git-cvsserver
(1)
Name
git-cvsserver - A CVS server emulator for git
Synopsis
SSH:
export CVS_SERVER="git cvsserver"
cvs -d :ext:user@server/path/repo.git co <HEAD_name>
pserver (/etc/inetd.conf):
cvspserver stream tcp nowait nobody /usr/bin/git-cvsserver git-cvsserver pserver
Usage:
git-cvsserver [options] [pserver|server] [<directory> ...]
Description
Git Manual GIT-CVSSERVER(1)
NAME
git-cvsserver - A CVS server emulator for git
SYNOPSIS
SSH:
export CVS_SERVER="git cvsserver"
cvs -d :ext:user@server/path/repo.git co <HEAD_name>
pserver (/etc/inetd.conf):
cvspserver stream tcp nowait nobody /usr/bin/git-cvsserver git-cvsserver pserver
Usage:
git-cvsserver [options] [pserver|server] [<directory> ...]
OPTIONS
All these options obviously only make sense if enforced by
the server side. They have been implemented to resemble the
git-daemon(1) options as closely as possible.
--base-path <path>
Prepend path to requested CVSROOT
--strict-paths
Don't allow recursing into subdirectories
--export-all
Don't check for gitcvs.enabled in config. You also have
to specify a list of allowed directories (see below) if
you want to use this option.
-V, --version
Print version information and exit
-h, -H, --help
Print usage information and exit
<directory>
You can specify a list of allowed directories. If no
directories are given, all are allowed. This is an
additional restriction, gitcvs access still needs to be
enabled by the gitcvs.enabled config option unless
--export-all was given, too.
DESCRIPTION
This application is a CVS emulation layer for git.
Git 1.7.9.2 Last change: 02/22/2012 1
Git Manual GIT-CVSSERVER(1)
It is highly functional. However, not all methods are
implemented, and for those methods that are implemented, not
all switches are implemented.
Testing has been done using both the CLI CVS client, and the
Eclipse CVS plugin. Most functionality works fine with both
of these clients.
LIMITATIONS
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
1. If you are going to offer CVS access via pserver, add a
line in /etc/inetd.conf like
cvspserver stream tcp nowait nobody git-cvsserver pserver
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 /usr/bin/git-cvsserver git-cvsserver pserver
Only anonymous access is provided by pserve by default.
To commit you will have to create pserver accounts,
simply add a gitcvs.authdb setting in the config file of
the repositories you want the cvsserver to allow writes
to, for example:
[gitcvs]
authdb = /etc/cvsserver/passwd
The format of these files is username followed by the
crypted password, for example:
myuser:$1Oyx5r9mdGZ2
myuser:$1$BA)@$vbnMJMDym7tA32AamXrm./
You can use the htpasswd facility that comes with Apache
to make these files, but Apache's MD5 crypt method
differs from the one used by most C library's crypt()
function, so don't use the -m option.
Alternatively you can produce the password with perl's
crypt() operator:
perl -e 'my ($user, $pass) = @ARGV; printf "%s:%s\n", $user, crypt($user, $pass)' $USER password
Git 1.7.9.2 Last change: 02/22/2012 2
Git Manual GIT-CVSSERVER(1)
Then provide your password via the pserver method, for
example:
cvs -d:pserver:someuser:somepassword <at> server/path/repo.git co <HEAD_name>
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 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. SSH users
restricted to git-shell don't need to override the
default with CVS_SERVER (and shouldn't) as git-shell
understands cvs to mean git-cvsserver and pretends that
the other end runs the real cvs better.
2. For each repo that you want accessible from CVS you need
to edit config in the repo and add the following
section.
[gitcvs]
enabled=1
# optional for debugging
logfile=/path/to/logfile
Note: you need to ensure each user that is going to
invoke git-cvsserver has write access to the log file
and to the database (see Database Backend. If you want
to offer write access over SSH, the users of course also
need write access to the git repository itself.
You also need to ensure that each repository is "bare"
(without a git index file) for cvs commit to work. See
gitcvs-migration(5).
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"]
Git 1.7.9.2 Last change: 02/22/2012 3
Git Manual GIT-CVSSERVER(1)
enabled=1
3. If you didn't specify the CVSROOT/CVS_SERVER directly in
the checkout command, automatically saving it in your
CVS/Root files, then you need to set them explicitly in
your environment. CVSROOT should be set as per normal,
but the directory should point at the appropriate git
repo. As above, for SSH clients not restricted to
git-shell, CVS_SERVER should be set to git-cvsserver.
export CVSROOT=:ext:user@server:/var/git/project.git
export CVS_SERVER="git cvsserver"
4. For SSH clients that will make commits, make sure their
server-side .ssh/environment files (or .bashrc, etc.,
according to their specific shell) export appropriate
values for GIT_AUTHOR_NAME, GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL,
GIT_COMMITTER_NAME, and GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL. For SSH
clients whose login shell is bash, .bashrc may be a
reasonable alternative.
