man1/git-cvsserver.1

'\" t
.\"     Title: git-cvsserver
.\"    Author: [FIXME: author] [see http://www.docbook.org/tdg5/en/html/author]
.\" Generator: DocBook XSL Stylesheets v1.79.2 <http://docbook.sf.net/>
.\"      Date: 2025-10-08
.\"    Manual: Git Manual
.\"    Source: Git 2.51.0.480.g60f3f52f17
.\"  Language: English
.\"
.TH "GIT\-CVSSERVER" "1" "2025-10-08" "Git 2\&.51\&.0\&.480\&.g60f3f5" "Git Manual"
.\" -----------------------------------------------------------------
.\" * Define some portability stuff
.\" -----------------------------------------------------------------
.\" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
.\" http://bugs.debian.org/507673
.\" http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/groff/2009-02/msg00013.html
.\" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
.ie \n(.g .ds Aq \(aq
.el       .ds Aq '
.\" -----------------------------------------------------------------
.\" * set default formatting
.\" -----------------------------------------------------------------
.\" disable hyphenation
.nh
.\" disable justification (adjust text to left margin only)
.ad l
.\" -----------------------------------------------------------------
.\" * MAIN CONTENT STARTS HERE *
.\" -----------------------------------------------------------------
.SH "NAME"
git-cvsserver \- A CVS server emulator for Git
.SH "SYNOPSIS"
.sp
SSH:
.sp
.nf
export CVS_SERVER="git cvsserver"
\fIcvs\fR \-d :ext:user@server/path/repo\&.git co <HEAD_name>
.fi
.sp
pserver (/etc/inetd\&.conf):
.sp
.nf
cvspserver stream tcp nowait nobody /usr/bin/git\-cvsserver git\-cvsserver pserver
.fi
.sp
Usage:
.sp
.nf
\fIgit\-cvsserver\fR [<options>] [pserver|server] [<directory> \&...\:]
.fi
.SH "DESCRIPTION"
.sp
This application is a CVS emulation layer for Git\&.
.sp
It is highly functional\&. However, not all methods are implemented, and for those methods that are implemented, not all switches are implemented\&.
.sp
Testing has been done using both the CLI CVS client, and the Eclipse CVS plugin\&. Most functionality works fine with both of these clients\&.
.SH "OPTIONS"
.sp
All these options obviously only make sense if enforced by the server side\&. They have been implemented to resemble the \fBgit-daemon\fR(1) options as closely as possible\&.
.PP
\-\-base\-path <path>
.RS 4
Prepend
\fIpath\fR
to requested CVSROOT
.RE
.PP
\-\-strict\-paths
.RS 4
Don\(cqt allow recursing into subdirectories
.RE
.PP
\-\-export\-all
.RS 4
Don\(cqt check for
\fBgitcvs\&.enabled\fR
in config\&. You also have to specify a list of allowed directories (see below) if you want to use this option\&.
.RE
.PP
\-V, \-\-version
.RS 4
Print version information and exit
.RE
.PP
\-h, \-H, \-\-help
.RS 4
Print usage information and exit
.RE
.PP
<directory>
.RS 4
The remaining arguments provide a list of directories\&. If no directories are given, then all are allowed\&. Repositories within these directories still require the
\fBgitcvs\&.enabled\fR
config option, unless
\fB\-\-export\-all\fR
is specified\&.
.RE
.SH "LIMITATIONS"
.sp
CVS clients cannot tag, branch or perform Git merges\&.
.sp
\fIgit\-cvsserver\fR maps Git branches to CVS modules\&. This is very different from what most CVS users would expect since in CVS modules usually represent one or more directories\&.
