Logging into CVS / Setting CVSROOT

by Jeff Hunter, Sr. Database Administrator

Now let's cover what is possible the most difficult component of CVS and that is security and adding users. Please be aware that as I write this section of the documentation, I still have a tremendous amount to learn about security within CVS. I am only writing this section with what I know and how to get logged on using a local area network. If you are connecting your CVS repository to the Internet, please be aware that there are security problems with the :pserver: protocol. As I learn more about security with CVS, I will continue in updating this section of the documentation.

Using a Local Version of CVS

In some cases, you may be developing on the same machine as the CVS server. In this case, you can simply set the CVSROOT environment variable to the absolute path of the CVS Repository. For example:

% CVSROOT=/var/lib/cvsroot
% export CVSROOT

To use the :pserver: protocol, set your CVSROOT environment variable to:

% CVSROOT=:pserver:<username>@<computername>:<repository>

The following example, I will logging in to CVS using the :pserver: protocol (possibly from another machine). The CVS server is named alex and my user name is oracle. Keep in mind that I needed to first create the local user, oracle, on the CVS host. (Which, again, in this example is named alex.)

% CVSROOT=:pserver:oracle@alex:/var/lib/cvsroot
% export CVSROOT

% cvs login
Logging in to :pserver:oracle@alex:2401/var/lib/cvsroot
CVS password:*******

To logout from CVS, use the following:

% cvs logout
(Logging out of :pserver:oracle@alex:2401/var/lib/cvsroot)