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The CVS repository stores a complete copy of all the files and directories which are under version control.
Normally, you never access any of the files in the repository directly. Instead, you use CVS commands to get your own copy of the files into a working directory, and then work on that copy. When you’ve finished a set of changes, you check (or commit) them back into the repository. The repository then contains the changes which you have made, as well as recording exactly what you changed, when you changed it, and other such information. Note that the repository is not a subdirectory of the working directory, or vice versa; they should be in separate locations.
CVS can access a repository by a variety of
means. It might be on the local computer, or it might
be on a computer across the room or across the world.
To distinguish various ways to access a repository, the
repository name can start with an access method.
For example, the access method :local:
means to
access a repository directory, so the repository
:local:/usr/local/cvsroot
means that the
repository is in /usr/local/cvsroot on the
computer running CVS. For information on other
access methods, see Remote repositories.
If the access method is omitted, then if the repository
starts with ‘/’, then :local:
is
assumed. If it does not start with ‘/’ then either
:ext:
or :server:
is assumed. For
example, if you have a local repository in
/usr/local/cvsroot, you can use
/usr/local/cvsroot
instead of
:local:/usr/local/cvsroot
. But if (under
Windows NT, for example) your local repository is
c:\src\cvsroot, then you must specify the access
method, as in :local:c:/src/cvsroot
.
The repository is split in two parts. $CVSROOT/CVSROOT contains administrative files for CVS. The other directories contain the actual user-defined modules.
• Specifying a repository: | Telling CVS where your repository is | |
• Repository storage: | The structure of the repository | |
• Working directory storage: | The structure of working directories | |
• Intro administrative files: | Defining modules | |
• Multiple repositories: | Multiple repositories | |
• Creating a repository: | Creating a repository | |
• Backing up: | Backing up a repository | |
• Moving a repository: | Moving a repository | |
• Remote repositories: | Accessing repositories on remote machines | |
• Read-only access: | Granting read-only access to the repository | |
• Server temporary directory: | The server creates temporary directories |
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