Linux setup a Concurrent Versioning System (CVS) howto

Concurrent Versioning System (CVS) is a version control system that allows multiple users to work on the same codebase simultaneously. Here are the steps to set up a CVS server in Linux:

1. Install the CVS package. On a Debian-based system, you can use the apt-get command to install CVS:

sudo apt-get install cvs

On a Red Hat-based system, you can use the yum command to install CVS:

sudo yum install cvs

2. Create a directory to store the CVS repository. For example, you can create a directory named /var/cvs:

sudo mkdir /var/cvs

3. Change the ownership of the directory to the cvs user and group:

sudo chown cvs:cvs /var/cvs

4. Initialize the CVS repository using the cvs command. For example:

sudo cvs -d /var/cvs init

5. Create a configuration file for the CVS server. The configuration file, named cvsd.conf, should be placed in the /etc directory. Here is an example configuration file that allows users to connect to the CVS server using the pserver method:

# Configuration file for the cvsd daemon

CVSROOT=/var/cvs
CVS_USER=cvs
CVS_GROUP=cvs
CVS_SERVER=cvs
CVS_ROOT_GROUP=root

ALLOW_WRITE=username

Replace username with the username of the user who should have write access to the repository.

6. Enable the CVS server by adding the following line to the /etc/inetd.conf file:

cvspserver stream tcp nowait cvs /usr/sbin/cvs cvs --allow-root=/var/cvs

7. Restart the inetd daemon to apply the changes:

sudo service inetd restart

After completing these steps, the CVS server will be set up and ready to use. Users can connect to the server using a CVS client, such as cvs or WinCVS, and check out, update, and commit code to the repository.

Keep in mind that the CVS server is configured to allow connections using the pserver method, which is not secure. To improve security, you may want to consider using a different version control system, such as Git or Subversion, which support secure connection methods.