RE: migration from CVS to CVSNT

[Arthur Barrett]

Pradeep/Michael,

CVSNT is NoT CVS - please direct questions about CVSNT to the authors.
The guide included with CVSNT gives plenty of contact information.  

The migration is extremely straightforward (usually just a drop in
replacement will do, any conversions necessary happen on the fly, but in
your case you will need to use 'cvs chacl' to create the ACL's in a
format that CVSNT understands).

Since Michael has publicly listed a bunch of criticisms of CVSNT I
assert that I have the right to also reply publicly, though since this
is now well and truly off topic I will not be replying publicly further
to this thread.


> The main trouble is that CVSNT is a closed solution.  

CVSNT is free, open source software, we publish the source code.  CVSNT
uses open protocols to communicate between client and server.  I cannot
find anywhere a definition of 'closed solution' that fits, but if
Michael can supply a reference to one I'll happily read it.  Definition
of free software:
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html

In the very latest preview edition we do keep 5% of the non-core
non-business-process code proprietary to assist particular customers
resolve some legal problems that prevented them contributing under the
old model (eg: the sources to cvsmanager, bugzilla_trigger and
workspacemanager).  Customers who cannot use this new model can choose
other stable and supported releases that will still offer that have 100%
open source CVSNT (eg: CVS Suite 2008).


> You will find less support for it in the community 

There is more than a single community in the world.  There is a very
active CVSNT community of thousands of people - but it is not the CVS
one.  The members of the CVSNT community are all direct contributors to
the project (either financially through purchasing CVS Suite or through
other contributions), and therefore very committed and active.


> So before you put your precious data in
> CVSNT, consider: what if you ever want to get it back out again?

CVSNT uses the standard RCS file format to store the version history.
The standard RCS file format can be read by many many tools.  

Within the RCS file format there is room to store data in a variety of
ways (eg: diff formats, compressions) and the source code for all of
this in CVSNT is Free and Open Source Software and the CVSNT project
even provide a Free and Open Source RCS distribution (for windows) that
supports all these changes.  ClearCase and many other vendors offer
tools to migrate from CVSNT.  

Finally: if any customer requests a particular export format I've
previously gone on record as saying I'll happily support that in the
software (under our pay-for-feature terms).  To date, not a single
customer has asked for this feature or even requested a quote.


> If you are trying to get past some of CVS's shortcomings, 

Here you and I disagree.  I do not think CVS has shortcomings - it has
design decisions.  

Whether those decisions help you or hinder you is a factor of your SCCM
methodology.  SCCM is a process, you should design an SCCM process to
support your business objectives, then look for tools to help automate
that process.  CVS/SVN has certain features, CVSNT others, Git different
ones, EVS, ClearCase, PVCS, TeamSystem others too.

If the tools Pradeep are using do not support his process then he should
switch tools (or processes). 

I believe that Free Open Source Software has more likelihood of being
able to fit your process, because you can infinitely customise it - that
is why I am passionate about Free Open Source Software and CVS (and
CVSNT).  


> This mailing list is for discussions of CVS, not CVSNT (though, 
> admittedly, Arthur Barrett's frequent inappropriate use of this 
> mailing list to promote CVSNT can sometimes be confusing).

I diligintly support the CVS project and give direct answers about CVS,
I am very careful to make my personal preferences clear and distinct
from any discussion about the features and ability of CVS.  

In this case I answered Pradeep's question and also mentioned my
preference - this has interested him enough to follow up on. He was in
fact already using CVSNT (on the client) and didn't know it (and
therefore didn't state it).

Changing software systems has a substantial cost associated with it.
Many people who are using CVS are very interested in CVSNT particularly
because it is NOT really chaning the underlying software system:
* it is still free/open soruce software
* it has commercial support
* it is a direct fork from CVS 1.11
* in most cases it is a drop in replacement keeping existing investment
in commitlog scripts etc
* it adds features that often drive a company to a prorietary solution 
  eg: failsafe audit, change sets, access-control, optional reserved
methodology
* it includes additional secuity support like chroot jail, sserver
protocol
* it contains an integrated suite of tools for windows/mac plus
server/command line support for linux/unix
* it contains integrated active directory authentication/encryption
(sspi) for password-free SSO


I think this is now well and truly off topic and I will not be replying
publicly further to this thread.

Anyone can contact me directly (e-mail address below).

Regards,


Arthur Barrett
Email: address@hidden