GRASS GIS 5.x source code official CVS repository

What is CVS - CVS and GRASS development - GRASS CVS Access: [ Software - Web pages - ProgMan ] - CVS branches - CVS snapshots - CVS commit ML - Further introductional texts to CVS

What is CVS?

The Concurrent Versions System (CVS) provides network-transparent source control for groups of developers. They can work independently and "feed the system" (the source code repository) remotely through internet - day and night from all over the world. Note, that the CVS write access is restricted.

Even if you do not contribute to the code development, the CVS allows to follow development progress easily through "anonymous-CVS". After downloading the full GRASS CVS tree, just the future changes will be downloaded by using the CVS software. This method reduces further downloads for updating your local GRASS sources extremely.

Further features of CVS:

maintains a history of all changes and keeps copies of all changes (a sort of "change recorder")
provides tools to support process control and change control
provides reliable access to its directory trees from remote hosts using Internet protocols
supports parallel development allowing more than one developer to work on the same sources at the same time

CVS and GRASS development

The CVS prevents us and you from further GRASS version confusion. As every change is under control of the CVS system the current state as well as old versions can be accessed. This is very important for bug-tracking (finding bugs introduced by changes).

If you download the GRASS sources from the CVS system, you will get the latest version existing! Of course, you can also download a previous version, if you prefer. Once downloaded the entire GRASS CVS tree including the CVS-internal subdirectories you can follow the ongoing development easily. The "cvs update" function downloads only the changes not yet arrived on your local system. The CVS software compares the GRASS source code version in the CVS-server with your local version.

As GRASS is a rather big package this might be one reason for you to use CVS. However, we recommend this only to experienced users who know how to compile software. The CVS software is freely distributed here and usually shipped within several Linux distributions. It is available for rather every operating system.

The GRASS-CVS service is hosted at Intevation GmbH, Germany. There is additionally a "web-cvs" interface which allows to browse the source code. The status of each file (its change history) is written there, you can also download individual files. Jump in and see how it is working!

The GRASS CVS version will be published from time to time as an official release.

GRASS CVS repository access (public read access)

GRASS-CVS access instructions to access the CVS in a read-only mode (open to the public). Instructions: GRASS CVS access: step by step
CVS HTML web interface
CVS write access for developers

GRASS CVS branches:

List of GRASS CVS branches

GRASS CVS snapshots: If you are not familiar with CVS software, but want to get rather the latest GRASS code from CVS, we provide CVS snapshots. A CVS snapshot is the latest GRASS source code which is extracted from CVS on a weekly basis: Get the weekly CVS-snapshot in a .tar.gz package.

CVS commits mailing list: We have established a "GRASS CVS commit" mailing list. This mailing list distributes "commit messages" from the CVS system. After subscription you will receive a message about every change in GRASS CVS repository along with the related comment.

Web site CVS management (developers only)
Developers have access to maintain the GRASS web pages:

Set the CVSROOT variable (with your CVS ID)

cvs -z3 co web

The web site is updated by a cronjob four times a day.
Web pages management mailing list (weblist@grass.itc.it).

Programmer's manual CVS management (developers only)
Developers have access to maintain the GRASS programmer's manual (written in Latex):

Set the CVSROOT variable (with your CVS ID)

cvs -z3 co progmangrass50

Further introductional texts to CVS:

CVS Bubbles by Pascal Molli
What is a branch: General information about branches in CVS
Good patching practice (part of Software Release Practice HOWTO)
The CVS Book with online chapters by Karl Fogel
ZopeCVSFAQ - recommended reading for CVS and branches
CVS--Concurrent Versions System by Sean Dreilinger
CVS training material by Jim Blandy
CVS book by Pascal Molli (branches and friends...)

Download the binary CVS client program:

CVS software, here is the Download site
Linux CVS client binaries: please check your Linux distro...
CVS on other clients: Windows, Mac, BeOS, ...
JAVA based client: jCVS
Tcl/TK based client: TkCVS
Windows users: Do not use winCVS as the file transfers won't be done correctly. Please use cygwin cvs or other software.