.SH "INSTALLATION"
.sp
.RS 4
.ie n \{\
\h'-04' 1.\h'+01'\c
.\}
.el \{\
.sp -1
.IP "  1." 4.2
.\}
If you are going to offer CVS access via pserver, add a line in /etc/inetd\&.conf like
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
   cvspserver stream tcp nowait nobody git\-cvsserver pserver
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.sp
Note: Some inetd servers let you specify the name of the executable independently of the value of argv[0] (i\&.e\&. the name the program assumes it was executed with)\&. In this case the correct line in /etc/inetd\&.conf looks like
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
   cvspserver stream tcp nowait nobody /usr/bin/git\-cvsserver git\-cvsserver pserver
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.sp
Only anonymous access is provided by pserver by default\&. To commit you will have to create pserver accounts, simply add a gitcvs\&.authdb setting in the config file of the repositories you want the cvsserver to allow writes to, for example:
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
   [gitcvs]
        authdb = /etc/cvsserver/passwd
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.sp
The format of these files is username followed by the encrypted password, for example:
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
   myuser:sqkNi8zPf01HI
   myuser:$1$9K7FzU28$VfF6EoPYCJEYcVQwATgOP/
   myuser:$5$\&.NqmNH1vwfzGpV8B$znZIcumu1tNLATgV2l6e1/mY8RzhUDHMOaVOeL1cxV3
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.sp
You can use the
\fIhtpasswd\fR
facility that comes with Apache to make these files, but only with the \-d option (or \-B if your system supports it)\&.
.sp
Preferably use the system specific utility that manages password hash creation in your platform (e\&.g\&. mkpasswd in Linux, encrypt in OpenBSD or pwhash in NetBSD) and paste it in the right location\&.
.sp
Then provide your password via the pserver method, for example:
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
   cvs \-d:pserver:someuser:somepassword@server:/path/repo\&.git co <HEAD_name>
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.sp
No special setup is needed for SSH access, other than having Git tools in the PATH\&. If you have clients that do not accept the CVS_SERVER environment variable, you can rename
\fIgit\-cvsserver\fR
to
\fBcvs\fR\&.
.sp
Note: Newer CVS versions (>= 1\&.12\&.11) also support specifying CVS_SERVER directly in CVSROOT like
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
   cvs \-d ":ext;CVS_SERVER=git cvsserver:user@server/path/repo\&.git" co <HEAD_name>
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.sp
This has the advantage that it will be saved in your
\fICVS/Root\fR
files and you don\(cqt need to worry about always setting the correct environment variable\&. SSH users restricted to
\fIgit\-shell\fR
don\(cqt need to override the default with CVS_SERVER (and shouldn\(cqt) as
\fIgit\-shell\fR
understands
\fBcvs\fR
to mean
\fIgit\-cvsserver\fR
and pretends that the other end runs the real
\fIcvs\fR
better\&.
.RE
.sp
.RS 4
.ie n \{\
\h'-04' 2.\h'+01'\c
.\}
.el \{\
.sp -1
.IP "  2." 4.2
.\}
For each repo that you want accessible from CVS you need to edit config in the repo and add the following section\&.
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
   [gitcvs]
        enabled=1
        # optional for debugging
        logFile=/path/to/logfile
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.sp
Note: you need to ensure each user that is going to invoke
\fIgit\-cvsserver\fR
has write access to the log file and to the database (see
Database Backend\&. If you want to offer write access over SSH, the users of course also need write access to the Git repository itself\&.
.sp
You also need to ensure that each repository is "bare" (without a Git index file) for
\fBcvs\fR
\fBcommit\fR
to work\&. See
\fBgitcvs-migration\fR(7)\&.
.sp
All configuration variables can also be overridden for a specific method of access\&. Valid method names are "ext" (for SSH access) and "pserver"\&. The following example configuration would disable pserver access while still allowing access over SSH\&.
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
   [gitcvs]
        enabled=0

   [gitcvs "ext"]
        enabled=1
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.RE
.sp
.RS 4
.ie n \{\
\h'-04' 3.\h'+01'\c
.\}
.el \{\
.sp -1
.IP "  3." 4.2
.\}
If you didn\(cqt specify the CVSROOT/CVS_SERVER directly in the checkout command, automatically saving it in your
\fICVS/Root\fR
files, then you need to set them explicitly in your environment\&. CVSROOT should be set as per normal, but the directory should point at the appropriate Git repo\&. As above, for SSH clients
\fInot\fR
restricted to
\fIgit\-shell\fR, CVS_SERVER should be set to
\fIgit\-cvsserver\fR\&.
