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.  SSH users restricted to git-shell don't need to override the default
 114 with CVS_SERVER (and shouldn't) as git-shell understands `cvs` to mean
 115 git-cvsserver and pretends that the other end runs the real cvs better.
 116 --
 117 2. For each repo that you want accessible from CVS you need to edit config in
 118    the repo and add the following section.
 119 +
 120 --
 121 ------
 122    [gitcvs]
 123         enabled=1
 124         # optional for debugging
 125         logfile=/path/to/logfile
 126
 127 ------
 128 Note: you need to ensure each user that is going to invoke git-cvsserver has
 129 write access to the log file and to the database (see
 130 <<dbbackend,Database Backend>>. If you want to offer write access over
 131 SSH, the users of course also need write access to the git repository itself.
 132
 133 [[configaccessmethod]]
 134 All configuration variables can also be overridden for a specific method of
 135 access. Valid method names are "ext" (for SSH access) and "pserver". The
 136 following example configuration would disable pserver access while still
 137 allowing access over SSH.
 138 ------
 139    [gitcvs]
 140         enabled=0
 141
 142    [gitcvs "ext"]
 143         enabled=1
 144 ------
 145 --
 146 3. If you didn't specify the CVSROOT/CVS_SERVER directly in the checkout command,
 147    automatically saving it in your 'CVS/Root' files, then you need to set them
 148    explicitly in your environment.  CVSROOT should be set as per normal, but the
 149    directory should point at the appropriate git repo.  As above, for SSH clients
 150    _not_ restricted to git-shell, CVS_SERVER should be set to git-cvsserver.
 151 +
 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 server-side
 159    .ssh/environment files (or .bashrc, etc., according to their specific shell)
 160    export appropriate values for GIT_AUTHOR_NAME, GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL,
 161    GIT_COMMITTER_NAME, and GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL.  For SSH clients whose login
 162    shell is bash, .bashrc may be a reasonable alternative.
 163
 164 5. Clients should now be able to check out the project. Use the CVS 'module'
 165    name to indicate what GIT 'head' you want to check out.  This also sets the
 166    name of your newly checked-out directory, unless you tell it otherwise with
 167    `-d <dir_name>`.  For example, this checks out 'master' branch to the
 168    `project-master` directory:
 169 +
 170 ------
 171      cvs co -d project-master master
 172 ------
 173
 174 [[dbbackend]]
 175 Database Backend
 176 ----------------
 177
 178 git-cvsserver uses one database per git head (i.e. CVS module) to
 179 store information about the repository for faster access. The
 180 database doesn't contain any persistent data and can be completely
 181 regenerated from the git repository at any time. The database
 182 needs to be updated (i.e. written to) after every commit.
 183
 184 If the commit is done directly by using git (as opposed to
 185 using git-cvsserver) the update will need to happen on the
 186 next repository access by git-cvsserver, independent of
 187 access method and requested operation.
 188
 189 That means that even if you offer only read access (e.g. by using
 190 the pserver method), git-cvsserver should have write access to
 191 the database to work reliably (otherwise you need to make sure
 192 that the database is up-to-date any time git-cvsserver is executed).
 193
 194 By default it uses SQLite databases in the git directory, named
 195 `gitcvs.<module_name>.sqlite`. Note that the SQLite backend creates
 196 temporary files in the same directory as the database file on
 197 write so it might not be enough to grant the users using
 198 git-cvsserver write access to the database file without granting
 199 them write access to the directory, too.
 200
 201 You can configure the database backend with the following
 202 configuration variables:
 203
 204 Configuring database backend
 205 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 206
 207 git-cvsserver uses the Perl DBI module. Please also read
 208 its documentation if changing these variables, especially
 209 about `DBI->connect()`.
 210
 211 gitcvs.dbname::
 212         Database name. The exact meaning depends on the
 213         selected database driver, for SQLite this is a filename.
 214         Supports variable substitution (see below). May
 215         not contain semicolons (`;`).
 216         Default: '%Ggitcvs.%m.sqlite'
 217
 218 gitcvs.dbdriver::
 219         Used DBI driver. You can specify any available driver
 220         for this here, but it might not work. cvsserver is tested
 221         with 'DBD::SQLite', reported to work with
 222         'DBD::Pg', and reported *not* to work with 'DBD::mysql'.
 223         Please regard this as an experimental feature. May not
 224         contain colons (`:`).
 225         Default: 'SQLite'
 226
 227 gitcvs.dbuser::
 228         Database user. Only useful if setting `dbdriver`, since
 229         SQLite has no concept of database users. Supports variable
 230         substitution (see below).
 231
 232 gitcvs.dbpass::
 233         Database password.  Only useful if setting `dbdriver`, since
 234         SQLite has no concept of database passwords.
 235
 236 gitcvs.dbTableNamePrefix::
 237         Database table name prefix.  Supports variable substitution
 238         (see below).  Any non-alphabetic characters will be replaced
 239         with underscores.
