path: root/handbook/cvsup.sgml

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<sect><heading>CVSup<label id="cvsup"></heading>

<p><em>Contributed by &a.jdp;</em>.

<sect1><heading>Introduction<label id="cvsup:intro"></heading>

<p>CVSup is a software package for distributing and updating source
trees from a master CVS repository on a remote server host.  The
FreeBSD sources are maintained in a CVS repository on a central
development machine in California.  With CVSup, FreeBSD users can
easily keep their own source trees up to date.

<p>CVSup uses the so-called "pull" model of updating.  Under the pull
model, each client asks the server for updates, if and when they are
wanted.  The server waits passively for update requests from its
clients.  Thus all updates are instigated by the client.  The server
never sends unsolicited updates.  Users must either run the CVSup client
manually to get an update, or they must set up a cron job to run it
automatically on a regular basis.

<p>The term "CVSup", capitalized just so, refers to the entire software
package.  Its main components are the client "cvsup" which runs on each
user's machine, and the server "cvsupd" which runs at each of the
FreeBSD mirror sites.

<p>As you read the FreeBSD documentation and mailing lists, you may
see references to <ref id="sup">.  Sup was the predecessor to CVSup,
and it served a similar purpose.  CVSup is in used in much the same
way as sup and, in fact, uses configuration files which are
backward-compatible with sup's.  Sup is no longer used in the FreeBSD
project, however, because CVSup is both faster and more flexible.

<sect1><heading>Installation<label id="cvsup:install"></heading>

<p>The easiest way to install CVSup if you are running FreeBSD 2.2 or
later is to use either <url
url="ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/FreeBSD-current/ports/net/cvsup/"
name="the port"> from the FreeBSD <ref id="ports" name="ports
collection"> or the corresponding <url
url="ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/packages-2.2/net/cvsup-14.0.tgz"
name="binary package">, depending on whether you prefer to roll your
own or not.

<p>If you are running FreeBSD-2.1.6, you unfortunately cannot use the
binary package versions due to the fact that it requires a version of
the C library that did not yet exist in FreeBSD-2.1.6.  You can easily
use <url url="ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports-current/net/cvsup/"
name="the port">, however, just as with FreeBSD 2.2.  Simply unpack
the tar file, cd to the cvsup subdirectory and type "make install"

<p>Because CVSup is written in <url
url="http://www.research.digital.com/SRC/modula-3/html/home.html"
name="Modula-3">, both the package and the port require that the
Modula-3 runtime libraries be installed.  These are available as the
<url
url="ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports-current/lang/modula-3-lib"
name="lang/modula-3-lib"> port and the <url
url="ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/packages-current/lang/modula-3-lib-3.6.tgz"
name="lang/modula-3-lib-3.6"> package.  If you follow the same
directions as for cvsup, these libraries will be compiled and/or
installed automatically when you install the CVSup port or package.

<p>The Modula-3 libraries are rather large, and fetching and compiling
them is not an instantaneous process.  For that reason, a third option
is provided.  You can get <em>statically linked</em> FreeBSD
executables for CVSup from:

<itemize>
  <item><url url="ftp://freefall.freebsd.org/pub/CVSup/cvsup-bin-14.0.tar.gz"
  name="ftp://freefall.freebsd.org/pub/CVSup/cvsup-bin-14.0.tar.gz">
  (client).
  <item><url url="ftp://freefall.freebsd.org/pub/CVSup/cvsupd-bin-14.0.tar.gz"
  name="ftp://freefall.freebsd.org/pub/CVSup/cvsupd-bin-14.0.tar.gz">
  (server).
</itemize>

<p>Most users will need only the client.  These executables are entirely
self-contained, and they will run on any version of FreeBSD from
FreeBSD-2.1.0 to FreeBSD-current.

<p>In summary, your options for installing CVSup are:

<itemize>
  <item>FreeBSD-2.2 or later:		static binary, port, or package
  <item>FreeBSD-2.1.6:			static binary or port
  <item>FreeBSD-2.1.5 or earlier:	static binary
</itemize>

<sect1><heading>Configuration<label id="cvsup:config"></heading>

<p>CVSup's operation is controlled by a configuration file called the
"supfile".  Beginning with FreeBSD-2.2, there are some sample supfiles
in the directory <url url="file:/usr/share/examples/cvsup"
name="/usr/share/examples/cvsup">.  These examples are also available
from <url url="ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/FreeBSD-current/src/share/examples/cvsup/" name="ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/FreeBSD-current/src/share/examples/cvsup/"> if you are on a pre-2.2 system.

<p>The information in a supfile answers the following questions for cvsup:

<itemize>
 <item><ref id="cvsup:config:files" name="Which files do you want to receive?">
 <item><ref id="cvsup:config:vers" name="Which versions of them do you want?">
 <item><ref id="cvsup:config:where" name="Where do you want to get them from?">
 <item><ref id="cvsup:config:dest" name="Where do you want to put them on your own machine?">
 <item><ref id="cvsup:config:status" name="Where do you want to put your status files?">
</itemize>

<p>In the following sections, we will construct a typical supfile by
answering each of these questions in turn.  First, we describe the
overall structure of a supfile.

