[BACK]Return to INSTALL CVS log [TXT][DIR] Up to [cvsweb.bsd.lv] / cvsweb

File: [cvsweb.bsd.lv] / cvsweb / INSTALL (download)

Revision 3.2, Sat Sep 30 18:48:15 2000 UTC (23 years, 5 months ago) by knu
CVS Tags: FreeBSD-cvsweb-2_0_0
Changes since 3.1: +6 -16 lines

Specify -R (Read-only mode) and -l (Do not log in history) flags when
doing a cvs annotation so that one does not need to turn on the write
permission on CVSROOT/history for the user which httpd runs cvsweb.cgi
as. (typically "nobody")

$Id: INSTALL,v 3.2 2000/09/30 18:48:15 knu Exp $

1) To get cvsweb.cgi to work, make sure that you
   have Perl 5 installed and a webserver which is capable
   to execute cgi-scripts.

   Currently, you need to have the GNU RCS utilities  'rlog',
   'rcsdiff' installed (current version is 5.7). 

   This will change if cvs will be able
   to serve these functions without having a working directory 
   [see TODO]
   Note, that the cvsweb.cgi-script needs to have physical
   access to the repository (or a copy of it) therefore; 
   rsh/ssh or pserver access doesn't work yet.

2) copy cvsweb.conf to your configuration directory. If
   you've installed Apache, $ServerRoot/conf (or $ServerRoot/etc 
   with versions >= 1.3.0) makes sense.
   Edit cvsweb.conf to fit your needs, esp. set the CVS-Root(s)
   of the Repository(ies) you want to view. 
   If your RCS utilities are not in the $PATH of the cgi execution 
   environment you need to set it in the 'Misc' section as well.

3) copy cvsweb.cgi to the cgi-script location of your web server. 
   Edit it to make the variable $config (look for 'Configuration Area')
   point to your configuration file. 
   If your perl binary isn't located in /usr/bin you have to edit the
   first line of the script as well. 
   If you want to let cvsweb.cgi run on WinNT running see (7).

4) If you do not have the dir.gif, text.gif and back.gif-icons, copy
   them somewhere in your $DocumentRoot and edit the %ICONS-Hashtable
   in cvsweb.conf. You won't need to do this if you have a stock
   Apache installed .. the're located in the default icons-directory.
   The icons distributed with this cvsweb are in the public domain.
   If you think that the default icons are to large, use the corresponding
   miniicons in the icons-directory and change the %ICONS-Hashtable in
   cvsweb.conf.

5) have fun

6) If you've Windows NT running, calling of external programs with parameters
   single quoted doesn't work (search for rcsdiff, rlog in
   cvsweb.cgi), you've to replace it with double quotes. Thanks to
   Nick Brachet to point this out.
   I don't know if cvs-annotate works on NT.
   
   > From: Nick Brachet <nick@gradient.com>
   [...]
   > I'm running NT <g> and I had to patch a few things. For example,
   >   open(RCS, "co -p$rev '$fullname' 2>&1 |")
   > will fail on NT because the ' are not recognized. Using " will work
   > though.

7) If you like you can add descriptions to be shown next to each directory
   or module name. These are read from CVSROOT/descriptions.

   - Check out a copy of your CVSROOT
   - edit checkoutlist and add a line that says
       descriptions
   - edit descriptions.  Add one line for each directory that you would like
     to have a comment for.  You can have HTML in the descriptions.
     These lines are relative from the $CVSROOT.  Example:
       JVote/          An application to assist with <A HREF="http://www.irtc.org/">IRTC</A> voting
       JVote/images/   Store the images for JVote
       JVote/tools/    Scripts to startup JVote
   - cvs add descriptions
   - cvs commit
   - Set $use_descriptions to 1 in cvsweb.conf.

--------------------

if you got PROBLEMS ..
----------------------

If you've trouble to make cvsweb.cgi work ...
.. if nothing seems to work:
 o check, if you can execute CGI-scripts (Apache needs to have an
   ScriptAlias /cgi-bin or cgi-script Handler defined). Try to 
   execute a simple CGI-script that often comes with the distribution
   of the webserver; locate the logfiles and try to find hints
   which explain the malfunction
o  view the entries in the webservers error.log

.. If cvsweb seems to work but doesn't show the expected result
  (Typical error: you can't see any files)
 o check, whether the CGI-script has read-permissions to your
   CVS-Repository. The CGI-script often runs as the user 'nobody' 
   or 'httpd' ..
   If you use annotation, the user needs to have write-permissions
   to CVSROOT/history and to the directory the file is in in order
   to place the read-lock.
   If you don't like cvsweb to write into your CVSROOT/history, build
   a fake cvsroot with symlinks to the 'real' CVS-directories and make
   a fake CVSROOT/history as symbolic link to /dev/null.
   If you don't like cvs, called from cvsweb, to place read-locks - let
   cvsweb operate on a copy.
 o does cvsweb find your RCS-utils/cvs-binary(annotate) ? ($ENV{PATH} in
   cvsweb.conf !)
 o cvsweb allows for compression now. It is determined first, 
   if the browser accepts gzip-encoding. But - no rule without
   exception - MSIE claims to understand gzip encoded content but
   displays garbage .. so MSIE is disabled now. Maybe you find another
   Browser with this problem, then you should disable compression
   ($allo_compress=0 in cvsweb.conf) and 
   report it to me (<zeller@think.de>)