Configuring Concurrent Versions System (CVS)

Configuring Concurrent Versions System (CVS)
Learn how to configure Concurrent Versions System (CVS) on hosting.com servers.

About CVS
CVS is a distributed version control system that allows you to track multiple revisions of files and directories. It is installed on all shared hosting.com servers. Although newer systems like Git and Subversion are more common today, CVS is still used for some projects. This guide covers configuring CVS repositories on hosting.com servers, not all features of CVS.

Creating a repository

1. Log in to your hosting.com account using SSH.

2. Create a repository:

cvs -d /home/username/repository init

Replace username with your hosting.com account username, and repository with the directory name for your repository. If the directory does not exist, cvs init creates it.

Configuring a CVS client
To work with CVS repositories from another computer, you need a CVS client. Configuration depends on the operating system.

Microsoft Windows

1. Download and install TortoiseCVS.

2. Right-click on the desktop or folder, select CVS → Preferences.

3. Go to the Tools tab and enter the SSH parameters:

-l "%u" "%h" -P 22

(Replace port 22 if your account uses a different SSH port.)

4. To connect to a repository, right-click, select CVS Checkout, and fill in:

   • Protocol: Secure shell (:ext:)

   • Server: your domain name

   • Repository folder: /home/username/repository

   • User name: your account username

   • Module: project name

5. Enter your password when prompted. The module files are copied to your computer.

macOS and Linux

1. Generate an SSH key pair and configure the SSH client to authenticate to the server.

2. Configure the CVS client. Edit ~/.ssh/config (create it if it doesn’t exist) and add:

Host example.com
Port 7822

Replace example.com with your domain name.

3. Access the CVS repository using SSH:

cvs -d :ext:username@example.com:/home/username/repository checkout project

Replace username, example.com, repository, and project with your details.

More information
For further details on CVS, visit https://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/cvs.