Multiple CVS users on local cvs repository

[Christopher Fairbairn]

Hi,

I am setting up a CVS server primarily for my own use (i.e for my own 
personal projects), however with one or two of my projects I require the 
ability to check in modifications by other "external users"....

To achieve this goal I have created four local user accounts which belong 
to a cvs group (which has permissions for the cvs root). These user 
accounts have /bin/false as their login application.

Where I am failing at the moment is how to tell cvs to use a seperate user 
account compared to the one I am logged on as...

For example I want to be able to be logged on locally as "chris" (my normal 
user account) and then be able to submit files as the local user "james".

This is primarly for accountablity. This project due to external 
requirements needs a log of checkins to be produced which describes the 
"real" user who submited the modifications rather than the user who 
performed the checkin (i.e. "chris").

Apart from allowing the user's a shell and then using su etc to change 
users (from my "chris" account) I don't see how this is possible without 
setting up a pserver etc which at the moment seems a little overkill 
(running a server in the background just so I can submit checkins for a few 
"external users" once every week or. so..)

It is only one project/module which will have a few checkins by "external 
users" and the requirement should go away in about 4 to 6 months..

The way I see my options currently:

A) Allow the four user accounts to actually login - then use "su" or a 
similiar utility to allow "chris" to login as these users to perform the 
check ins.. I don't like this as these users won't have any access to the 
box which has the CVS repository and won't have any files stored on this 
machine etc etc...

B) Setup cvs to become a "pserver".... I don't like this idea, as it 
entails running a server in the background for little additional benfit 
(the "external" users will hardly be doing checkins...) 99.9% of checkins 
will be via my local account.

C) Always do local submits as "chris" and place in the checkin comments the 
actual user which performed the submission.... This option, isn't very 
automatic....

Any better ideas?

Thanks,
Christopher Fairbairn.