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
   export CVSROOT=:ext:user@server:/var/git/project\&.git
   export CVS_SERVER="git cvsserver"
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.RE
.sp
.RS 4
.ie n \{\
\h'-04' 4.\h'+01'\c
.\}
.el \{\
.sp -1
.IP "  4." 4.2
.\}
For SSH clients that will make commits, make sure their server\-side \&.ssh/environment files (or \&.bashrc, etc\&., according to their specific shell) export appropriate values for GIT_AUTHOR_NAME, GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL, GIT_COMMITTER_NAME, and GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL\&. For SSH clients whose login shell is bash, \&.bashrc may be a reasonable alternative\&.
.RE
.sp
.RS 4
.ie n \{\
\h'-04' 5.\h'+01'\c
.\}
.el \{\
.sp -1
.IP "  5." 4.2
.\}
Clients should now be able to check out the project\&. Use the CVS
\fImodule\fR
name to indicate what Git
\fIhead\fR
you want to check out\&. This also sets the name of your newly checked\-out directory, unless you tell it otherwise with
\fB\-d\fR
\fI<dir\-name>\fR\&. For example, this checks out
\fImaster\fR
branch to the
\fBproject\-master\fR
directory:
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
   cvs co \-d project\-master master
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.RE
.SH "DATABASE BACKEND"
.sp
\fIgit\-cvsserver\fR uses one database per Git head (i\&.e\&. CVS module) to store information about the repository to maintain consistent CVS revision numbers\&. The database needs to be updated (i\&.e\&. written to) after every commit\&.
.sp
If the commit is done directly by using \fBgit\fR (as opposed to using \fIgit\-cvsserver\fR) the update will need to happen on the next repository access by \fIgit\-cvsserver\fR, independent of access method and requested operation\&.
.sp
That means that even if you offer only read access (e\&.g\&. by using the pserver method), \fIgit\-cvsserver\fR should have write access to the database to work reliably (otherwise you need to make sure that the database is up to date any time \fIgit\-cvsserver\fR is executed)\&.
.sp
By default it uses SQLite databases in the Git directory, named \fBgitcvs\&.\fR\fI<module\-name>\fR\fB\&.sqlite\fR\&. Note that the SQLite backend creates temporary files in the same directory as the database file on write so it might not be enough to grant the users using \fIgit\-cvsserver\fR write access to the database file without granting them write access to the directory, too\&.
.sp
The database cannot be reliably regenerated in a consistent form after the branch it is tracking has changed\&. Example: For merged branches, \fIgit\-cvsserver\fR only tracks one branch of development, and after a \fIgit merge\fR an incrementally updated database may track a different branch than a database regenerated from scratch, causing inconsistent CVS revision numbers\&. \fBgit\-cvsserver\fR has no way of knowing which branch it would have picked if it had been run incrementally pre\-merge\&. So if you have to fully or partially (from old backup) regenerate the database, you should be suspicious of pre\-existing CVS sandboxes\&.
.sp
You can configure the database backend with the following configuration variables:
.SS "Configuring database backend"
.sp
\fIgit\-cvsserver\fR uses the Perl DBI module\&. Please also read its documentation if changing these variables, especially about \fBDBI\-\fR>\fBconnect\fR()\&.
.PP
gitcvs\&.dbName
.RS 4
Database name\&. The exact meaning depends on the selected database driver, for SQLite this is a filename\&. Supports variable substitution (see below)\&. May not contain semicolons (;)\&. Default:
\fI%Ggitcvs\&.%m\&.sqlite\fR
.RE
.PP
gitcvs\&.dbDriver
.RS 4
Used DBI driver\&. You can specify any available driver for this here, but it might not work\&. cvsserver is tested with
\fIDBD::SQLite\fR, reported to work with
\fIDBD::Pg\fR, and reported
\fBnot\fR
to work with
\fIDBD::mysql\fR\&. Please regard this as an experimental feature\&. May not contain colons (\fB:\fR)\&. Default:
\fISQLite\fR
.RE
.PP
gitcvs\&.dbuser
.RS 4
Database user\&. Only useful if setting
\fBdbDriver\fR, since SQLite has no concept of database users\&. Supports variable substitution (see below)\&.
.RE
.PP
gitcvs\&.dbPass
.RS 4
Database password\&. Only useful if setting
\fBdbDriver\fR, since SQLite has no concept of database passwords\&.
