Contributing to
ViSta's Development

Configuring a CVS-Client
on your own machine

     
    Note: This description is for Windows. There are also CVS clients for Mac and Unix, but you are on your own. If you get this figured out for one of those clients, could you send me a writeup of the steps? Thanks 
  1. Create a directory which will be the CVS home directory. For example: 
    D:\CVS
    We use D:\CVS in the rest of this description, but you can use whatever name you like.
  2. Create two directories in this directory, named CVS-download, and SSH-download.
  3. Get the following software 
    1. WinCVS.EXE - Get it from
      http://www.wincvs.org 
    2. SSH.EXE - Get it from
      http://help.unc.edu/dci/dci_components/shared_apps/cvs
  4. Install these two pieces of software. 
    1. WinCVS
      1. Double-click the .zip file and extract all files to the
        D:\CVS\WinCVS-download directory.
      2. Double-click setup.exe and choose all of the default options, putting WinCVS where it suggests. 
    2. SSH
      1. Double-click ssh-1_2_14-win32bin.zip and extract all files to the SSH-download directory.
      2. Double-click all three of the .exe files. For ssh-keygen.exe, press Return when it waits for you to "Enter file in which to save the key". Then press Return again for "Enter Passphrase" and again for "Enter Same Passphrase Again".
      3. Now there should be a new .ssh (note the dot) directory in your home directory.
      4. Move all of the contents of SSH-download into .ssh and then remove the SSH-download directory.
  5. Download the documentation from WinCVS.ORG ... you'll need it (nothing personal)!  There is also documentation at UNC
  6. Now you must configure your machine to work with WinCVS (Details vary, so talk to a system administrator if you don't know how to do this.) Here is the desired configuration: 
    1. Specify a home variable that says where your CVS home directory is. For example:
      D:\CVS
    2. Set a path variable on your machine that specifies the path that leads to the .ssh directory, for example path=D:\CVS\.ssh
  7. Restart Windows. Then, get the MS-Dos window running and type SET. The path and home information should be included in what is displayed.  For our example:
    PATH=C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND;D:\CVS\.SSH
    SET HOME=D:\CVS
  8. Now you have to configure WinCVS to work with UNC's server. 
    1. Run WinCVS. The preferences box comes up (if not, choose preferences from the Admin menu). . 
    2. Paste the line (its all one line, not two as shown):
      :ext:UNCUSERID@login0.isis.unc.edu:/afs/
      isis.unc.edu/projects/vista/cvsroot/ViSta7
      into the "Enter the CVSRoot" box. Then replace UNCUSERID with your actual UNC UserID. 
    3. Set Authentication method to SSH Server 
    4. Click OK 
  9. Now you are ready to "checkout a module" (CVS-speak for download a collection of files and directories) onto your machine into the CVS home directory. The steps are 
    1. Click on the binoculars tool in the middle of the top toolbar. 
    2. Use the dialog box to locate AND OPEN the folder that is your CVS home directory. (The rest of this won't work if not OPENED). 
    3. Click OK. The HOME directory will show up as the root directory in the left pane of the CVS directories window. 
    4. SELECT THE ROOT DIRECTORY FOLDER (or the rest of this won't work). 
    5. Then, from the CREATE menu, choose CHECKOUT MODULE (i.e., download code). Note that this menu item is not available unless you have selected a folder). 
    6. In the dialog box find your CVS root and click OK. 
    7. In the Checkout Settings box enter  ViSta7
    8. Click OK. If you are asked, select your home directory and click OK. You should see, in the CVS console window: 
        NEW CVSROOT: 
        :ext:UNCUSERID@login0.isis.unc.edu:
        /afs/isis.unc.edu/projects/vista/cvsroot/ViSta7 (ssh authentication) 
        TCL is *not* available, shell is disabled 
        cvs checkout -P devel (in directory D:\CVS-whatever) 
      This should get you a minimized dialog box that appears on your task bar. If you do not, check that your home and path variables are set correctly. 
    9. Open the dialog box and type in your UNC UserID password The development code or documentation in the module you specified should begin downloading onto your machine.
  10. After the code has downloaded correctly go to the GeneSys page to see how to generate ViSta system files.
Next: ViSta GeneSys