Create CVS Repo

This guide explains how to create a CVS repository.

Create commit group

First, you may want to create a new group with commit rights:

$ doas groupadd commit

For each existing user you want to give commit rights to:

$ doas usermod -G commit $USER

For each new user you want to create with commit rights:

$ doas useradd -G commit $USER

Replace $USER with the committer's user's name.

Setting CVSROOT

Before we begin, decide where you want the CVS files to be located. You will want to set CVSROOT.

You can set it for just the current shell:

$ export CVSROOT=/path/to/CVS

Replace /path/to/CVS with the actual directory. /CVS is recommended:

$ export CVSROOT=/CVS

As a shortcut, you can add this to the bottom of your ~/.profile so you don't have to type it each time:

$ echo 'CVSROOT="/CVS"' >> ~/.profile

Once CVSROOT is set, log out and log in. From now on, you can omit the -d argument when working with cvs.

Create new repo

To create a new CVS repository, type:

$ doas mkdir $CVSROOT
$ doas chown $USER:commit $CVSROOT
$ cvs init

Replace $USER with the maintainer of CVSROOT.

Import New Module

If you have existing code that you'd like to import to a CVS repository, first change to the folder containing the source code, then type:

$ cvs import reponame vendortag releasetag

Replace reponame, vendortag, and releasetag. CVS will put the source files inside a directory named reponame inside the CVS root directory. vendortag should be replaced with the vendor (the author) of the repository. releasetag is the tag for the specific release.

For example:

$ cd ~/ircnowd/
$ cvs import ircnowd ircnow start

Note: CVS does not automatically transform the imported source code into a working directory. As a result, any changes you make to the original source code directory cannot be committed to the CVS repo.

To fix this, you will need to checkout the source code. Change your directory to somewhere else to place the new working directory, then type:

$ cd /path/to/new/directory/
$ cvs checkout -P reponame

Replace /path/to/new/directory/ with the directory you want the working directory to be in. Then, replace reponame with the repository name.

Change directory to reponame to make changes. Afterwards, use cvs to commit them:

$ cd reponame
... work on code ...
$ cvs commit

For example, suppose you create a new folder for working directories ~/code/ and then checkout the working directory for ircnowd:

$ mkdir ~/code/
$ cd ~/code/
$ cvs checkout -P ircnowd
$ cd ~/code/ircnowd/
... work on code ...
$ cvs commit

Now, ~/code/ircnowd will have the working directory for ircnowd. CVS will track changes so that you can commit changes to the CVS repo.

If checkout works properly, you can safely delete the old source code directory you imported from (since that one is not tracked by CVS).

$ rm -rf ~/ircnowd/

Granting commit access

You will want to change group ownership and provide group write permissions:

$ doas chown -R $USER:commit $CVSROOT
$ doas chmod -R g+w $CVSROOT

A sample directory should look like this:

# ls -lha /CVS
total 28
drwxr-xr-x   7 jrmu  commit  512B Oct  9 06:19 .
drwxr-xr-x  10 root  wheel   512B Oct  9 06:10 ..
drwxrwxr-x   3 jrmu  commit  1.0K Apr 29 06:48 CVSROOT
drwxrwxr-x   9 jrmu  commit  512B May  8 11:42 acopm
drwxrwxr-x   2 jrmu  commit  1.0K Aug 26 04:17 botnow
drwxrwxr-x   8 jrmu  commit  512B May 27 16:57 brogue-ce
drwxrwxr-x   6 jrmu  commit  512B May  7 06:46 ircnowd

Optional: Prevent Shell Access

Optional: If your server is not used to provide shell accounts, and all users who connect via ssh are admins, you can add the following to prevent committers from having shell access:

First, we create /usr/bin/cvs-login.sh:

#!/bin/sh

exec /usr/bin/cvs server

This simple shell script will be used as the login shell. Any time a committer logs in, cvs will immediately be called.

We set it to be executable:

$ doas chown root:wheel /usr/bin/cvs-login.sh
$ doas chmod +x /usr/bin/cvs-login.sh

Next, edit /etc/ssh/sshd_config:

Match Group commit,!wheel
	AllowAgentForwarding no
	AllowStreamLocalForwarding no
	DisableForwarding yes
	PermitListen none
	PermitOpen none
	PermitTunnel no
	PermitUserRC no
	X11Forwarding no
	AllowTcpForwarding no
	PermitTTY no
	ForceCommand "/usr/bin/cvs-login.sh"

This will force all users in the commit group who are not in wheel (not administrators) to use /usr/bin/cvs-login.sh. Committers therefore never get shell access; they only get cvs access

Restart sshd to apply changes:

$ doas rcctl restart sshd