First, read the README file. If you're still happy... First you need to obtain and install the CVS executables. If you got a distribution which contains executables, consult the installation instructions for that distribution. If you got source code, do not panic. On many platforms building CVS from source code is a straightforward process requiring no programming knowledge. See the section BUILDING FROM SOURCE CODE at the end of this file, which includes a list of platforms which have been tested. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) Take a look at the CVS documentation, if desired. For most purposes you want doc/cvs.texinfo, also known as _Version Management with CVS_ by Per Cederqvist et al. Looking at it might be as simple as "info cvs" but this will depend on your installation; see README for more details. See what CVS can do for you, and if it fits your environment (or can possibly be made to fit your environment). If things look good, continue on. Alternately, just give CVS a try first then figure out what it is good for. 2) Set the CVSROOT environment variable to where you want to put your source repository. See the "Setting up the repository" section of the Cederqvist manual for details, but the quick summary is just to pick some directory. We'll use /src/master as an example. For users of a POSIX shell (sh/bash/ksh) on unix, the following commands can be placed in user's ~/.profile, ~/.bash_profile file; or in the site-wide /etc/profile: CVSROOT=/src/master; export CVSROOT For C shell users on unix place the following commands in the user's ~/.cshrc, ~/.login, or /etc/chsrc file: setenv CVSROOT /src/master For Windows users, supposing the repository will be in d:\src\master, place the following line in c:\autoexec.bat. On Windows 95, autoexec.bat might not already exist. In that case, just create a new file containing the following line. set CVSROOT=:local:d:\src\master If these environment variables are not already set in your current shell, set them now by typing the above line at the command prompt (or source the login script you just edited). The instructions for the remaining steps assume that you have set the CVSROOT environment variable. 3) Create the master source repository. Again, the details are in the "Setting up the repository" section of cvs.texinfo; the one-line summary is: $ cvs init In this and subsequent examples we use "$" to indicate the command prompt; do not type the "$". 4) It might be a good idea to jump right in and put some sources or documents directly under CVS control. From within the top-level directory of your source tree, run the following commands: $ cvs import -m "test distribution" ccvs CVS_DIST CVS-TEST (Those last three items are, respectively, a repository location, a "vendor tag", and a "release tag". You don't need to understand them yet, but read the section "Starting new projects" in the Cederqvist manual for details). 5) Having done step 4, one should be able to checkout a fresh copy of the sources you just imported and hack away at the sources with the following command: $ cd $ cvs checkout ccvs This will make the directory "ccvs" in your current directory and populate it with the appropriate files and directories. 6) You may wish to customize the various administrative files, in particular modules. See the Cederqvist manual for details. 7) Read the NEWS file to see what's new. 8) Hack away. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BUILDING FROM SOURCE CODE Tested platforms CVS has been tested on the following platforms. The most recent version of CVS reported to have been tested is indicated, but more recent versions of CVS probably will work too. Please send updates to this list to bug-cvs@gnu.org (doing so in the form of a diff to this file, or at least exact suggested text, is encouraged). "tested" means, at a minimum, that CVS compiles and appears to work on simple (manual) testing. In many cases it also means "make check" and/or "make remotecheck" passes, but we don't try to list the platforms for which that is true. Alpha: DEC Alpha running OSF/1 version 1.3 using cc (about 1.4A2) DEC Alpha running OSF/1 version 2.0 (1.8) DEC Alpha running OSF/1 version 2.1 (about 1.4A2) DEC Alpha running OSF/1 version 3.0 (1.5.95) (footnote 7) DEC Alpha running OSF/1 version 3.2 (1.9) DEC Alpha running Digital UNIX v4.0C using gcc 2.7.2.2 (1.9.14) DEC Alpha running VMS 6.2 (1.8.85 client-only) Cray: J90 (CVS 970215 snapshot) T3E (CVS 970215 snapshot) HPPA: HP 9000/710 running HP-UX 8.07A using gcc (about 1.4A2) HPPA running HP-UX 9 (1.8) HPPA 1.1 running HP-UX A.09.03 (1.5.95) (footnote 8) HPPA 1.1 running HP-UX A.09.04 (1.7.1) HPPA 9000/735 running HP-UX A.09.05 (1.8.87) HPPA running HP-UX 10.01 (1.7) HPPA running HP-UX 10.20 using gcc 2.7.2.2 (1.9.14) NextSTEP 3.3 (1.7) i386 family: Solaris 2.4 using gcc (about 1.4A2) UnixWare v1.1.1 using gcc (about 1.4A2) Unixware 2.1 (1.8.86) ISC 4.0.1 (1.8.87) Linux (kernel 1.2.x) (1.8.86) Linux (kernel 2.0.x, RedHat 4.2) (1.9) BSDI 2.0 (1.4.93) (footnote 5) FreeBSD 2.1.5-stable (1.8.87) NextSTEP 3.3 (1.7) SCO Unix 3.2.4.2, gcc 2.7.2 (1.8.87) (footnote 4) SCO