Documentation/git-cvsserver.txt

   1 git-cvsserver(1)
   2 ================
   3
   4 NAME
   5 ----
   6 git-cvsserver - A CVS server emulator for git
   7
   8 SYNOPSIS
   9 --------
  10
  11 SSH:
  12
  13 [verse]
  14 export CVS_SERVER=git-cvsserver
  15 'cvs' -d :ext:user@server/path/repo.git co <HEAD_name>
  16
  17 pserver (/etc/inetd.conf):
  18
  19 [verse]
  20 cvspserver stream tcp nowait nobody /usr/bin/git-cvsserver git-cvsserver pserver
  21
  22 Usage:
  23
  24 [verse]
  25 'git-cvsserver' [options] [pserver|server] [<directory> ...]
  26
  27 OPTIONS
  28 -------
  29
  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.
  33
  34 --base-path <path>::
  35 Prepend 'path' to requested CVSROOT
  36
  37 --strict-paths::
  38 Don't allow recursing into subdirectories
  39
  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.
  43
  44 -V::
  45 --version::
  46 Print version information and exit
  47
  48 -h::
  49 -H::
  50 --help::
  51 Print usage information and exit
  52
  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.
  58
  59
  60 DESCRIPTION
  61 -----------
  62
  63 This application is a CVS emulation layer for git.
  64
  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.
  68
  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.
  71
  72 LIMITATIONS
  73 -----------
  74
  75 Currently cvsserver works over SSH connections for read/write clients, and
  76 over pserver for anonymous CVS access.
  77
  78 CVS clients cannot tag, branch or perform GIT merges.
  79
  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.
  83
  84 INSTALLATION
  85 ------------
  86
  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
  93
  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
  99
 100 ------
 101    cvspserver stream tcp nowait nobody /usr/bin/git-cvsserver git-cvsserver pserver
 102
 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.
 107
 108 Note: Newer CVS versions (>= 1.12.11) also support specifying
 109 CVS_SERVER directly in CVSROOT like
 110
 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
 129
 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.
 135
 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
 144
 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.
 166
 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 ------
 176
 177 [[dbbackend]]
 178 Database Backend
 179 ----------------
 180
 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.
 186
 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.
 191
 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).
 196
 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.
 203
 204 You can configure the database backend with the following
 205 configuration variables:
 206
 207 Configuring database backend
 208 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 209
 210 git-cvsserver uses the Perl DBI module. Please also read
 211 its documentation if changing these variables, especially
 212 about `DBI->connect()`.
 213
 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'
 220
 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'
 229
 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).
 234
 235 gitcvs.dbpass::
 236         Database password.  Only useful if setting `dbdriver`, since
 237         SQLite has no concept of database passwords.
 238
 239 gitcvs.dbTableNamePrefix::
 240         Database table name prefix.  Supports variable substitution
 241         (see below).  Any non-alphabetic characters will be replaced
 242         with underscores.
 243
 244 All variables can also be set per access method, see <<configaccessmethod,above>>.
 245
 246 Variable substitution
 247 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
 248 In `dbdriver` and `dbuser` you can use the following variables:
 249
 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.
 265
 266 Eclipse CVS Client Notes
 267 ------------------------
 268
 269 To get a checkout with the Eclipse CVS client:
 270
 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.
 279
 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.
 285
 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.
 290
 291 Clients known to work
 292 ---------------------
 293
 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
 298
 299 Operations supported
 300 --------------------
 301
 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.
 306
 307 CRLF Line Ending Conversions
 308 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 309
 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.
 313
 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.
 321
 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.
 330
 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".
 334
 335 Dependencies
 336 ------------
 337
 338 git-cvsserver depends on DBD::SQLite.
 339
 340 Copyright and Authors
 341 ---------------------
 342
 343 This program is copyright The Open University UK - 2006.
 344
 345 Authors:
 346
 347 - Martyn Smith    <martyn@catalyst.net.nz>
 348 - Martin Langhoff <martin@catalyst.net.nz>
 349
 350 with ideas and patches from participants of the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.
 351
 352 Documentation
 353 --------------
 354 Documentation by Martyn Smith <martyn@catalyst.net.nz>, Martin Langhoff <martin@catalyst.net.nz>, and Matthias Urlichs <smurf@smurf.noris.de>.
 355
 356 GIT
 357 ---
 358 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite