NAME

       cvssync - fetch CVS repository masters via rsync

SYNOPSIS

       cvssync [-c] [-v] [-n] [-o outdir] [host-path module | cvsurl]

DESCRIPTION

       cvssync attempts to fetch a copy of a remote CVS repository into a local directory. All you have to tell
       it is the arguments you’re expected to hand CVS to perform a checkout of the remote.

       Alternatively, you can give it a single argument in URL format, of the form cvs://<host>/<path>#<module>.

       If a previous cvssync has been done into the directory, cvssync will do the least amount of file copying
       required to resynchronize the local copy with the remote. It relies on rsync(1) to accomplish this.

       cvssync knows about the site-structure idiosyncracies of some major CVS hosting sites and applies that
       knowledge so you don’t have to. Presently its rules are known good for SourceForge, Savannah, Sourceware,
       and Berlios. Its default method should work for many other sites. You can use the -v option to see what
       rsync command is actually generated in these cases.

       Because cvssync uses rsync, you may need to have an ssh public key installed in an account on the target
       system for it to work. However, many CVS repositories are set up in a way that makes anonymous read-only
       rsync possible.

       cvssync is an auxiliary tool issued with cvs-fast-export in order to facilitate moving CVS repositories
       to version control systems that aren’t chipped out of flint. Of course, you can also use it for backups
       and other purposes.

OPTIONS

       -c
           Create a mirror that you can do checkouts from. Normally this tool creates a bare mirror of the
           module masters you are interested in without creating a module subdirectory and CVSROOT. With this
           option, the created directory structure is changed to include an empty CVSROOT, and the masters go in
           a subdirectory named after the module. A cvs -d:local: co command can then be used to make a local
           checkout for inspection.

       -n
           Dry-run. Generate the commands that would be performed but do not execute them. Useful with -v.

       -o
           Set the name of the output directory. The default is to use the module name.

       -v
           Verbose. Show subcommands as they are being executed.

DISAMBIGUATION

       There is another program called cvsync for making live mirrors; this is not it. One important difference
       is that cvsync requires a dedicated service daemon, cvsyncd, to be running on the CVS host; it’s not
       designed for ad-hoc fetches from random hosting sites.

       There is a program called cvssuck roughly equivalent to cvssync. It has the advantage that it grabs the
       master files using CVS client commands, so rsync access is not required. It has the disadvantage that
       because of bugs in CVS itself, it may mangle repository metadata on the way through. The author warns
       "However it is inefficient and not perfect because cvs client/server protocol is not designed for
       mirroring." Heed this warning; do not use cvssuck except as a last resort.

EXAMPLES

       Note that these examples may become obsolete as CVS repositories are decommissioned. They are meant to
       illustrate usage patterns.

       cvssync cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/rfk robotfindskitten
           Fetch the Robot Finds Kitten project from Sourceforge

       cvssync rfk.cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/rfk robotfindskitten
           Using the full Sourceforge pseudo-hostname also works.

       cvssync anonymous@rfk.cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/rfk robotfindskitten
           Any login credential is ignored.

       cvssync rfk.cvs.sourceforge.net:/rfk robotfindskitten
           The leading /cvsroot on a SourceForge path can be omitted.

       cvssync cvs://cvs.sourceforge.net/rfk#robotfindskitten
           Same fetch using the URL argument style.

       cvssync anonymous@cvs.savannah.gnu.org:/sources/groff groff
           Fetch the groff project repository from Savannah

       cvssync cvs.savannah.gnu.org:/groff groff
           Login credential and leading /sources can be omitted on Savannah.

       cvssync cvs://cvs.savannah.gnu.org/groff#groff
           Same fetch using the URL argument style.

       cvssync cvs:///home/user/foo#bar
           Copy module bar from a local CVS repository foo.

REPORTING BUGS

       Report bugs to Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. The project page is at
       http://catb.org/~esr/cvs-fast-export

SEE ALSO

       rsync(1), rcs(1), cvs(1), cvs-fast-export(1).

                                                   2016-10-10                                         CVSSYNC(1)