<p>A supfile is a text file.  Comments begin with "#" and extend to
the end of the line.  Lines that are blank and lines that contain only
comments are ignored.

<p>Each remaining line describes a set of files that the user wishes
to receive.  The line begins with the name of a "collection", a
logical grouping of files defined by the server.  The name of the
collection tells the server which files you want.  After the
collection name come zero or more fields, separated by white space.
These fields answer the questions listed above.  There are two types
of fields: flag fields and value fields.  A flag field consists of a
keyword standing alone, e.g., "delete" or "compress".  A value field
also begins with a keyword, but the keyword is followed without
intervening white space by "=" and a second word.  For example,
"release=cvs" is a value field.

<p>A supfile typically specifies more than one collection to receive.
One way to structure a supfile is to specify all of the relevant
fields explicitly for each collection.  However, that tends to make
the supfile lines quite long, and it is inconvenient because most
fields are the same for all of the collections in a supfile.  CVSup
provides a defaulting mechanism to avoid these problems.  Lines
beginning with the special pseudo-collection name "*default" can be
used to set flags and values which will be used as defaults for the
subsequent collections in the supfile.  A default value can be
overridden for an individual collection, by specifying a different
value with the collection itself.  Defaults can also be changed or
augmented in mid-supfile by additional "*default" lines.

<p>With this background, we will now proceed to construct a supfile
for receiving and updating the main source tree of <ref id="current"
name="FreeBSD-current">.

<itemize>
<item>Which files do you want to receive?<label id="cvsup:config:files">

<p>As with sup, the files available via CVSup are organized into named
groups called "collections".  The collections making up the FreeBSD
source tree are described in <ref id="sup:dists" name="the sup
collections document">.  In this example, we wish to receive the
entire main source tree for the FreeBSD system.  There is a single
large collection "src-all" which will give us all of that, except the
export-controlled cryptography support.  Let us assume for this
example that we are in the USA or Canada.  Then we can get the
cryptography code with two additional collections, "src-eBones" and
"src-secure".  As a first step toward constructing our supfile, we
simply list these collections, one per line:

<verb>
  src-all
  src-eBones
  src-secure
</verb>

<p><item>Which version(s) of them do you want?<label id="cvsup:config:vers">

<p>With CVSup, you can receive virtually any version of the sources
that ever existed.  That is possible because the cvsupd server works
directly from the CVS repository, which contains all of the versions.
You specify which one of them you want using the "tag=" and "date="
value fields.

<p>The "tag=" field names a symbolic tag in the repository.  There are
two kinds of tags, revision tags and branch tags.  A revision tag
refers to a specific revision.  Its meaning stays the same from day to
day.  A branch tag, on the other hand, refers to the latest revision
on a given line of development, at any given time.  Because a branch
tag does not refer to a specific revision, it may mean something
different tomorrow than it means today.

<p>Here are the branch tags that users might be interested in:

<descrip>
  <tag/tag=./
    The main line of development, also known as FreeBSD-current.
    Note:  the "." is not punctuation; it's the name of the tag.
  <tag/tag=RELENG_2_2/
    The line of development leading up to FreeBSD-2.2.
  <tag/tag=RELENG_2_1_0/
    The line of development for FreeBSD-2.1.x, also known as
    FreeBSD-stable.
</descrip>

<p>Here are the revision tags that users might be interested in:

<descrip>
  <tag/tag=RELENG_2_1_6_1_RELEASE/
  FreeBSD-2.1.6.1.
  <tag/tag=RELENG_2_1_6_RELEASE/
  FreeBSD-2.1.6.
  <tag/tag=RELENG_2_1_5_RELEASE/
  FreeBSD-2.1.5.
  <tag/tag=RELENG_2_1_0_RELEASE/
  FreeBSD-2.1.0.
</descrip>

<p>Be very careful to type the tag name exactly as shown.  CVSup cannot
distinguish between valid and invalid tags.  If you misspell the tag,
CVSup will behave as though you had specified a valid tag which happens
to refer to no files at all.  It will delete your existing sources in
that case.

<p>When you specify a branch tag, you normally receive the latest versions
of the files on that line of development.  If you wish to receive some
past version, you can do so by specifying a date with the "date=" value
field.  The cvsup(1) manual page explains how to do that.

<p>For our example, we wish to receive FreeBSD-current.  We add this line
at the beginning of our supfile:

<verb>
  *default tag=.
</verb>

<p>There is an important special case that comes into play if you specify
neither a "tag=" field nor a "date=" field.  In that case, you receive
the actual RCS files directly from the server's CVS repository, rather
than receiving a particular version.  Developers generally prefer this
mode of operation.  By maintaining a copy of the repository itself on
their systems, they gain the ability to browse the revision histories
and examine past versions of files.  This gain is achieved at a large
cost in terms of disk space, however.