OpenServer 5 (1.8.86) Sequent Dynix/PTX 4.1.4 (1.9.20 or so + patches) Lynx 2.3.0 080695 (1.6.86) (footnote 9) Windows NT 3.51 (1.8.86 client; 1.8.3 local) Windows NT 3.51 service pack 4 (1.9) Windows NT 3.51 service pack 5 (1.9) -- DOES NOT WORK (footnote 11) Windows NT 4.0 (1.9 client and local) Windows 95 (1.9 client and local) QNX (1.9.1 + patches for strippath() and va_list) OS/2 Version 3 using IBM C/C++ Tools 2.01 (1.8.86 + patches, client) OS/2 Version 3 using EMX 0.9c (1.9.10 + patches, client) OS/2 Version 3 using Watcom version ? (? - has this been tested?) m68k: Sun 3 running SunOS 4.1.1_U1 w/ bundled K&R /usr/5bin/cc (1.8.86+) NextSTEP 3.3p1 (1.8.87) Lynx 2.3.0 062695 (1.6.86) (footnote 9) m88k: Data General AViiON running dgux 5.4R2.10 (1.5) Data General AViiON running dgux 5.4R3.10 (1.7.1) Harris Nighthawk 5800 running CX/UX 7.1 (1.5) (footnote 6) MIPS: DECstation running Ultrix 4.2a (1.4.90) DECstation running Ultrix 4.3 (1.8.85) SGI running Irix 4.0.5H using gcc and cc (about 1.4A2) (footnote 2) SGI running Irix 5.3 using gcc 2.7.2 (1.8.87) SGI running Irix 6.2 using SGI MIPSpro 6.2 and beta 7.2 compilers (1.9) SGI running Irix-6.2 (1.9.8) Siemens-Nixdorf RM600 running SINIX-Y (1.6) PowerPC or RS/6000: IBM RS/6000 running AIX 3.1 using gcc and cc (1.6.86) IBM RS/6000 running AIX 3.2.5 (1.8) IBM RS/6000 running AIX 4.1 using gcc and cc (about 1.4A2) (footnote 1) Lynx 2.3.1 120495 (1.6.86) (footnote 9) Lynx 2.5 (1.9) (footnote 10) SPARC: Sun SPARC running SunOS 4.1.x using gcc 2.7.2.1 (1.9.14) Sun SPARCstation 10 running Solaris 2.3 using gcc and cc (about 1.4A2) Sun SPARCstation running Solaris 2.4 using gcc and cc (about 1.5.91) Sun SPARC running Solaris 2.5 (1.8.87) Sun SPARC running Solaris 2.5.1 using gcc 2.7.2.2 (1.9.14) NextSTEP 3.3 (1.7) Sun SPARC running Linux 2.0.17, gcc 2.7.2 (1.8.87) VAX: VAX running VMS 6.2 (1.9+patches, client-only) (see README.VMS for information on necessary hacks). (footnote 1) AIX 4.1 systems fail to run "configure" due to bugs in their "/bin/sh" implementation. You might want to try feeding the configure script to "bash" ported to AIX 4.1. (about 1.4A2). (footnote 2) Some Irix 4.0 systems may core dump in malloc while running CVS. We believe this is a bug in the Irix malloc. You can workaround this bug by linking with "-lmalloc" if necessary. (about 1.4A2). (footnote 4) Comment out the include of sys/time.h in src/server.c. (1.4.93) You also may have to make sure TIME_WITH_SYS_TIME is undef'ed. (footnote 5) Change /usr/tmp to /var/tmp in src/server.c (2 places) (1.4.93). (This should no longer be needed; CVS doesn't have /usr/tmp in src/server.c any more. Has anyone tried a more recent version on BSDI? If so, please report it so we can update this file). (footnote 6) Build in ucb universe with COFF compiler tools. Put /usr/local/bin first in PATH while doing a configure, make and install of GNU diffutils-2.7, rcs-5.7, then cvs-1.5. (footnote 7) Manoj Srivastava reports success with this configure command: CC=cc CFLAGS='-O2 -Olimit 2000 -std1' ./configure --verbose alpha-dec-osf (footnote 8) Manoj Srivastava reports success with this configure command: CC=cc CFLAGS='+O2 -Aa -D_HPUX_SOURCE' ./configure --verbose hppa1.1-hp-hpux (footnote 9) Had to configure with ./configure --host=-lynx. In src/cvs.h, protected the waitpid prototype with ifdef _POSIX_SOURCE. (I might try building with gcc -mposix -D_POSIX_SOURCE.) LynxOS has , but you don't want to use it. You want to use instead. So after running configure I had to undef HAVE_DIRENT_H and define HAVE_SYS_DIR_H. (footnote 10) Had to compile with "make LIBS=-lbsd" (to get gethostbyname and getservbyname). (footnote 11) when I do a `cvs init' I get this message: ci: 'RCS/loginfo,v' is not a regular file ci: RCS/loginfo,v: Invalid argument cvs [init aborted]: failed to checkin n:/safe/CVSROOT/loginfo ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Building from source code under Unix: 1) Run "configure": $ ./configure You can specify an alternate destination to override the default with the --prefix option: $ ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/gnu or some path that is more appropriate for your site. The default prefix value is "/usr/local", with binaries in sub-directory "bin", manual pages in sub-directory "man", and libraries in sub-directory "lib". A normal build of CVS will create an executable which supports local, server, or client CVS (if you don't know the difference, it is described in the Repository chapter of doc/cvs.texinfo). If you do not intend to use client or server CVS, you may want to prevent these features from being included in the executable you build. You can do this with the --disable-client and --disable-server options: $ ./configure --disable-client --disable-server Typically this can reduce the size of the executable by around 30%. Unlike previous versions of CVS, you do not need to install RCS or GNU diff. NOTE: The configure program will cache the results of the previous configure execution. If you need to re-run configure from scratch, you may need to run "make distclean" first to remove the cached configuration information. If you