Cvs for newbies

Hello everyone.
These days I am writing some code for a small project. I have started having problems with different versions of the files I keep (in case I need to move to older files).

I need some easy cvs platform ( I do not know if cvs is the general name or a specific program) that is easy to use. I do not need something that special or specific. Could you please suggest me one easy to use for newbies?

I would like to tahnk you in advance for your help

P.s I use R (cran)

A small notice I think that I am looking for an easy revision system (I think this is the general term)).
Regards
Alex

Why not use subversion, it’s basically CVS made modern and fixed. (But not in the same class as git, etc.) If you do a search for “subversion tutorial”, I’m sure you’ll find some hits.

I do not know what to use. I want something simple and fast (do this to save a file, do that to restore this version). I do not want to spend hours to learn one (I remember I tried one years ago and I could not make it use it in a few hours)

cvs is the name of a special version control system. A more modern one is
subversion. The question is what you consider as easy. Every good versioning
system has some learning curve.
If you tell us which IDE you use we can probably recommend one which works
together with it so that you can use a gui for version control instead of
commands.

Eclipse for example has plugins for cvs and subversion (and maybe other
systems). I use it with subversion.


openSUSE 11.3 64 bit | Intel Core2 Quad Q8300@2.50GHz | KDE 4.5 | GeForce
9600 GT | 4GB Ram
openSUSE 11.3 64 bit | Intel Core2 Duo T9300@2.50GHz | KDE 4.5 | Quadro FX
3600M | 4GB Ram

I second ken_yap’s advice. CVS is old and not so widely used anymore. You should rather learn subversion or git.

Well I’m not a good judge of what’s easy, in fact I probably have masochistic tendencies, so you’ll have to judge for yourself. Anyway here’s a starting point:

Version Control with Subversion

Bear in mind you probably do have to learn some concepts otherwise you may end up asking the software to do logically inconsistent actions.

+1 for Subversion. CVS is old

alaios wrote:

>
> I do not know what to use. I want something simple and fast (do this to
> save a file, do that to restore this version). I do not want to spend
> hours to learn one (I remember I tried one years ago and I could not
> make it use it in a few hours)
>
>
Take a look at this introduction maybe it helps.

http://www.themememe.com/subversion-for-absolute-beginners


openSUSE 11.3 64 bit | Intel Core2 Quad Q8300@2.50GHz | KDE 4.5 | GeForce
9600 GT | 4GB Ram
openSUSE 11.3 64 bit | Intel Core2 Duo T9300@2.50GHz | KDE 4.5 | Quadro FX
3600M | 4GB Ram

On Mon, 25 Oct 2010 13:06:01 +0530, please try again <please_try_again@no-mx.forums.opensuse.org> wrote:

> I second ken_yap’s advice. CVS is old and not so widely used anymore.
> You should rather learn subversion or git.

i’m far away from being an expert in versioning control, but i had to get used to subversion to some extent since that was used by projects i needed, and found it pretty un-intuitive to deal with. for my own work i’m using git now, which i find much friendlier. it’s also got deep ends that are tricky, but to get up & running in a hurry, i’d recommend starting with git.

here’s some links i found useful:

http://progit.org/book/
http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/gittutorial.html
http://toroid.org/ams/git-website-howto


phani.

I’m not an expert in versioning control either. But when I said “subversion or git”, I wanted to add that git might IMHO be a better choice, as it has already replaced subversion in many Linux and open source projects. Another alternative would be Mercurial (Mercurial SCM), which is used on all OS.

please try again wrote:

>
> I second ken_yap’s advice. CVS is old and not so widely used anymore.
> You should rather learn subversion or git.

I go along with that. I’ve used CVS (and RCS) for years and the only things
holding me back from svn or git are

  1. time and motivation to set up the servers.

  2. effort needed to convert a whole bunch of CVS repositories to whatever I
    get around to setting up.

If you are intent on CVS - it’s still a quite viable version control system

That said, I usually just script the command line stuff into the make files
anyway.


Will Honea

Just putting in 2 cents,

Installing a server repository nowadays should probably be pretty simple and probably any and all platforms include packages or apps which have been ensured to run without issue on that platform (but a cursory check still might be useful).

The real functionality is typically in the client, the ability to do more than just commit and retrieve… eg browsing, administration, perhaps graphically display.

