Setup a CVS Server (pserver) on CentOS 7¶

Warning

This document is considered archived and is most likely no longer relevant in modern day environments.

The following steps can be used to install a CVS server on CentOS 7. It is assumed you have a CentOS 7 system installed, updated (sudo yum update) and running.

Hopefully you are here for testing/legacy support for a project/task since there is at least one (1) or more better revision control software’s out there.

Prerequisites¶

System with CentOS 7 Installed

Steps¶

Install required modules:

$ sudo yum install cvs xinetd

(if you have selinux enforcing)
$ sudo yum install policycoreutils-python

Create a CVS user:

$ sudo useradd cvs

Make a CVS root folder (the base for you CVS modules):

$ sudo mkdir /opt/cvsroot

Initialize your CVS directory:

$ sudo cvs -d /opt/cvsroot init

Adjust permissions for your CVS content:

$ sudo chown -R :cvs /opt/cvsroot
$ sudo chmod -R g+ws /opt/cvsroot

(if you have selinux enforcing)
$ semanage fcontext -a -t cvs_data_t '/opt/cvsroot(/.*)?'
$ restorecon -R -v /opt/cvsroot

Build your CVS pserver service:

$ sudo bash -c 'cat >> /etc/xinetd.d/cvspserver << "EOF"
service cvspserver
{
    port        = 2401
    socket_type = stream
    protocol    = tcp
    wait        = no
    user        = root
    passenv     = PATH
    server      = /usr/bin/cvs
    server_args = -f --allow-root=/opt/cvsroot pserver
}
EOF'

Start up your CVS pserver service:

$ sudo systemctl restart xinetd.service

Add firewall bypass (if your firewall is enabled):

$ sudo firewall-cmd --zone=public --add-port=2401/tcp --permanent
$ sudo firewall-cmd --reload

Add desired users to the CVS group for access:

$ sudo usermod -a -G cvs <user>

With these steps your server should be up and working. An example on how to checkout the base and import your first CVS module from a client is as follows:

$ export CVSROOT=:pserver:<user>@<server>:/opt/cvsroot
$ SET CVSROOT=:pserver:<user>@<server>:/opt/cvsroot
$ cvs login
$ cvs checkout .

$ mkdir <new_module>
$ cd <new_module>
$ cvs import -m "Initial message." <new_module> <company> start

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