ----
6 git-cvsserver - A CVS server emulator for git
8 SYNOPSIS
9 --------
11 SSH:
13 [verse]
14 export CVS_SERVER=git-cvsserver
15 'cvs' -d :ext:user@server/path/repo.git co <HEAD_name>
17 pserver (/etc/inetd.conf):
19 [verse]
20 cvspserver stream tcp nowait nobody /usr/bin/git-cvsserver git-cvsserver pserver
22 Usage:
24 [verse]
25 'git cvsserver' [options] [pserver|server] [<directory> ...]
27 OPTIONS
28 -------
30 All these options obviously only make sense if enforced by the server side.
31 They have been implemented to resemble the linkgit:git-daemon[1] options as
32 closely as possible.
34 --base-path <path>::
35 Prepend 'path' to requested CVSROOT
37 --strict-paths::
38 Don't allow recursing into subdirectories
40 --export-all::
41 Don't check for `gitcvs.enabled` in config. You also have to specify a list
42 of allowed directories (see below) if you want to use this option.
44 -V::
45 --version::
46 Print version information and exit
48 -h::
49 -H::
50 --help::
51 Print usage information and exit
53 <directory>::
54 You can specify a list of allowed directories. If no directories
55 are given, all are allowed. This is an additional restriction, gitcvs
56 access still needs to be enabled by the `gitcvs.enabled` config option
57 unless '--export-all' was given, too.
60 DESCRIPTION
61 -----------
63 This application is a CVS emulation layer for git.
65 It is highly functional. However, not all methods are implemented,
66 and for those methods that are implemented,
67 not all switches are implemented.
69 Testing has been done using both the CLI CVS client, and the Eclipse CVS
70 plugin. Most functionality works fine with both of these clients.
72 LIMITATIONS
73 -----------
75 Currently cvsserver works over SSH connections for read/write clients, and
76 over pserver for anonymous CVS access.
78 CVS clients cannot tag, branch or perform GIT merges.
80 'git-cvsserver' maps GIT branches to CVS modules. This is very different
81 from what most CVS users would expect since in CVS modules usually represent
82 one or more directories.
84 INSTALLATION
85 ------------
87 1. If you are going to offer anonymous CVS access via pserver, add a line in
88 /etc/inetd.conf like
89 +
90 --
91 ------
92 cvspserver stream tcp nowait nobody git-cvsserver pserver
94 ------
95 Note: Some inetd servers let you specify the name of the executable
96 independently of the value of argv[0] (i.e. the name the program assumes
97 it was executed with). In this case the correct line in /etc/inetd.conf
98 looks like
100 ------
101 cvspserver stream tcp nowait nobody /usr/bin/git-cvsserver git-cvsserver pserver
103 ------
104 No special setup is needed for SSH access, other than having GIT tools
105 in the PATH. If you have clients that do not accept the CVS_SERVER
106 environment variable, you can rename 'git-cvsserver' to `cvs`.
108 Note: Newer CVS versions (>= 1.12.11) also support specifying
109 CVS_SERVER directly in CVSROOT like
111 ------
112 cvs -d ":ext;CVS_SERVER=git-cvsserver:user@server/path/repo.git" co <HEAD_name>
113 ------
114 This has the advantage that it will be saved in your 'CVS/Root' files and
115 you don't need to worry about always setting the correct environment
116 variable. SSH users restricted to 'git-shell' don't need to override the default
117 with CVS_SERVER (and shouldn't) as 'git-shell' understands `cvs` to mean
118 'git-cvsserver' and pretends that the other end runs the real `cvs` better.
119 --
120 2. For each repo that you want accessible from CVS you need to edit config in
121 the repo and add the following section.
122 +
123 --
124 ------
125 [gitcvs]
126 enabled=1
127 # optional for debugging
128 logfile=/path/to/logfile
130 ------
131 Note: you need to ensure each user that is going to invoke 'git-cvsserver' has
132 write access to the log file and to the database (see
133 <<dbbackend,Database Backend>>. If you want to offer write access over
134 SSH, the users of course also need write access to the git repository itself.
136 [[configaccessmethod]]
137 All configuration variables can also be overridden for a specific method of
138 access. Valid method names are "ext" (for SSH access) and "pserver". The
139 following example configuration would disable pserver access while still
140 allowing access over SSH.