Since you (the OP) seem to be saying all you need is a basic versioning repository without bells and whistles, I’d suggest something simple.

Surprisingly (to me) when I do a search on the existing OpenSuSE 11.3 repositories, I can find only one SVN Server set of packages, the Apache Server module (subversion-server) and the optional but possibly recommended related Apache SVN Server Management module (svnmanager). My only reservation to this option is that it seems like massive overkill for your use, a simpler option if it exists would be based only on a running HTTP service, not a full blown webserver. Maybe someone can recommend or you can find such a thing instead of deploying Apache.

As for an SVN client, there seem to be many, many options in the YAST repositories, I count at least 10 (I then stopped counting) to choose from.

HTH,
Tony

Well,
What an oversight on my part… After complaining about a lack of lightweight SVN Server in the Repositories I overlooked that installing the SVN package automatically includes svnserve which is exactly as I described, lightweight, simple and functional.

Here is a web-based Quickstart

svnserve install and quick config

Tony

tsu2 wrote:

>
> Well,
> What an oversight on my part… After complaining about a lack of
> lightweight SVN Server in the Repositories I overlooked that installing
> the SVN package automatically includes svnserve which is exactly as I
> described, lightweight, simple and functional.
>
> Here is a web-based Quickstart
>
> ‘svnserve install and quick config’ (http://tinyurl.com/yva8p9)

I was about to note that you seemed to be pulling a lot of crap just to get
the server up :wink: If I need a full Apache setup just to implement an RCS
system, I’ll go back to pencil and paper - and do lots of backups.

No, the time hog for me is a very large repository of some commercial
control stuff I worked on for several years and still get called on for
support every so often. It’s for the municipal water/sewer market with
mostly small systems that hate to spend money to upgrade, so it keeps me in
beer money - but I have to support a variety of versions and customized
system builds. Big repository to test and validate when/if I change RCS
systems - too much like work for us retirees :wink:


Will Honea

You actually don’t even need to run a SVN server if all the developers using the repo have ssh access to the machine and you can put them all in a group, call it devgroup. Something like this will work:

svnadmin create /var/svn/apprepo
chown -R yourself:devgroup /var/svn/apprepo
chmod -R g+w /var/svn/apprepo
find /var/svn/apprepo -type d | xargs chmod g+s

Then each developer can refer to the repo as:

svn+ssh://hostname.domain/var/svn/apprepo

On 2010-10-26 09:01, Will Honea wrote:

> I was about to note that you seemed to be pulling a lot of crap just to get
> the server up :wink: If I need a full Apache setup just to implement an RCS
> system, I’ll go back to pencil and paper - and do lots of backups.

Installing apache is easier that it sounds. It is a ready made package, plug and play… nothing to
it - unless it breaks :-p

I have it installed. No reason, really. Sometimes I use it to transfer files to visitors: no need to
play with firewall, they all can use a browser. I just put the files into a directory Apache sees,
and they can copy it with their iexplorer.


Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” at Telcontar)

ken yap wrote:

>
> tsu2;2243705 Wrote:
>> Well,
>> What an oversight on my part… After complaining about a lack of
>> lightweight SVN Server in the Repositories I overlooked that installing
>> the SVN package automatically includes svnserve which is exactly as I
>> described, lightweight, simple and functional.
>
> You actually don’t even need to run a SVN server if all the developers
> using the repo have ssh access to the machine and you can put them all
> in a group, call it devgroup. Something like this will work:
>
>
> Code:
> --------------------
> svnadmin create /var/svn/apprepo
> chown -R yourself:devgroup /var/svn/apprepo
> chmod -R g+w /var/svn/apprepo
> find /var/svn/apprepo -type d | xargs chmod g+s
> --------------------
>
>
> Then each developer can refer to the repo as:
>
>
> Code:
> --------------------
> svn+ssh://hostname.domain/var/svn/apprepo
> --------------------

Now that works the way I want it to!

I’m running out of excuses not to change :wink:


Will Honea

Good Morning. I am just posting back to ask you if you know if git or other version system that can also works in windows. This is a requiremt of my work place.
Regards
Alex

I didn’t know anything about git for windows so I did a search. The first two hits for the search “git for windows” gave msysgit and totoisegit. Have fun.