<p><item>Where do you want to get them from?<label id="cvsup:config:where">

<p>This one is easy.  We use the "host=" field to tell cvsup to get
its updates from the primary FreeBSD distribution site,
"cvsup.FreeBSD.org":

<verb>
  *default host=cvsup.FreeBSD.org
</verb>

<p>On any particular run of cvsup, we can override this setting on the
command line, with "-h hostname".

<p><item>Where do you want to put them on your own machine?<label id="cvsup:config:dest">

<p>The "prefix=" field tells cvsup where to put the files it receives.
In this example, we'll put the source files directly into our main
source tree, "/usr/src".  The "src" directory is already implicit in the
collections we've chosen to receive, so this is the correct
specification:

<verb>
  *default prefix=/usr
</verb>

<p><item>Where should cvsup maintain its status files?<label id="cvsup:config:status">

<p>The cvsup client maintains certain status files in what is called
the "base" directory.  These files help CVSup to work more
efficiently, by keeping track of which updates you've already
received.  We will use the standard base directory,
"/usr/local/etc/cvsup":

<verb>
  *default base=/usr/local/etc/cvsup
</verb>

<p>This setting is used by default if it's not specified in the
supfile, so we actually don't need the above line.

<p>If your base directory doesn't already exist, now would be a good
time to create it.  The cvsup client will refuse to run if the base
directory doesn't exist.

<p><item>Miscellaneous supfile settings:

<p>There is one more line of boiler plate that normally needs to be
present in the supfile:

<verb>
  *default release=cvs delete use-rel-suffix compress
</verb>

<p>"release=cvs" indicates that the server should get its information
out of the main FreeBSD CVS repository.  This is virtually always the
case, but there are other possibilities which are beyond the scope of
this discussion.

<p>"delete" gives CVSup permission to delete files.  You should always
specify this, so that CVSup can keep your source tree fully up to
date.  CVSup is careful to delete only those files for which it is
responsible.  Any extra files you happen to have will be left strictly
alone.

<p>"use-rel-suffix" is ... arcane.  If you really want to know about
it, see the cvsup(1) manual page.  Otherwise, just specify it and
don't worry about it.

<p>"compress" enables the use of gzip-style compression on the
communication channel.  If your network link is T1 speed or faster,
you probably shouldn't use compression.  Otherwise, it helps
substantially.

<p><item>Putting it all together:

<p>Here is the entire supfile for our example:

<verb>
  *default tag=.
  *default host=cvsup.FreeBSD.org
  *default prefix=/usr
  *default base=/usr/local/etc/cvsup
  *default release=cvs delete use-rel-suffix compress
  src-all
  src-eBones
  src-secure
</verb>
</itemize>

<sect1><heading>Running CVSup</heading>

<p>You are now ready to try an update.  The command line for doing this is
quite simple:

<verb>
  cvsup supfile
</verb>

<p>where "supfile" is of course the name of the supfile you've just created.
Assuming you are running under X11, cvsup will display a GUI window with
some buttons to do the usual things.  Press the "go" button, and watch
it run.

<p>Since you are updating your actual "/usr/src" tree in this example, you
will need to run the program as root so that cvsup has the permissions
it needs to update your files.  Having just created your configuration
file, and having never used this program before, that might
understandably make you nervous.  There is an easy way to do a trial run
without touching your precious files.  Just create an empty directory
somewhere convenient, and name it as an extra argument on the command
line:

<verb>
  mkdir /var/tmp/dest
  cvsup supfile /var/tmp/dest
</verb>

<p>The directory you specify will be used as the destination directory
for all file updates.  CVSup will examine your usual files in
"/usr/src", but it will not modify or delete any of them.  Any file
updates will instead land in "/var/tmp/dest/usr/src".  CVSup will also
leave its base directory status files untouched when run this way.
The new versions of those files will be written into the specified
directory.  As long as you have read access to "/usr/src", you don't
even need to be root to perform this kind of trial run.

<p>If you are not running X11 or if you just don't like GUIs, you
should add a couple of options to the command line when you run cvsup:

<verb>
  cvsup -g -L 2 supfile
</verb>

<p>The "-g" tells cvsup not to use its GUI.  This is automatic if you are
not running X11, but otherwise you have to specify it.

<p>The "-L 2" tells cvsup to print out the details of all the file updates
it is doing.  There are three levels of verbosity, from "-L 0" to "-L 2".
The default is 0, which means total silence except for error messages.

<p>There are plenty of other options available.  For a brief list of them,
type "cvsup -H".  For more detailed descriptions, see the manual page.

<p>Once you are satisfied with the way updates are working, you can arrange
for regular runs of cvsup using cron(8).  Obviously, you shouldn't let
cvsup use its GUI when running it from cron.

<sect1><heading>Announcements, Questions, and Bug Reports</heading>

<p>Most FreeBSD-related discussion of CVSup takes place on the
&a.hackers;.  New versions of the software are announced there, as
well as on the &a.announce;.

<p>Questions and bug reports should be addressed to the author of the
program at <url url="mailto:cvsup-bugs@polstra.com"
name="cvsup-bugs@polstra.com">.