ACCESSING REMOTE CVS REPOSITORIES

Concurrent Versions System (CVS) is a means of tracking file revisions (usually source code). CVS allows individual developers to track changes to files and multiple developers to work on the same code simultaneously. Using CVS, you can contribute to the testing and development of code that you didn't write by reporting bugs you encounter when using it.To access a remote CVS repository, you must determine where the repository is located and identify the module name. Let's use the Mozilla code as an example. To access the Mozilla CVS repository, write a simple BASH script like this to check-out the source code:

#!/bin/shCVSROOT = :pserver:anonymous@cvs-mirror.mozilla.org:

/cvsroot export CVSROOT

cvs login

cvs -z3 checkout mozilla

cvs logout

This code does several things. First, it sets the $CVSROOT variable to :pserver:anonymous@cvs-mirror.mozilla.org:/cvsroot. This is the location and type of CVS repository, the username (anonymous), and the host (cvs-mirror.mozilla.org). Next, it exports $CVSROOT to the shell so that CVS knows where it needs to connect. It then logs in using the cvs login command and asks for the password, which is anonymous. Then, it uses compression (-z3) and checks out the mozilla module. This creates a subdirectory called mozilla containing the entire source tree. Finally, it logs out of the CVS repository. The source code for the Mozilla project is now in a directory called mozilla/. You can do this with any project that allows remote CVS access.