 240
 241 All variables can also be set per access method, see <<configaccessmethod,above>>.
 242
 243 Variable substitution
 244 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
 245 In `dbdriver` and `dbuser` you can use the following variables:
 246
 247 %G::
 248         git directory name
 249 %g::
 250         git directory name, where all characters except for
 251         alpha-numeric ones, `.`, and `-` are replaced with
 252         `_` (this should make it easier to use the directory
 253         name in a filename if wanted)
 254 %m::
 255         CVS module/git head name
 256 %a::
 257         access method (one of "ext" or "pserver")
 258 %u::
 259         Name of the user running git-cvsserver.
 260         If no name can be determined, the
 261         numeric uid is used.
 262
 263 Eclipse CVS Client Notes
 264 ------------------------
 265
 266 To get a checkout with the Eclipse CVS client:
 267
 268 1. Select "Create a new project -> From CVS checkout"
 269 2. Create a new location. See the notes below for details on how to choose the
 270    right protocol.
 271 3. Browse the 'modules' available. It will give you a list of the heads in
 272    the repository. You will not be able to browse the tree from there. Only
 273    the heads.
 274 4. Pick 'HEAD' when it asks what branch/tag to check out. Untick the
 275    "launch commit wizard" to avoid committing the .project file.
 276
 277 Protocol notes: If you are using anonymous access via pserver, just select that.
 278 Those using SSH access should choose the 'ext' protocol, and configure 'ext'
 279 access on the Preferences->Team->CVS->ExtConnection pane. Set CVS_SERVER to
 280 'git-cvsserver'. Note that password support is not good when using 'ext',
 281 you will definitely want to have SSH keys setup.
 282
 283 Alternatively, you can just use the non-standard extssh protocol that Eclipse
 284 offer. In that case CVS_SERVER is ignored, and you will have to replace
 285 the cvs utility on the server with git-cvsserver or manipulate your `.bashrc`
 286 so that calling 'cvs' effectively calls git-cvsserver.
 287
 288 Clients known to work
 289 ---------------------
 290
 291 - CVS 1.12.9 on Debian
 292 - CVS 1.11.17 on MacOSX (from Fink package)
 293 - Eclipse 3.0, 3.1.2 on MacOSX (see Eclipse CVS Client Notes)
 294 - TortoiseCVS
 295
 296 Operations supported
 297 --------------------
 298
 299 All the operations required for normal use are supported, including
 300 checkout, diff, status, update, log, add, remove, commit.
 301 Legacy monitoring operations are not supported (edit, watch and related).
 302 Exports and tagging (tags and branches) are not supported at this stage.
 303
 304 CRLF Line Ending Conversions
 305 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
 306
 307 By default the server leaves the '-k' mode blank for all files,
 308 which causes the cvs client to treat them as a text files, subject
 309 to crlf conversion on some platforms.
 310
 311 You can make the server use `crlf` attributes to set the '-k' modes
 312 for files by setting the `gitcvs.usecrlfattr` config variable.
 313 In this case, if `crlf` is explicitly unset ('-crlf'), then the
 314 server will set '-kb' mode for binary files. If `crlf` is set,
 315 then the '-k' mode will explicitly be left blank.  See
 316 also linkgit:gitattributes[5] for more information about the `crlf`
 317 attribute.
 318
 319 Alternatively, if `gitcvs.usecrlfattr` config is not enabled
 320 or if the `crlf` attribute is unspecified for a filename, then
 321 the server uses the `gitcvs.allbinary` config for the default setting.
 322 If `gitcvs.allbinary` is set, then file not otherwise
 323 specified will default to '-kb' mode. Otherwise the '-k' mode
 324 is left blank. But if `gitcvs.allbinary` is set to "guess", then
 325 the correct '-k' mode will be guessed based on the contents of
 326 the file.
 327
 328 For best consistency with cvs, it is probably best to override the
 329 defaults by setting `gitcvs.usecrlfattr` to true,
 330 and `gitcvs.allbinary` to "guess".
 331
 332 Dependencies
 333 ------------
 334
 335 git-cvsserver depends on DBD::SQLite.
 336
 337 Copyright and Authors
 338 ---------------------
 339
 340 This program is copyright The Open University UK - 2006.
 341
 342 Authors:
 343
 344 - Martyn Smith    <martyn@catalyst.net.nz>
 345 - Martin Langhoff <martin@catalyst.net.nz>
 346
 347 with ideas and patches from participants of the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.
 348
 349 Documentation
 350 --------------
 351 Documentation by Martyn Smith <martyn@catalyst.net.nz>, Martin Langhoff <martin@catalyst.net.nz>, and Matthias Urlichs <smurf@smurf.noris.de>.
 352
 353 GIT
 354 ---
 355 Part of the linkgit:git[7] suite