Tutorial for cvsClient

  • Introduction
  • How to Run
  • Creating a New Module
  • Checking Items Out
  • Editing Files
  • Checking Items In
  • Checking The Logs
  • Configuring cvsClient

    • Introduction

    cvsClient is a java interface to Concurrent Versions System (CVS). CVS provides a way to manage shared files in a consistent and reliable manner. It is the underlying system we are using for our     Virtual Collabatorium project. Our intent is to provide an "intuitive" GUI to the predominantly command-line oriented CVS, in the hope that only a minimal amount of "CVS knowledge" will be required of the user. Currently, cvsClient works as a standalone application. If CVS is locally installed on your system, then cvsClient will work as advertised. If you do not have CVS installed, you still can use cvsClient as a program launcher and file browser. Ultimately, we plan to extend cvsClient to operate in a more client/server, distributed mode in the future.

    This software is the demo version of cvsClient that was presented at an NSF site visit at UC-Irvine on August 20th, 1996.

    How to Run

    If the installation of cvsClient went well, you can start up cvsClient by issuing the command (in the directory where you unpacked cvsClient), 
      ./cvsClient &
    After the appletviewer window finishes loading the class files, you should see the following window appear:

    The Local side of the window shows the current working directory, /sampleDir. The Repository side shows the root of the CVS repository, /sampleRepo, together with an administrative subdirectory, /CVSROOT.

    The root of the CVS repository is often referred to as CVSROOT, and in this case, CVSROOT=/sampleRepo. CVSROOT is the place where all the shared files are stored and maintained.

    In this tutorial, the cvsdemo distribution comes with a pre-made CVSROOT, viz., /sampleRepo. You are free to create your own CVSROOT by accessing the menu Repository->Create New ..., or by specifying an existing CVSROOT via the menu CVS->CVSROOT .... In any case, you might still want to follow along with the examples presented below.

    Any non-administrative subdirectory off of CVSROOT is called a module. Click here to learn how to create a new module.