DNA CVS Usage

This document explains briefly some of the CVS commands that are necessary for working with the DNA CVS repository. It does not explain the CVS policy, please be sure to have read the DNA CVS policy before starting to work with the DNA CVS repository. All the details of the CVS commands can be found in the CVS manual.

1. Checking out the sources

You must have an account on cvs.dna.ac.uk before you can check out the sources. If you don't have an account please ask Alun Ashton to create one. Once you have an account you can check out the sources in the DNA CVS repository with the command:

export CVS_RSH=ssh
cvs -d your_user_name@cvs.dna.ac.uk:/public/dna/CVSROOT co DNA

2. Working with the sources

Once you have checked out the sources you don't need to give the "-d" argument to CVs, but you will always have to set the environment variable CVS_RSH to ssh. It's therefore a good idea to add the line "export CVS_RSH=ssh" to your login scripts.

3. Creating and working with branches

CVs branches are very useful for applying patches to releases while continuing working on a new release. They can also be used by individual developers who would like to test a certain feature without committing the changes to the main development tree. See this section of the CVs manual for more information on CVs branches.

A branch can be created with the following command:

CVs rtag -b relelase-candidate-2 DNA

Note that the branch is created only in the CVs repository and not in your working copy. In order to work with the branch you must check it out with the following command:

CVs checkout -r release-candidate-2 DNA

Great care must be taken when creating and working with branches in order to not make a mess of the DNA CVs repository.