Re: Can I run cvs server on a webhosted website?

[Andrew Johnson]

Lee Chalupa wrote:

> I currently subscribe to a website that is hosted by a thirdparty ISP.
> The ISP runs Sun servers.  I can access my account with various clients
> and protocols such as ssh etc.
>
> I am wondering if I can run the cvs server in this type of environment?
> In other words, if this software requires a service that is running on
> the host, my standard webhosting terms don't allow me this option.  And
> therefore I won't be able to do this.

As you personally can ssh into the server, you should be able to use a CVS 
repository that resides on the server.  However if you want to allow 
people who don't use that ISP to access your CVS repository, the only way 
you can do that is with something like WebCVS (or is it CVSweb, I can 
never remember which), which doesn't give them the ability to use a CVS 
client to check files out or make commits.

If the ISP is running Apache and you can persuade them to install 
WebDAV/DeltaV protocol support then you might want to look at using 
Subversion instead of CVS, as this uses a pure HTTP communications 
protocol to communicate between the client and server:
        http://subversion.tigris.org/

> I am not sure what the term cvs server really means.  Is a cvs client
> communicating with a program that is running on the server?

Yes, but that program is actually the same (or some other version of the) 
cvs binary that the client is running.  It depends on the intended access 
method how the server actually gets run - for the insecure pserver method 
it will be started by inetd when the connection request comes in, whereas 
for ssh it gets run within the shell that the ssh connection runs.

- Andrew
--
"Life is what happens while you're busy making other plans." - John Lennon