Concurrent Versions Librarian


	Concurrent Versions Librarian

What is Concurrent Versions Librarian ?

CVL (Concurrent Versions Librarian) is a version and configuration management tool for MacOS X, Mac OS X Server (Rhapsody), Windows and OPENSTEP. It helps managing versions of various resources (source code, projects, documents). It allows parallel modifications as well as branches. CVL is useful for one and for many users.

CVL is a graphical user interface to CVS (Concurrent Versioning System) most often used commands. Its work area viewer (Fig. 1) allows you to quickly check the status of your files and directories. It is an alternative to Apple's ProjectBuilder source code management (SCM) bundle; it even provides more features than SCM. As a standalone application, it can be used by non-developers.

For WebObjects and MacOS X Server developers, CVLAvatar a ProjectBuilder bundle, provides improved integration between CVL and ProjectBuilder.

Information on this page includes:

Features
Integration with ProjectBuilder
Requirements
Download
Installation
Documentation
License
Feedback
Sources
Mailing-List
Release Notes
CVS

Fig. 1: Work Area Viewer

Fig. 2: Log Inspector

Features

Features of CVL include:

Easy to use interface to CVS most often used commands, including: commit, update, tag, checkout, import, status, log,...
Work Area viewer to quickly check file status.
Recursively computed directory status.
Status , Log, Differences and Tag inspectors.
Interface to FileMerge.app to resolve merges and conflicts.
Multiple repositories.
Easy access to local and remote repositories.
Standalone application.
Offers service to other applications.
Synchronization with ProjectBuilder (not yet available for MacOS X).
No proprietary extensions: repositories, work areas, administration are 100% CVS compatible.
Source code is available.

Integration with ProjectBuilder

Integration of CVL and ProjectBuilder is done through services and a bundle, CVLAvatar (except on MacOS X).

CVL/Select: CVL provides this service to any application capable of selecting files. Activating this service has for effect to select the file in CVL (possibly opening its work area), and to refresh its status.
CVLAvatar (Not yet available for MacOS X.): This ProjectBuilder bundle notifies CVL of changes made to files from ProjectBuilder. Currently, CVL is notified only when a file is saved in ProjectBuilder. We plan to add notifications for events like file addition, removal and renaming soon.

Requirements

CVS 1.7 or greater installed and working on your system. Anyway, you'd better use v1.10: it resolves lots of bugs.
MacOS X or
Mac OS X Server (Rhapsody) or
OPENSTEP 4.1 or 4.2 Mach (i386, m68k, Sparc) or
Windows with OPENSTEP 4.2 Enterprise or
Windows with WebObjects 4.x.

Download

For MacOS X, CVL is available as a .dmg file.For other platforms, CVL, CVLAvatar and PBFilenamePasteboardFix are available in GZIP compressed TAR files that can be decoded with gnutar and gzip:

	CVL.app		CVLAvatar.bundle		PBFilenamePasteboardFix.bundle (+source)

Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger, Universal)		3.4.14 (b90)

Mac OS X 10.3/10.4 (Panther/Tiger)		3.4.9 (b76)

Mac OS X 10.2 (Jaguar)		3.1.0 (v37)

Mac OS X 10.1		v27

Mac OS X Server 1.x (Rhapsody)		v27		1.0b11

Windows + WebObjects/Yellow box		v27.6		1.0b11

OPENSTEP 4.1 or 4.2 Mach (i386, m68k, Sparc)		1.0b9

Windows + OPENSTEP 4.2		1.0b9 (.zip)

Sources (for 3.4.14-b90)

Sources (for 3.4.9-b76)

Sources (for v27)			Included with CVL sources

Sources package contains code for CVL, CVLAvatar and necessary frameworks and palette, for all platforms (except OPENSTEP).

Installation

CVL.app must be installed in one of the following locations, in order for its services to work: $HOME/Applications/, $NEXT_ROOT/Local/Applications/ (MacOS X Server 1.x (Rhapsody) and Windows) or /Applications (MacOS X), /Network/Applications/ (MacOS X Server/MacOS X only)
Do not install the new CVL version over an existing one! First delete the existing version.

On MacOS X:

CVL is provided in .dmg format; just download it and click it!

On MacOS X Server 1.x (Rhapsody):

After dowloading the compressed file, unarchive it using the excellent OpenUp.app or the command-line:

  gnutar xzf CVL.app.MacOSXServer.tar.gz

You will be provided with a package (.pkg) that you can install using Installer.app; note that if you want to install CVL in another location than ~/Applications, you might need to be root, as the installer tries to modify the rights on the files.

On Windows:

You need to decompress the archive with the following commands:

  gunzip CVL.app.Windows.tar.gz
  gnutar xf CVL.app.Windows.tar

Do not use WinZip or tar to unarchive CVL, and do not place CVL.app in Program Files or any location which contains a space in its path.

When you first start CVL, you'll be asked to configure it with the path for the cvs executable on your system (see CVS).

Documentation

CVL has an integrated documentation file that you can access through menu Help. For cvs documentation, follow the links in the CVS section. There is also a diagram for cvs/CVL usage (JPEG or OmniGraffle format), provided by some kind soul.

License

CVL is now open-source. You can read the license at http://www.sente.ch/software/OpenSourceLicense.html
We do not anticipate newer releases for OPENSTEP, MacOS X Server(Rhapsody) and Windows versions.

Feedback

New features are often incorporated to CVL. Possible future additions include:

Support for more CVS capabilities: watch, edit, annotate,...
Better support for branches.
Better support for named modules.
Notifications.
Search queries.
Additional inspectors and views.
Better integration with ProjectBuilder.
Administration tools.

For any question, suggestion, or problem report, please send an e-mail to cvl-feedback@sente.ch.

Sources

CVL is open-source. You can read the license at http://www.sente.ch/software/OpenSourceLicense.html
Latest sources can be downloaded from http://www.sente.ch/pub/software/CVL/CVL-3.4.14-b90-Tiger-sources.dmg.
There is a file (HowToBuildCVL.txt) that will help you build CVL; Windows users should also read WindowsOnly/README.txt

Mailing-List

There is a public mailing-list in which you can discuss problems with CVL, make suggestions, talk about technical issues, deployment issues, bugs, gripes or request for help. The mailing-list is also archived, and anybody can consult the archives; there is no need to be subscribed to the mailing-list.

To subscribe to the mailing-list, send any message to: OpenCVL-on@sente.ch

To consult the archives, go to http://www.sente.ch/Lists/OpenCVL/List.html

Release Notes

CVL Releases 3.4.14 (b90), v27 and 1.0b9 are currently available.

CVS

You need to get CVS to work with OPENSTEP or Mac OS X Server, and to understand CVS. CVS comes preinstalled with MacOS X Developer Tools.

Check the Usenet and mail archives if you have problems with CVS on your system.
Information on CVS for OPENSTEP or Mac OS X Server is no longer available from Codefab... (link was http://www.codefab.com/cvs.html). From now on, old source code of cvs with wrappers is available on our site.
General information about CVS can be found at CVS bubbles.
Note that CVS is now installed on Mac OS X . CVL.app works fine with that.
If you plan to use ssh with CVL, have a look at SSHPassKey.
The free CVS book, http://cvsbook.red-bean.com/

Software Library

More software to download from Sen:te