.RE
.PP
gitcvs\&.dbTableNamePrefix
.RS 4
Database table name prefix\&. Supports variable substitution (see below)\&. Any non\-alphabetic characters will be replaced with underscores\&.
.RE
.sp
All variables can also be set per access method, see above\&.
.sp
.it 1 an-trap
.nr an-no-space-flag 1
.nr an-break-flag 1
.br
.ps +1
\fBVariable substitution\fR
.RS 4
.sp
In \fBdbDriver\fR and \fBdbUser\fR you can use the following variables:
.PP
%G
.RS 4
Git directory name
.RE
.PP
%g
.RS 4
Git directory name, where all characters except for alphanumeric ones, \&., and
\fB\-\fR
are replaced with
\fB_\fR
(this should make it easier to use the directory name in a filename if wanted)
.RE
.PP
%m
.RS 4
CVS module/Git head name
.RE
.PP
%a
.RS 4
access method (one of "ext" or "pserver")
.RE
.PP
%u
.RS 4
Name of the user running
\fIgit\-cvsserver\fR\&. If no name can be determined, the numeric uid is used\&.
.RE
.RE
.SH "ENVIRONMENT"
.sp
These variables obviate the need for command\-line options in some circumstances, allowing easier restricted usage through git\-shell\&.
.PP
GIT_CVSSERVER_BASE_PATH
.RS 4
This variable replaces the argument to \-\-base\-path\&.
.RE
.PP
GIT_CVSSERVER_ROOT
.RS 4
This variable specifies a single directory, replacing the
\fI<directory>\fR\&.\&.\&. argument list\&. The repository still requires the
\fBgitcvs\&.enabled\fR
config option, unless
\fB\-\-export\-all\fR
is specified\&.
.RE
.sp
When these environment variables are set, the corresponding command\-line arguments may not be used\&.
.SH "ECLIPSE CVS CLIENT NOTES"
.sp
To get a checkout with the Eclipse CVS client:
.sp
.RS 4
.ie n \{\
\h'-04' 1.\h'+01'\c
.\}
.el \{\
.sp -1
.IP "  1." 4.2
.\}
Select "Create a new project \(-> From CVS checkout"
.RE
.sp
.RS 4
.ie n \{\
\h'-04' 2.\h'+01'\c
.\}
.el \{\
.sp -1
.IP "  2." 4.2
.\}
Create a new location\&. See the notes below for details on how to choose the right protocol\&.
.RE
.sp
.RS 4
.ie n \{\
\h'-04' 3.\h'+01'\c
.\}
.el \{\
.sp -1
.IP "  3." 4.2
.\}
Browse the
\fImodules\fR
available\&. It will give you a list of the heads in the repository\&. You will not be able to browse the tree from there\&. Only the heads\&.
.RE
.sp
.RS 4
.ie n \{\
\h'-04' 4.\h'+01'\c
.\}
.el \{\
.sp -1
.IP "  4." 4.2
.\}
Pick
\fBHEAD\fR
when it asks what branch/tag to check out\&. Untick the "launch commit wizard" to avoid committing the \&.project file\&.
.RE
.sp
Protocol notes: If you are using anonymous access via pserver, just select that\&. Those using SSH access should choose the \fIext\fR protocol, and configure \fIext\fR access on the Preferences\(->Team\(->CVS\(->ExtConnection pane\&. Set CVS_SERVER to "\fBgit\fR \fBcvsserver\fR"\&. Note that password support is not good when using \fIext\fR, you will definitely want to have SSH keys setup\&.
.sp
Alternatively, you can just use the non\-standard extssh protocol that Eclipse offer\&. In that case CVS_SERVER is ignored, and you will have to replace the cvs utility on the server with \fIgit\-cvsserver\fR or manipulate your \&.\fBbashrc\fR so that calling \fIcvs\fR effectively calls \fIgit\-cvsserver\fR\&.