are using gcc and are planning to modify CVS, you may want to configure with -Wall; see the file HACKING for details. If you have Kerberos 4 installed, you can specify the location of the header files and libraries using the --with-krb4=DIR option. DIR should be a directory with subdirectories include and lib holding the Kerberos 4 header files and libraries, respectively. The default value is /usr/kerberos. If you want to enable support for encryption over Kerberos, use the --enable-encryption option. This option is disabled by default. Try './configure --help' for further information on its usage. NOTE ON CVS's USE OF NDBM: By default, CVS uses some built-in ndbm emulation code to allow CVS to work in a heterogeneous environment. However, if you have a very large modules database, this may not work well. You will need to edit src/options.h to turn off the MY_NDBM #define and re-run configure. If you do this, the following comments apply. If not, you may safely skip these comments. If you configure CVS to use the real ndbm(3) libraries and you do not have them installed in a "normal" place, you will probably want to get the GNU version of ndbm (gdbm) and install that before running the CVS configure script. Be aware that the GDBM 1.5 release does NOT install the header file included with the release automatically. You may have to install it by hand. If you configure CVS to use the ndbm(3) libraries, you cannot compile CVS with GNU cc (gcc) on Sun-4 SPARC systems. However, gcc 2.0 may have fixed this limitation if -fpcc-struct-return is defined. When using gcc on other systems to compile CVS, you *may* need to specify the -fpcc-struct-return option to gcc (you will *know* you have to if "cvs checkout" core dumps in some ndbm function). You can do this as follows: $ CC='gcc -fpcc-struct-return' ./configure for sh, bash, and ksh users and: % setenv CC 'gcc -fpcc-struct-return' % ./configure for csh and tcsh users. END OF NOTE FOR NDBM GUNK. 2) Edit src/options.h. The defaults should be reasonable, and in fact if you are lazy you can safely skip this step. 3) Try to build it: $ make This will (hopefully) make the needed CVS binaries within the "src" directory. If something fails for your system, and you want to submit a bug report, you may wish to include your "config.status" file, your host type, operating system and compiler information, make output, and anything else you think will be helpful. 3a) Run the regression tests (optional). You may also wish to validate the correctness of the new binary by running the regression tests. If they succeed, that is nice to know. However, if they fail, it doesn't tell you much. Often it will just be a problem with running the tests on your machine, rather than a problem with CVS. Unless you will have the time to determine which of the two it is in case of failure, you might want to save yourself the time and just not run the tests. If you want to run the tests, see the file TESTS for more information. 4) Install the binaries/documentation: $ make install Depending on your installation's configuration, you may need to be root to do this. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Detailed information about your interaction with "configure": The "configure" script and its interaction with its options and the environment is described here. For more detailed documentation about "configure", please refer to the GNU Autoconf documentation. Supported options are: --srcdir=DIR Useful for compiling on many different machines sharing one source tree. --prefix=DIR The root of where to install the various pieces of CVS (/usr/local). --exec_prefix=DIR If you want executables in a host-dependent place and shared things in a host-independent place. The following environment variables override configure's default behaviour: CC If not set, tries to use gcc first, then cc. Also tries to use "-g -O" as options, backing down to -g alone if that doesn't work. INSTALL If not set, tries to use "install", then "./install-sh" as a final choice. RANLIB If not set, tries to determine if "ranlib" is available, choosing "echo" if it doesn't appear to be. YACC If not set, tries to determine if "bison" is available, choosing "yacc" if it doesn't appear to be. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Building from source code under Windows NT/95: You may find interesting information in windows-NT/README. 1) Using Microsoft Visual C++ 5.x, open the project `cvsnt.dsp', in the top directory of the CVS distribution. If you have an older version of Visual C++, take a look at windows-NT/README. 2) Choose "Build cvs.exe" from the "Project" menu. 3) MSVC will place the executable file cvs.exe in WinRel, or whatever your target directory is. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Building from source code under other platforms: For OS/2, see os2/README and emx/README. For VMS, see README.VMS For Macintosh, see macintosh/README.MacCVS For a Java client, see jCVS (which is a separate package from CVS itself, but which might be preferable to the Macintosh port mentioned above, for example). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------