Sasha's Pages: Tech: Secure CVS from a UNIX machine using SSH

Sasha's Pages: Tech: Secure CVS from a UNIX machine using SSH
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Introduction.

This page contains information on how to use CVS from your UNIX account over a secure channel (SSH).

CVS (concurrent versions system) is a tool that facilitates version control and configuration management of software projects. It has also been found extremely helpful in managing the design, development and maintenance of web sites.

Relevant or useful links.

Configuration.

The following software packages must be installed and available from your UNIX account:


CVS/cvs 		UNIX CVS client

SSH/ssh 		UNIX SSH client

Summary.


CVS:            CVS is a UNIX program that allows to connect to a local or
		remote CVS server/repository.  Using CVS, it is possible
		to copy any items that need editing, - programming code,
		HTML pages, sensitive system configuration files, - to
		directory in your UNIX account, work with them locally,
		and upload them to the CVS server once you are done.

SSH:            SSH is a terminal program that encrypts the communication
		between your machine and the server, thereby making any
		data, including usernames and passwords, invisible to
		potential attackers.

Putting it all together.

Here are step-by-step instructions:

Make sure that both CVS and SSH are installed and available from your UNIX account. Use the following command to verify that both packages are available:
```
	which PACKAGE
```
where PACKAGE is 'cvs' or 'ssh'. If the command returns an error, contact your system administrator.

Tell CVS to use SSH to communicate with the server:

	
	setenv CVS_RSH ssh (when your shell is csh/tcsh)

	
	export CVS_RSH=ssh (when your shell is bash)

Now you can perform any CVS operations, such as checking out files, committing changes, etc.
```
	cvs -d :ext:YOUR_USERNAME@cvs.forum.swarthmore.edu:/cvsroot CVS_COMMAND
```

last updated $Date: 1999/07/19 20:11:51 $ by sasha