5. Clients should now be able to check out the project. Use
the CVS module name to indicate what GIT head you want
to check out. This also sets the name of your newly
checked-out directory, unless you tell it otherwise with
-d <dir_name>. For example, this checks out master
branch to the project-master directory:
cvs co -d project-master master
DATABASE BACKEND
git-cvsserver uses one database per git head (i.e. CVS
module) to store information about the repository to
maintain consistent CVS revision numbers. 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 is up-to-date any time
git-cvsserver is executed).
By default it uses SQLite databases in the git directory,
named gitcvs.<module_name>.sqlite. Note that the SQLite
Git 1.7.9.2 Last change: 02/22/2012 4
Git Manual GIT-CVSSERVER(1)
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.
The database can not be reliably regenerated in a consistent
form after the branch it is tracking has changed. Example:
For merged branches, git-cvsserver only tracks one branch of
development, and after a git merge an incrementally updated
database may track a different branch than a database
regenerated from scratch, causing inconsistent CVS revision
numbers. git-cvsserver has no way of knowing which branch it
would have picked if it had been run incrementally
pre-merge. So if you have to fully or partially (from old
backup) regenerate the database, you should be suspicious of
pre-existing CVS sandboxes.
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 selected
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 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.
gitcvs.dbTableNamePrefix
Database table name prefix. Supports variable
substitution (see below). Any non-alphabetic characters
Git 1.7.9.2 Last change: 02/22/2012 5
Git Manual GIT-CVSSERVER(1)
will be replaced with underscores.
All variables can also be set per access method, see 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.
ENVIRONMENT
These variables obviate the need for command-line options in
some circumstances, allowing easier restricted usage through
git-shell.
GIT_CVSSERVER_BASE_PATH takes the place of the argument to
--base-path.
GIT_CVSSERVER_ROOT specifies a single-directory whitelist.
The repository must still be configured to allow access
through git-cvsserver, as described above.
When these environment variables are set, the corresponding
command-line arguments may not be used.
ECLIPSE CVS CLIENT NOTES
To get a checkout with the Eclipse CVS client:
1. Select "Create a new project -> From CVS checkout"
2. Create a new location. See the notes below for details
on how to choose the right protocol.
3. Browse the modules available. It will give you a list of
Git 1.7.9.2 Last change: 02/22/2012 6
Git Manual GIT-CVSSERVER(1)
the heads in the repository. You will not be able to
browse the tree from there. Only the heads.
4. Pick HEAD when it asks what branch/tag to check out.
Untick the "launch commit wizard" to avoid committing
the .project file.
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". 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 so that
calling cvs effectively calls git-cvsserver.
CLIENTS KNOWN TO WORK
o CVS 1.12.9 on Debian
o CVS 1.11.17 on MacOSX (from Fink package)
o Eclipse 3.0, 3.1.2 on MacOSX (see Eclipse CVS Client
Notes)
o TortoiseCVS
OPERATIONS SUPPORTED
All the operations required for normal use are supported,
including checkout, diff, status, update, log, add, remove,
commit. Legacy monitoring operations are not supported
(edit, watch and related). Exports and tagging (tags and
branches) are not supported at this stage.
CRLF Line Ending Conversions
By default the server leaves the -k mode blank for all
files, which causes the CVS client to treat them as a text
files, subject to end-of-line conversion on some platforms.
You can make the server use the end-of-line conversion
attributes to set the -k modes for files by setting the
gitcvs.usecrlfattr config variable. See gitattributes(4) for
more information about end-of-line conversion.
Alternatively, if gitcvs.usecrlfattr config is not enabled
or the attributes do not allow automatic detection for a
filename, then the server uses the gitcvs.allbinary config
for the default setting. If gitcvs.allbinary is set, then
Git 1.7.9.2 Last change: 02/22/2012 7
Git Manual GIT-CVSSERVER(1)
file not otherwise specified will default to -kb mode.
Otherwise the -k mode is left blank. But if gitcvs.allbinary
is set to "guess", then the correct -k mode will be guessed
based on the contents of the file.
For best consistency with cvs, it is probably best to
override the defaults by setting gitcvs.usecrlfattr to true,
and gitcvs.allbinary to "guess".
DEPENDENCIES
git-cvsserver depends on DBD::SQLite.
GIT
Part of the git(1) suite
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following
attributes:
+---------------+--------------------------+
|ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
+---------------+--------------------------+
|Availability | developer/versioning/git |
+---------------+--------------------------+
|Stability | Uncommitted |
+---------------+--------------------------+
NOTES
This software was built from source available at
https://java.net/projects/solaris-userland. The original
community source was downloaded from http://git-
core.googlecode.com/files/git-1.7.9.2.tar.gz
Further information about this software can be found on the
open source community website at http://git-scm.com/.
Git 1.7.9.2 Last change: 02/22/2012 8