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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.
------
Note: you need to ensure each user that is going to invoke git-cvsserver has
-write access to the log file and to the git repository. When offering anon
-access via pserver, this means that the nobody user should have write access
-to at least the sqlite database at the root of the repository.
+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.
+
+[[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
+following example configuration would disable pserver access while still
+allowing access over SSH.
+------
+ [gitcvs]
+ enabled=0
+
+ [gitcvs "ext"]
+ 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
cvs co -d project-master master
------
+[[dbbackend]]
+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 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
+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).
+
+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
+them write access to the directory, too.
+
+You can configure the database backend with the following
+configuration variables:
+
+Configuring database backend
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+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.
+ Supports variable substitution (see below). May
+ not contain semicolons (`;`).
+ Default: '%Ggitcvs.%m.sqlite'
+
+gitcvs.dbdriver::
+ Used DBI driver. You can specify any available driver
+ for this here, but it might not work. cvsserver is tested
+ 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 (`:`).
+ Default: 'SQLite'
+
+gitcvs.dbuser::
+ Database user. Only useful if setting `dbdriver`, since
+ SQLite has no concept of database users. Supports variable
+ substitution (see below).
+
+gitcvs.dbpass::
+ Database password. Only useful if setting `dbdriver`, since
+ SQLite has no concept of database passwords.
+
+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
+%g::
+ 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
+%a::
+ access method (one of "ext" or "pserver")
+%u::
+ Name of the user running git-cvsserver.
+ If no name can be determined, the
+ numeric uid is 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'. 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
------------