RE: CVS & Co

["David Christensen" <dpchrist@holgerdanske.com>]

Alex Huth wrote:

> I want to use CVS for systemadministration. I have never used one so
> far, so my knowledge is very poor about that topic.

I use CVS for system administration by maintaining a sparse directory tree of the system files I change and checking that tree into CVS:

    http://www.nongnu.org/cvs/

I use 'diff -r' to compare the live file system against the CVS working tree and 'cp', 'mv', 'vim', etc., to enter/ revert/ merge changes.


On Debian, you can install CVS with:

    # apt-get install cvs


The canonical CVS documentation is the Cederqvist manual, which can be viewed with 'info':

    # info cvs


I learned CVS from the first edition of "Open Source Development with CVS":

    http://cvsbook.red-bean.com/


There are a plethora of version control systems now available, "free" and otherwise.  Which is "best" is a matter of requirements, consensus, and/or personal preference.  CVS is still in common use and has met all of my version control needs for 8+ years (system administration and otherwise).  Native CVS client binaries are available on many platforms, including those that I use.  The command line interface is simple and readily scripted.  The CVS repository file structure is straight-forward and the file format is simple, so it is easy to hack, backup, archive, restore, script, etc. (tread carefully!).  There are many add-on tools which integrate with CVS:

    # apt-cache search cvs | egrep '^cvs'


I assume that there are wrapper scripts which allow one to check-in all or part of the root file system to CVS, but I haven't sought them out.


HTH,

David


p.s.  CVS is based upon RCS and uses RCS-format repository files; it helps to understand the basics of RCS when you approach CVS:

    http://www.gnu.org/software/rcs/

    apt-get install rcs


p.p.s.  RCS can also be used for system administration.  Please note that, by default, the repository files are stored on the same file system as the working files.  (CVS deployments typically have a server with clients connecting over SSH.)