Using CVSNT with Eclipse

My previous post was about using Version Control System in Eclipse and it also described CSV (Concurrent Version System). In this post I'll describe how CSVNT can be used with Eclipse for version control.

CVSNT is a version control system. Using it, you can record the history of your source files. With CVSNT, you can easily retrieve old versions to see exactly which change caused the bug. This can sometimes be a big help. You could of course save every version of every file you have ever created. This would however waste an enormous amount of disk space. CVSNT stores all the versions of a file in a single file in a clever way that only stores the differences between versions.

CVSNT started out as a bunch of shell scripts written by Dick Grune, posted to the newsgroup comp.sources.unix in the volume 6 release of December, 1986. While no actual code from these shell scripts is present in the current version of CVSNT much of the CVSNT conflict resolution algorithms come from them.

CVSNT can be downloaded from here and it is available as both free edition and paid CVS Suite.

Once you have downloaded CVSNT you can follow the steps below.

Setting up CVSNT

1. Download the latest version (2.0.58d) of CVSNT from www.cvsnt.org
2. Install it using the default options offered by the installer. You may have to reboot.
3. CVSNT should be installed in a folder of the same name under Start...Programs. Start the Service control panel application.
4. On the Service Status tab, make sure both services are running.
5. On the Compatibilty tab, turn on all three checkboxes for the "Generic non-cvsnt" client. (This instruction comes from the CVSNT Release Notes.)
6. From the Repositories tab click "Add" to create a new repository.
       a) You will need to select a directory for your repository. I suggest you create a new directory dedicated to this repository.
       b) After you select a directory location, CVSNT will automatically fill in the Name field. Do not change the name! Eclipse is expecting the repository location as a *NIX format directory, so CVSNT fakes it out using the name. Copy the name to a text editor so you can put it in Eclipse exactly as defined in CVSNT.
       c) Click OK to create the repository.

Setting up Eclipse

1. Open the CVS Repository Perspective (Window...Open Perspective...Other...CVS Repository Exploring).

2. With a right-click in the CVS Repositories pane, select New...Repository Location from the context menu. There's also a button at the top of the pane, but those button icons take some getting used to. They do have descriptive popups if you hover your mouse over them, though.

3. In the Add CVS Repository window that pops up, insert the following info, without the quotes. 
     a) Host: "127.0.0.1" (a standard TCP/IP self-reference)
     b) Repository path: Paste the repository name you copied from CVSNT.
     c) User/Password: Your Windows username and password (password optional.)
     d) Connection Type: "pserver"
     e) Use Default Port: Yes
     f) Validate connection on Finish: Yes
     g) Save Password: Up to you.
     h) Click Finish.

With the Validate connection on Finish option turned on, Eclipse will tell you whether or not it was able to connect to the repository. If not, it gives you the option of going back to the setup screen to change settings. If it can connect, the repository will will appear in the list of CVS Repositories.

If your Windows account requires a password, Eclipse will prompt you for it if you didn't provide it. If you don't save the password, Eclipse will prompt for it whenever it opens the repository.