Re: patch to support port option with ext method

[Mark D. Baushke]

Serge Gebhardt <sg@mystaz.de> writes:

> Hi list,
> 
> I'm running a cvs over ssh server on my home connection and due to
> excessive scanning, I changed the default ssh port... But then I had to
> realize, that there is no way of telling cvs to use another port when
> connecting over the ext method (ssh).

There may be no way to tell cvs about the other port, but there is a way
to tell ssh about it and I find telling ssh to be a 'better' approach.

For example, the anoncvs.usa.openbsd.org cvs server uses port 2022 (see
http://openbsd.org/anoncvs.html#WHICH for a list of other such servers
that use ssh on separate ports and the discussion of .ssh/config file).

I seem to recall some discussion about trying to store the access method
(ie $CVS_RSH) as a part of the CVSROOT variable, so there may eventually
be some other way to do what you want, but as there is no assurance that
the user would be running the SSHv1 or SSHv2 or RSH protocol over the
port specified in your :ext:user@server:port/path/to/repos CVSROOT...
 
> Therefore I wrote a little patch to work around this issue. More info on
> http://www.mystaz.de/projects/cvs-1.11.5+mod-port-ext.html (including
> patch)

I think it would be better if you just modified your .ssh/config file to
point at the new port. This saves you a lot of time and effort and is
available without the patch to cvs. It also means that your 'normal'
'ssh <host>' commands will not need to specify the port to use which
should be a win as well.

If we assume that your cvs server is on host cvsserver.mystaz.de and we
assume that port 2022 is the port on which your cvsserver.mystaz.de is
running sshd, then if you put the following lines into your
$HOME/.ssh/config file (assuming you are using OpenSSH), you should just
find that things work:

    --------------- start $HOME/.ssh/config fragment ---------------
cvsserver.mystaz.de
        Port 2022
     --------------- end $HOME/.ssh/config fragment ---------------

The above example presumes use of an OpenSSH client, but I suspect that
other clients would also have ways of specifying the ssh port for a
given host. However, you will need to consult the documentation for
those other ssh packages.

I hope this addresses your problem in a way that you find useful.

If you find that this is NOT a good way to deal with your problems, then
please do send a followup e-mail that elaborates a bit more on the
problem.

        Good luck,
        -- Mark