HOW-TO Install and Configure a CVS Repository Server

By Marty Phelan martyp@wainet.com

August 5, 2000

Overview

This document covers the setup of a CVS repository using CVSD to improve security and CVSWEB to add web access.

Assumptions:

• RedHat 6.1 Installed
• CVS v1.10.6-2 is installed (RPM is on RedHat CD if not already installed) (newer versions not tested)

Needed:

• CVSD v0.8b1 (available from http://guv.ethz.ch/~flip/cvsd/)
• CVSWEB v1.89-1 (available from http://rpmfind.net/linux/RPM/cooker/cooker/Mandrake/RPMS/cvsweb-1.89-1mdk.noarch.html)

Modifications to CVSD

There are a few minor fixes needed for the beta version of CVSD. There are also some changes to the default security configuration of CVSD to be able to use it with CVSWEB.

• After downloading cvsd, unarchive it to /usr/src.
• You can make the changes yourself by examining the changes as listed in cvsd.diff and Makefile.diff or you can download the modified versions of cvsd.c and Makefile.
• After making the changes follow the Installation Instructions in section 1 of the README file.

Install and Configure CVSWEB

Now we will provide web access to the repository. Do the following:

• Install cvsweb-1.89-1mdk.noarch.rpm
• Modify the file /etc/httpd/conf/cvsweb.conf as shown below:
  • modify %CVSROOT paths.. NOTE: be sure to remove the comma at the end of the Development path.
  • modify the $cvstreedefault as shown

  ##############
  # CVS Root
  ##############
  # CVSweb can handle several CVS-Repositories
  # at once. Enter a short symbolic names and the
  # full path of these repositories here.
  # NOTE that the symbolic names may not contain
  # whitespaces.
  # Note, that cvsweb.cgi currently needs to have physical access
  # to the CVS repository so :pserver:someone@xyz.com:/data/cvsroot
  # won't work!
  
  # 'symbolic_name' 'path_to_the_actual_repository'
  %CVSROOT = (
      'Development' => '/home/cvsowner/cvsd-root/example'
  #    'Configuration' => '/tmp/cvsroot/conf',
  #    'HTML-files' => '/tmp/upload'
      );
  
  # This tree is enabled by default when
  # you enter the page
  $cvstreedefault = 'Development';
  
      

• Modify the file /home/httpd/cgi-bin/cvsweb.cgi as shown below (modify the $config path)

  ##### Start of Configuration Area ########
  # == EDIT this == 
  # User configuration is stored in
  $config = $ENV{'CVSWEB_CONFIG'} || '/etc/httpd/conf/cvsweb.conf';
  
      

Testing