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 --version, -V::
  45 Print version information and exit
  46
  47 --help, -h, -H::
  48 Print usage information and exit
  49
  50 <directory>::
  51 You can specify a list of allowed directories. If no directories
  52 are given, all are allowed. This is an additional restriction, gitcvs
  53 access still needs to be enabled by the `gitcvs.enabled` config option
  54 unless '--export-all' was given, too.
  55
  56
  57 DESCRIPTION
  58 -----------
  59
  60 This application is a CVS emulation layer for git.
  61
  62 It is highly functional. However, not all methods are implemented,
  63 and for those methods that are implemented,
  64 not all switches are implemented.
  65
  66 Testing has been done using both the CLI CVS client, and the Eclipse CVS
  67 plugin. Most functionality works fine with both of these clients.
  68
  69 LIMITATIONS
  70 -----------
  71
  72 Currently cvsserver works over SSH connections for read/write clients, and
  73 over pserver for anonymous CVS access.
  74
  75 CVS clients cannot tag, branch or perform GIT merges.
  76
  77 git-cvsserver maps GIT branches to CVS modules. This is very different
  78 from what most CVS users would expect since in CVS modules usually represent
  79 one or more directories.
  80
  81 INSTALLATION
  82 ------------
  83
  84 1. If you are going to offer anonymous CVS access via pserver, add a line in
  85    /etc/inetd.conf like
  86 +
  87 --
  88 ------
  89    cvspserver stream tcp nowait nobody git-cvsserver pserver
  90
  91 ------
  92 Note: Some inetd servers let you specify the name of the executable
  93 independently of the value of argv[0] (i.e. the name the program assumes
  94 it was executed with). In this case the correct line in /etc/inetd.conf
  95 looks like
  96
  97 ------
  98    cvspserver stream tcp nowait nobody /usr/bin/git-cvsserver git-cvsserver pserver
  99
 100 ------
 101 No special setup is needed for SSH access, other than having GIT tools
 102 in the PATH. If you have clients that do not accept the CVS_SERVER
 103 environment variable, you can rename git-cvsserver to cvs.
 104
 105 Note: Newer CVS versions (>= 1.12.11) also support specifying
 106 CVS_SERVER directly in CVSROOT like
 107
 108 ------
 109 cvs -d ":ext;CVS_SERVER=git-cvsserver:user@server/path/repo.git" co <HEAD_name>
 110 ------
 111 This has the advantage that it will be saved in your 'CVS/Root' files and
 112 you don't need to worry about always setting the correct environment
 113 variable.
 114 --
 115 2. For each repo that you want accessible from CVS you need to edit config in
 116    the repo and add the following section.
 117 +
 118 --
 119 ------
 120    [gitcvs]
 121         enabled=1
 122         # optional for debugging
 123         logfile=/path/to/logfile
 124
 125 ------
 126 Note: you need to ensure each user that is going to invoke git-cvsserver has
 127 write access to the log file and to the database (see
 128 <<dbbackend,Database Backend>>. If you want to offer write access over
 129 SSH, the users of course also need write access to the git repository itself.
 130
 131 [[configaccessmethod]]
 132 All configuration variables can also be overridden for a specific method of
 133 access. Valid method names are "ext" (for SSH access) and "pserver". The
 134 following example configuration would disable pserver access while still
 135 allowing access over SSH.
 136 ------
 137    [gitcvs]
 138         enabled=0
 139
 140    [gitcvs "ext"]
 141         enabled=1
 142 ------
 143 --
 144 3. On the client machine you need to set the following variables.
 145    CVSROOT should be set as per normal, but the directory should point at the
 146    appropriate git repo. For example:
 147 +
 148 --
 149 For SSH access, CVS_SERVER should be set to git-cvsserver
 150
 151 Example:
 152
 153 ------
 154      export CVSROOT=:ext:user@server:/var/git/project.git
 155      export CVS_SERVER=git-cvsserver
 156 ------
 157 --
 158 4. For SSH clients that will make commits, make sure their .bashrc file
 159    sets the GIT_AUTHOR and GIT_COMMITTER variables.
 160
 161 5. Clients should now be able to check out the project. Use the CVS 'module'
 162    name to indicate what GIT 'head' you want to check out. Example:
 163 +
 164 ------
 165      cvs co -d project-master master
 166 ------
 167
 168 [[dbbackend]]
 169 Database Backend
 170 ----------------
 171
 172 git-cvsserver uses one database per git head (i.e. CVS module) to
 173 store information about the repository for faster access. The
 174 database doesn't contain any persistent data and can be completely
 175 regenerated from the git repository at any time. The database
 176 needs to be updated (i.e. written to) after every commit.
 177
 178 If the commit is done directly by using git (as opposed to
 179 using git-cvsserver) the update will need to happen on the
 180 next repository access by git-cvsserver, independent of
 181 access method and requested operation.
 182
 183 That means that even if you offer only read access (e.g. by using
 184 the pserver method), git-cvsserver should have write access to
 185 the database to work reliably (otherwise you need to make sure
 186 that the database if up-to-date all the time git-cvsserver is run).
