WinCVS

CVS Client for Microsoft Windows 95/98/nt/2000

INSTALLATION GUIDE

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WinCVS Introduction

Installing WinCVS

Installing CVS Integration
for Visual Studio

Working with WinCVS

Working with CVS from Visual Studio

CVS Home Page

For Administrators:
Setting up CVS as a Server
under Linux

Installation of TCL and WinCVS

You will probably want to install TCL before you go to the WinCVS.org web site and download and install WinCVS. It's pretty simple. Just accept all the defaults, let it install, and you'll never have to think about it again (it will claim it needs to reboot to finish up, but that's not the case). TCL is necessary to provide important functionality within WinCVS, but it handles everything transparently. Then unzip and run the setup for WinCVS. After you get it all working, go ahead and install CVSIn.

Configuring WinCVS

Although CVS can operate directly on a flat-file database, much in the same manner as Microsoft SourceSafe, it is also capable of working in a true client-server arrangement (unlike SourceSafe). This means we need to be able to log in and identify ourselves to the server. This is what the CVSROOT setting is for, and it's why it's the first thing you'll see when you start WinCVS for the first time.

CVSROOT refers to the location of the source code repository within which you will be working.  It is a bit misleading, however, because your login information is included with the pathname.  Currently, our server is running as a server task on our local server.

The complete CVSROOT description consists of your username as your server knows you, an @-sign, the name of the server, a colon, and then the complete pathname for the repository.

Here's what the various tabs in the preferences dialog should look like:

Note the proper form for the CVSROOT parameter. The only part that will be different for you is the login name for the server on which CVS resides. Everything else should be entered as shown.

 Under 'Authentication', make sure to select

"passwd" file on the cvs server

If you don't, WinCVS won't talk to the CVS server for login permission.

 Use TCP/IP compression should be OFF, unless you're accessing the repository via modem. Compression makes CVS stable over very poor connections, but if you're on the same network with the server, you don't need it.

 Make certain the "Prune Empty Directories" box is checked.

 This is important: check the "for pserver (password) port" checkbox and enter '2401' in the field provided. Without this, no connection to the CVS server will be possible.

CVS uses TCP/IP to talk to the server, and does not depend on SAMBA, NT Networking or anything else to make its connection.

 You may wish to set your own clients for viewing source files (like Developer Studio, for instance), or your favorite DIFF viewer (such as WinDiff).

You will definately want to set a HOME folder, where WinCVS will write various configuration files as it runs. You'll want this to be someplace where they're not likely to be deleted by accident.

WinCVS, like CVS, is stateless, and needs a good home for these files so it can remember what it was doing from one action to the next.