http://qs321.pair.com?node_id=210429

shushu has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Hi Monks!

I am trying to develop specific process of working with CVS via Perl.
Clearly, ther should not be any reason why to write it all from start, that what I thought, but starting to look for a proper resource/module gave me other results.

I think I am wrong, and there is probebly something I missed.

Here is what I found until now:
- cvsweb/cvsweb-FreeBSD/cvsweb+cvsedit - all written in Perl, but all CGI-related and not module.
Not good for me.

- VCS modules - look promising, but seems to work on a copy of the repository (I mean - you have to checkout before you start...). VCSWEB did not work properly for me anyway.
Not good for me.

- Apache::CVS - module that do similar things to cvsweb, but a module. Since it is an Apache module, I think it is not good for me.

- cvs2html - Another Perl script. Not a module.

- mod_cvs - I could not even reach its web site. What exactly is it ?

Well, Monks, I would love to get some ideas here before I start to write my own module...

And another thing - if anyone can answer me the following questions I would appriciate it:
1. Can I work with Apache::CVS modules not via Apache/HTML ? It looks like it, but I am not sure.

2. Why the hell VCS is not designed to work on the repository ?

3. Does anybody answer the task of taking the splendid cvsweb and "modulate" it ?

TIA,
shushu

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: CVS repository via Perl
by davorg (Chancellor) on Nov 05, 2002 at 13:00 UTC
    2. Why the hell VCS is not designed to work on the repository ?

    Surely most interaction with a CVS repository should be thru a working copy?

    VCS.pm seems to be pretty well supported. There is a project page on Sourceforge and also a mailing list. Why not ask on there?

    --
    <http://www.dave.org.uk>

    "The first rule of Perl club is you do not talk about Perl club."
    -- Chip Salzenberg

Re: CVS repository via Perl
by zakb (Pilgrim) on Nov 05, 2002 at 13:44 UTC

    As Dave says, I think you should look again at VCS.

    From your query about VCS, I think you may have misunderstood how CVS works. I had this same problem at first, because I had previously used PVCS and SourceSafe, which use the same terms to mean different things.

    With CVS, your "project" is a "module" and to even look at it (e.g. to see it's structure in terms of files and directories), you must "checkout" the module to a working directory - this is effectively the same as a "Get Latest Version" in SourceSafe parlance. As far as I'm aware, you can't examine a file from the repository without taking a working copy, unlike SourceSafe and PVCS.

    To modify a file, you "edit" it - the same as a checkout in SourceSafe, but beware, CVS edits are not exclusive by default. To save your changes in the repository, you "commit" - the same as a SourceSafe checkin.

    Hope this helps!

      Hi, Thanks for the feedback.
      I did look into VCS support, and went over their mailing list archive. First of all - it is very quiet there. Second - it gives no information except "look at our examples". Well - I looked into them, and they work with a copy, after cehckout.

      Now to the question - do I understand CVS, because if I do understand why won't I "checkout" before I start to work.
      Well, let's just say I know CVS well enough.
      If you will look into cvsweb for example, or Apache::CVS, they both work direcrly with the CVS repository, and whenever they can't - they immitate a working directory or do some "magic" to solve this problem (look into cvsweb doAnnotate, for example, where they use cvs server command).
      The reasons I need a direct work with a repository are complicated (maybe another message...), but in the bottom line I need to keep live and updated branches (around 4 branches) that weight 200MB each on more then 20 machines.
      Just keeping a copy of all of the branches on every machine will be a headache.

      What I currently try to do is to immitate Apache request. If I will succeed I will be able to work with Apache::CVS not via the Apache.
      I am not sure it is such a good idea, but I will give it a shot since it can short my development process a lot.

      Any more ideas ?
      Thanks,
      shushu
        Hi again,
        I think I have the solution I needed.
        Using Apache::CVS::* modules directly seems to give me exactly what I need.

        See the code below that brings me the last revision of a file:
        use Apache::CVS::RcsConfig(); use Apache::CVS::PlainFile(); use Apache::CVS::Directory(); use Apache::CVS::File(); use Apache::CVS::Revision(); # /tmp/remote/ is the directory of my CVS module in the repository my $PATH = "/tmp/remote//VC_DB/utilities/pack_conf.pl"; my $RCSCONFIG = Apache::CVS::RcsConfig->new(); my $file = Apache::CVS::File->new($PATH, $RCSCONFIG); my $LAST = $file->revision('prev'); print $LAST->content;

        In addition, all of the Apache::CVS::* modules can give a nice and working direct access to the CVS repository.
        The main idea is - you don't need to know how it is done !

        I believe those modules should be moved from below Apache.

        Have a nice day,
        shushu