Using the Apache CVS Repository - page 2

Keeping Up with Apache's Bleeding Edge

Synchronising this way involves using a Web browser to fetch a compressed snapshot of the Apache sources, and uncompressing it and unpacking them afterward. FTP access to the snapshots is not available, only Web access. The main disadvantages of this method are that you get the entire repository rather than just the parts that have changed since your last download, and it's difficult to keep your own changes in the downloaded directory tree.

Advantages

• It's fast: one file to download, and a compressed one at that
• Only common software needed (browser, WinZIP or gunzip)

Drawbacks

• Each download gets the entire repository, rather than just the parts that changed since your last download
• Local modifications must be maintained by hand across downloads
• Generating patch files for submission is un-simple

The snapshots are created every six or twelve hours, and can be picked up from http://dev.apache.org/from-cvs/>. There is a separate subdirectory for the Apache 1.3 and 2.0 source trees. The snapshot files are named according to the year, month, day, and time they were made; the one at the bottom of the directory listing is the newest. Be sure to compare the file sizes so you don't pick up a corrupt or incomplete snapshot!

To unpack and install a tarball snapshot, use the following commands:

    rm -rf apache-1.3
    tar xzvf apache-1.3_yyyymmddhhmm.tar.gz
  

What you then have is a tree that looks like it was checked out from a CVS repository--because it is. However, since you didn't check it out and the repository is on another system, you can't use the cvs�diff command to generate easy patches for submission.

Using rsync to Maintain Synchronicity
The rsync command allows you to do either a massive download or determine what files are changed.

Advantages

• It's reasonably fast: only changed files are copied, and they're compressed during transmission

Drawbacks

• The rsync client is probably not installed by default by your Linux distribution
• If changed files are detected, they are either copied entirely or not -- local changes are not automatically applied
• Local modifications must be maintained by hand across downloads
• Generating patch files for submission is un-simple

The rsync master copies are created every few hours, and you can create a local working copy, or synchronise an existing one, with the following command:

    rsync -avz --delete dev.apache.org::apache-1.3 apache-1.3
  

As with the tarball download method, the result is a directory tree that looks like it was checked out from a CVS repository--but can't be used with cvs�diff and other CVS commands because you don't have access to the master repository.