How To Obtain All ESRG Source Code And Materials Using Anonymous CVS Access

CVS is the version control system most in favor with the open-source community.  Using CVS, one can collaborate with other software developers in the development of source files and other documents.  SourceForge has cryptographic security in place for those wishing to collaborate in development (i.e. to change or add files using CVS), and getting set up to collaborate in this way is a complicated process.  However, if you only wish to obtain the newest revisions or specific revisions of files (but do not wish to modify the CVS repository), the process is much simpler, and is described on this page.

  1. Be sure that you wish to obtain the materials via CVS.  Obtaining the materials via CVS has the disadvantage that the files you obtain may not correspond to any released version of The ESRG Tool Set.  The differences between anonymous CVS access and using one of the source distributions are described here.  If you wish to obtain material via anonymous CVS, it should be for one of the following reasons:
  2. Obtain a list of all CVS modules.  "module" is a CVS term for a top-level directory in the CVS repository.  The easiest way to obtain a list of all CVS modules is to view this web page and print it or write down all the folder names (except CVSROOT, which can be ignored). 
  3. Obtain a CVS client.  For a Windows® system, the CVS executable and brief instructions are here.  If you type "cvs" at a DOS command prompt and receive a message from the CVS program, you have installed the client successfully.  The following screen snapshot shows a typical message from a CVS client when only "cvs" is typed.

  4. Open a [DOS] shell.  On Windows® systems, this is normally done from the Start menu, Start g Programs g Accessories g Command Prompt.  On *nix systems, the procedure to obtain a shell varies.
  5. Change directories to "c:\" (Window® systems only).  On Windows® systems, the checkout must be performed from the root directory of the C: drive.  On *nix systems, any directory will do.
  6. Issue the CVS checkout commands, specifying the modules gathered earlier.  For example, as of April 2003, the following command would be appropriate (the list of modules may have changed or grown since then):

    cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/esrg checkout esrgdocs esrgdstb esrgnxpj esrgpcpj esrgpubs esrgubka esrgweba

    Also as of April, 2003, the total number quantity of data to be downloaded is about 40 Mb (at least 4 hours over a typical modem connection).

    A CVS checkout has the advantage that if the checkout is interrupted (by a dropped modem connection, for example), issuing the same command again will effectively resume where the previous attempt left off.  CVS recognizes files which have already been checked out and skips them on subsequent checkout attempts.

    It is also possible that you require only a subset of the modules listed above.  If this is the case, only list those modules you need on the CVS command line.

This web page is maintained by David T. Ashley.
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