.SH "CLIENTS KNOWN TO WORK"
.sp
.RS 4
.ie n \{\
\h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
.\}
.el \{\
.sp -1
.IP \(bu 2.3
.\}
CVS 1\&.12\&.9 on Debian
.RE
.sp
.RS 4
.ie n \{\
\h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
.\}
.el \{\
.sp -1
.IP \(bu 2.3
.\}
CVS 1\&.11\&.17 on MacOSX (from Fink package)
.RE
.sp
.RS 4
.ie n \{\
\h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
.\}
.el \{\
.sp -1
.IP \(bu 2.3
.\}
Eclipse 3\&.0, 3\&.1\&.2 on MacOSX (see Eclipse CVS Client Notes)
.RE
.sp
.RS 4
.ie n \{\
\h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
.\}
.el \{\
.sp -1
.IP \(bu 2.3
.\}
TortoiseCVS
.RE
.SH "OPERATIONS SUPPORTED"
.sp
All the operations required for normal use are supported, including checkout, diff, status, update, log, add, remove, commit\&.
.sp
Most CVS command arguments that read CVS tags or revision numbers (typically \-r) work, and also support any git refspec (tag, branch, commit ID, etc)\&. However, CVS revision numbers for non\-default branches are not well emulated, and cvs log does not show tags or branches at all\&. (Non\-main\-branch CVS revision numbers superficially resemble CVS revision numbers, but they actually encode a git commit ID directly, rather than represent the number of revisions since the branch point\&.)
.sp
Note that there are two ways to checkout a particular branch\&. As described elsewhere on this page, the "module" parameter of cvs checkout is interpreted as a branch name, and it becomes the main branch\&. It remains the main branch for a given sandbox even if you temporarily make another branch sticky with cvs update \-r\&. Alternatively, the \-r argument can indicate some other branch to actually checkout, even though the module is still the "main" branch\&. Tradeoffs (as currently implemented): Each new "module" creates a new database on disk with a history for the given module, and after the database is created, operations against that main branch are fast\&. Or alternatively, \-r doesn\(cqt take any extra disk space, but may be significantly slower for many operations, like cvs update\&.
.sp
If you want to refer to a git refspec that has characters that are not allowed by CVS, you have two options\&. First, it may just work to supply the git refspec directly to the appropriate CVS \-r argument; some CVS clients don\(cqt seem to do much sanity checking of the argument\&. Second, if that fails, you can use a special character escape mechanism that only uses characters that are valid in CVS tags\&. A sequence of 4 or 5 characters of the form (underscore ("_"), dash ("\-"), one or two characters, and dash ("\-")) can encode various characters based on the one or two letters: "s" for slash ("/"), "p" for period ("\&."), "u" for underscore ("_"), or two hexadecimal digits for any byte value at all (typically an ASCII number, or perhaps a part of a UTF\-8 encoded character)\&.
.sp
Legacy monitoring operations are not supported (edit, watch and related)\&. Exports and tagging (tags and branches) are not supported at this stage\&.
.SS "CRLF Line Ending Conversions"
.sp
By default the server leaves the \fB\-k\fR mode blank for all files, which causes the CVS client to treat them as a text files, subject to end\-of\-line conversion on some platforms\&.
.sp
You can make the server use the end\-of\-line conversion attributes to set the \fB\-k\fR modes for files by setting the \fBgitcvs\&.usecrlfattr\fR config variable\&. See \fBgitattributes\fR(5) for more information about end\-of\-line conversion\&.
.sp
Alternatively, if \fBgitcvs\&.usecrlfattr\fR config is not enabled or the attributes do not allow automatic detection for a filename, then the server uses the \fBgitcvs\&.allBinary\fR config for the default setting\&. If \fBgitcvs\&.allBinary\fR is set, then file not otherwise specified will default to \fI\-kb\fR mode\&. Otherwise the \fB\-k\fR mode is left blank\&. But if \fBgitcvs\&.allBinary\fR is set to "guess", then the correct \fB\-k\fR mode will be guessed based on the contents of the file\&.
.sp
For best consistency with \fIcvs\fR, it is probably best to override the defaults by setting \fBgitcvs\&.usecrlfattr\fR to true, and \fBgitcvs\&.allBinary\fR to "guess"\&.
.SH "DEPENDENCIES"
.sp
\fIgit\-cvsserver\fR depends on DBD::SQLite\&.
.SH "GIT"
.sp
Part of the \fBgit\fR(1) suite