141 ------
142 [gitcvs]
143 enabled=0
145 [gitcvs "ext"]
146 enabled=1
147 ------
148 --
149 3. If you didn't specify the CVSROOT/CVS_SERVER directly in the checkout command,
150 automatically saving it in your 'CVS/Root' files, then you need to set them
151 explicitly in your environment. CVSROOT should be set as per normal, but the
152 directory should point at the appropriate git repo. As above, for SSH clients
153 _not_ restricted to 'git-shell', CVS_SERVER should be set to 'git-cvsserver'.
154 +
155 --
156 ------
157 export CVSROOT=:ext:user@server:/var/git/project.git
158 export CVS_SERVER=git-cvsserver
159 ------
160 --
161 4. For SSH clients that will make commits, make sure their server-side
162 .ssh/environment files (or .bashrc, etc., according to their specific shell)
163 export appropriate values for GIT_AUTHOR_NAME, GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL,
164 GIT_COMMITTER_NAME, and GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL. For SSH clients whose login
165 shell is bash, .bashrc may be a reasonable alternative.
167 5. Clients should now be able to check out the project. Use the CVS 'module'
168 name to indicate what GIT 'head' you want to check out. This also sets the
169 name of your newly checked-out directory, unless you tell it otherwise with
170 `-d <dir_name>`. For example, this checks out 'master' branch to the
171 `project-master` directory:
172 +
173 ------
174 cvs co -d project-master master
175 ------
177 [[dbbackend]]
178 Database Backend
179 ----------------
181 'git-cvsserver' uses one database per git head (i.e. CVS module) to
182 store information about the repository for faster access. The
183 database doesn't contain any persistent data and can be completely
184 regenerated from the git repository at any time. The database
185 needs to be updated (i.e. written to) after every commit.
187 If the commit is done directly by using `git` (as opposed to
188 using 'git-cvsserver') the update will need to happen on the
189 next repository access by 'git-cvsserver', independent of
190 access method and requested operation.
192 That means that even if you offer only read access (e.g. by using
193 the pserver method), 'git-cvsserver' should have write access to
194 the database to work reliably (otherwise you need to make sure
195 that the database is up-to-date any time 'git-cvsserver' is executed).
197 By default it uses SQLite databases in the git directory, named
198 `gitcvs.<module_name>.sqlite`. Note that the SQLite backend creates
199 temporary files in the same directory as the database file on
200 write so it might not be enough to grant the users using
201 'git-cvsserver' write access to the database file without granting
202 them write access to the directory, too.
204 You can configure the database backend with the following
205 configuration variables:
207 Configuring database backend
208 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
210 'git-cvsserver' uses the Perl DBI module. Please also read
211 its documentation if changing these variables, especially
212 about `DBI->connect()`.
214 gitcvs.dbname::
215 Database name. The exact meaning depends on the
216 selected database driver, for SQLite this is a filename.
217 Supports variable substitution (see below). May
218 not contain semicolons (`;`).
219 Default: '%Ggitcvs.%m.sqlite'
221 gitcvs.dbdriver::
222 Used DBI driver. You can specify any available driver
223 for this here, but it might not work. cvsserver is tested
224 with 'DBD::SQLite', reported to work with
225 'DBD::Pg', and reported *not* to work with 'DBD::mysql'.
226 Please regard this as an experimental feature. May not
227 contain colons (`:`).
228 Default: 'SQLite'
230 gitcvs.dbuser::
231 Database user. Only useful if setting `dbdriver`, since
232 SQLite has no concept of database users. Supports variable
233 substitution (see below).
235 gitcvs.dbpass::
236 Database password. Only useful if setting `dbdriver`, since
237 SQLite has no concept of database passwords.
239 gitcvs.dbTableNamePrefix::
240 Database table name prefix. Supports variable substitution
241 (see below). Any non-alphabetic characters will be replaced
242 with underscores.