 187
 188 By default it uses SQLite databases in the git directory, named
 189 `gitcvs.<module_name>.sqlite`. Note that the SQLite backend creates
 190 temporary files in the same directory as the database file on
 191 write so it might not be enough to grant the users using
 192 git-cvsserver write access to the database file without granting
 193 them write access to the directory, too.
 194
 195 You can configure the database backend with the following
 196 configuration variables:
 197
 198 Configuring database backend
 199 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 200
 201 git-cvsserver uses the Perl DBI module. Please also read
 202 its documentation if changing these variables, especially
 203 about `DBI->connect()`.
 204
 205 gitcvs.dbname::
 206         Database name. The exact meaning depends on the
 207         used database driver, for SQLite this is a filename.
 208         Supports variable substitution (see below). May
 209         not contain semicolons (`;`).
 210         Default: '%Ggitcvs.%m.sqlite'
 211
 212 gitcvs.dbdriver::
 213         Used DBI driver. You can specify any available driver
 214         for this here, but it might not work. cvsserver is tested
 215         with 'DBD::SQLite', reported to work with
 216         'DBD::Pg', and reported *not* to work with 'DBD::mysql'.
 217         Please regard this as an experimental feature. May not
 218         contain double colons (`:`).
 219         Default: 'SQLite'
 220
 221 gitcvs.dbuser::
 222         Database user. Only useful if setting `dbdriver`, since
 223         SQLite has no concept of database users. Supports variable
 224         substitution (see below).
 225
 226 gitcvs.dbpass::
 227         Database password.  Only useful if setting `dbdriver`, since
 228         SQLite has no concept of database passwords.
 229
 230 All variables can also be set per access method, see <<configaccessmethod,above>>.
 231
 232 Variable substitution
 233 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
 234 In `dbdriver` and `dbuser` you can use the following variables:
 235
 236 %G::
 237         git directory name
 238 %g::
 239         git directory name, where all characters except for
 240         alpha-numeric ones, `.`, and `-` are replaced with
 241         `_` (this should make it easier to use the directory
 242         name in a filename if wanted)
 243 %m::
 244         CVS module/git head name
 245 %a::
 246         access method (one of "ext" or "pserver")
 247 %u::
 248         Name of the user running git-cvsserver.
 249         If no name can be determined, the
 250         numeric uid is used.
 251
 252 Eclipse CVS Client Notes
 253 ------------------------
 254
 255 To get a checkout with the Eclipse CVS client:
 256
 257 1. Select "Create a new project -> From CVS checkout"
 258 2. Create a new location. See the notes below for details on how to choose the
 259    right protocol.
 260 3. Browse the 'modules' available. It will give you a list of the heads in
 261    the repository. You will not be able to browse the tree from there. Only
 262    the heads.
 263 4. Pick 'HEAD' when it asks what branch/tag to check out. Untick the
 264    "launch commit wizard" to avoid committing the .project file.
 265
 266 Protocol notes: If you are using anonymous access via pserver, just select that.
 267 Those using SSH access should choose the 'ext' protocol, and configure 'ext'
 268 access on the Preferences->Team->CVS->ExtConnection pane. Set CVS_SERVER to
 269 'git-cvsserver'. Note that password support is not good when using 'ext',
 270 you will definitely want to have SSH keys setup.
 271
 272 Alternatively, you can just use the non-standard extssh protocol that Eclipse
 273 offer. In that case CVS_SERVER is ignored, and you will have to replace
 274 the cvs utility on the server with git-cvsserver or manipulate your `.bashrc`
 275 so that calling 'cvs' effectively calls git-cvsserver.
 276
 277 Clients known to work
 278 ---------------------
 279
 280 - CVS 1.12.9 on Debian
 281 - CVS 1.11.17 on MacOSX (from Fink package)
 282 - Eclipse 3.0, 3.1.2 on MacOSX (see Eclipse CVS Client Notes)
 283 - TortoiseCVS
 284
 285 Operations supported
 286 --------------------
 287
 288 All the operations required for normal use are supported, including
 289 checkout, diff, status, update, log, add, remove, commit.
 290 Legacy monitoring operations are not supported (edit, watch and related).
 291 Exports and tagging (tags and branches) are not supported at this stage.
 292
 293 The server should set the '-k' mode to binary when relevant, however,
 294 this is not really implemented yet. For now, you can force the server
 295 to set '-kb' for all files by setting the `gitcvs.allbinary` config
 296 variable. In proper GIT tradition, the contents of the files are
 297 always respected. No keyword expansion or newline munging is supported.
 298
 299 Dependencies
 300 ------------
 301
 302 git-cvsserver depends on DBD::SQLite.
 303
 304 Copyright and Authors
 305 ---------------------
 306
 307 This program is copyright The Open University UK - 2006.
 308
 309 Authors:
 310
 311 - Martyn Smith    <martyn@catalyst.net.nz>
 312 - Martin Langhoff <martin@catalyst.net.nz>
 313
 314 with ideas and patches from participants of the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.
 315
 316 Documentation
 317 --------------
 318 Documentation by Martyn Smith <martyn@catalyst.net.nz>, Martin Langhoff <martin@catalyst.net.nz>, and Matthias Urlichs <smurf@smurf.noris.de>.
 319
 320 GIT
 321 ---
 322 Part of the linkgit:git[7] suite