244 All variables can also be set per access method, see <<configaccessmethod,above>>.
246 Variable substitution
247 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
248 In `dbdriver` and `dbuser` you can use the following variables:
250 %G::
251 git directory name
252 %g::
253 git directory name, where all characters except for
254 alpha-numeric ones, `.`, and `-` are replaced with
255 `_` (this should make it easier to use the directory
256 name in a filename if wanted)
257 %m::
258 CVS module/git head name
259 %a::
260 access method (one of "ext" or "pserver")
261 %u::
262 Name of the user running 'git-cvsserver'.
263 If no name can be determined, the
264 numeric uid is used.
266 Eclipse CVS Client Notes
267 ------------------------
269 To get a checkout with the Eclipse CVS client:
271 1. Select "Create a new project -> From CVS checkout"
272 2. Create a new location. See the notes below for details on how to choose the
273 right protocol.
274 3. Browse the 'modules' available. It will give you a list of the heads in
275 the repository. You will not be able to browse the tree from there. Only
276 the heads.
277 4. Pick 'HEAD' when it asks what branch/tag to check out. Untick the
278 "launch commit wizard" to avoid committing the .project file.
280 Protocol notes: If you are using anonymous access via pserver, just select that.
281 Those using SSH access should choose the 'ext' protocol, and configure 'ext'
282 access on the Preferences->Team->CVS->ExtConnection pane. Set CVS_SERVER to
283 'git-cvsserver'. Note that password support is not good when using 'ext',
284 you will definitely want to have SSH keys setup.
286 Alternatively, you can just use the non-standard extssh protocol that Eclipse
287 offer. In that case CVS_SERVER is ignored, and you will have to replace
288 the cvs utility on the server with 'git-cvsserver' or manipulate your `.bashrc`
289 so that calling 'cvs' effectively calls 'git-cvsserver'.
291 Clients known to work
292 ---------------------
294 - CVS 1.12.9 on Debian
295 - CVS 1.11.17 on MacOSX (from Fink package)
296 - Eclipse 3.0, 3.1.2 on MacOSX (see Eclipse CVS Client Notes)
297 - TortoiseCVS
299 Operations supported
300 --------------------
302 All the operations required for normal use are supported, including
303 checkout, diff, status, update, log, add, remove, commit.
304 Legacy monitoring operations are not supported (edit, watch and related).
305 Exports and tagging (tags and branches) are not supported at this stage.
307 CRLF Line Ending Conversions
308 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
310 By default the server leaves the '-k' mode blank for all files,
311 which causes the cvs client to treat them as a text files, subject
312 to crlf conversion on some platforms.
314 You can make the server use `crlf` attributes to set the '-k' modes
315 for files by setting the `gitcvs.usecrlfattr` config variable.
316 In this case, if `crlf` is explicitly unset ('-crlf'), then the
317 server will set '-kb' mode for binary files. If `crlf` is set,
318 then the '-k' mode will explicitly be left blank. See
319 also linkgit:gitattributes[5] for more information about the `crlf`
320 attribute.
322 Alternatively, if `gitcvs.usecrlfattr` config is not enabled
323 or if the `crlf` attribute is unspecified for a filename, then
324 the server uses the `gitcvs.allbinary` config for the default setting.
325 If `gitcvs.allbinary` is set, then file not otherwise
326 specified will default to '-kb' mode. Otherwise the '-k' mode
327 is left blank. But if `gitcvs.allbinary` is set to "guess", then
328 the correct '-k' mode will be guessed based on the contents of
329 the file.
331 For best consistency with `cvs`, it is probably best to override the
332 defaults by setting `gitcvs.usecrlfattr` to true,
333 and `gitcvs.allbinary` to "guess".
335 Dependencies
336 ------------
337 'git-cvsserver' depends on DBD::SQLite.
339 Copyright and Authors
340 ---------------------
342 This program is copyright The Open University UK - 2006.
344 Authors:
346 - Martyn Smith <martyn@catalyst.net.nz>
347 - Martin Langhoff <martin@catalyst.net.nz>
349 with ideas and patches from participants of the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.
351 Documentation
352 --------------
353 Documentation by Martyn Smith <martyn@catalyst.net.nz>, Martin Langhoff <martin@catalyst.net.nz>, and Matthias Urlichs <smurf@smurf.noris.de>.
355 GIT
356 ---
357 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite