![]() |
|
Getting Started with MacCVSClient |
You find basic concepts of MacCVSClient here. As MacCVSClient has no command line based interface, there are some differences in operating MacCVSClient compared to other CVS clients. Check this short CVS bibliography for more general information. |
Getting a Working Copy (Sandbox) Check Out |
Let's assume you have set up a login profile and would like to check out a working copy of a project form server this login profile points to. Use the "Repository/Check Out" menu command to check out a working directory of source files. This will bring the CVS Check Out dialog up on the screen: |
![]() |
In the "Login" popup menu in the check out dialog box above, the login profile "Joerg Testing" is selected and specifies all information about our intended user identity on the CVS server we want to connect to. Assuming there is a source module "Example" in the CVS repository specified in the selected login profile, pressing OK will create the folder "Example" (or a list of folders the module "Example" is defined as on the server) in "Hulot:ProjectExperiments" and fill it (or them) with the module's contents. The folder (or folders) you get as a result of the check out operation is (are) often called sandbox. It is your own copy of the files from the repository and you can mess with them, change them, play with them. You are sitting in your own little sandbox there, do what you want. How do you now commit stuff, look at diffs, etc.? You have to open the sandbox. The easiest way to do this is to locate the sandbox folder in the finder and drop it onto the icon of the MacCVSClient application (or an alias pointing to it). Alternatively you can use the "File/Open" menu entry. A dialog to open a folder will show up. Find and select the the sandbox folder of the module you want to work with. |
The Module Window |
Here is an example module window. |
![]() |
In the status area of the window, you find the authentication/CVS server information that was used to check out this working copy. Below that, the local working folder location ("Folder:") and some statistics about the files in the module are displayed. The "Folder:" shows one of two paths:
In the module window's main area, a single line (for a single CVS item) contains the following information.
How can such a CVS item look like? Here is an overview of the possible status flags.
Some CVS commands like diff, log or annotate produce file specific output which is stored in hidden temporary files. This output can be viewed from within MacCVSClient. In case file specific output is available for a file, this is indicated in the status flag area of the file:
A folder entry shows how many files in it are Lost, Modified, etc.. If the folder itself contains subfolders, number pairs "A/B" will be shown instead of single numbers. Here, A is the number of files Lost, Modified, etc. in the folder itself and B for the folder and all its subfolders. If a module is defined in the CVS modules database, it may not have a real module folder in the CVS repository. In a checked out module, all folders defined in the modules database and not having a real folder in the CVS repository are marked by a small cross just next to the module name on the right. |
File Filtering |
If you have modules with many files, you sometimes do not want to see all of them. You might be interested only in e.g. locally changed files or unknown files. Or you might want to see only files that match a certain name pattern. The filtering options in the filter settings dialog should be self explanatory. The listed criteria can be AND and OR joined. Filtering can be done in a HIDE or SHOW mode, the former hiding matching items, the latter showing matching items (and hiding everything else). |
|
Use the commands "Special/Filter (Show Matching Items)", "Special/Filter (Hide Matching Items)" and "Special/Filter File Settings...". |
![]() |
The picture above shows the same module as before in the same state. This time, file filtering is activated and locally changed, added, removed, lost or unknown files are displayed. All other files are suppressed. Bear in mind that filtering affects only the display in the module window, no file or folder is deleted at all. The current filter mode is displayed in the status area on the bottom left side of the module window. When a folder is displayed with filtering switched on and not all the folder's files are displayed, the folder is described as "Partial Folder" in the module window. If you select this folder and run a CVS command like "Sandbox/Update" on it, the command is run on the whole folder. In the "Sandbox/Update" case, all files in the folder would be updated and not only the few files that are displayed. |
Module Window Auto Refresh |
When you switch away from MacCVSClient to another application or the finder to do other work there and then switch back, MacCVSClient automatically refreshes the cached states and modification dates of the files in the currently opened CVS Modules. This refresh operation can take some seconds depending on size of the module folders and speed of the machine. As an example, to refresh a project of about 300 files on a 7300/200 Mac's local disk takes about two seconds. So when you're in the finder or another application and then switch to MacCVSClient, there will be a short delay if you have open module windows in MacCVSClient. |
Other Applications |
While working with MacCVSClient, you should make sure that none of the files that are (or might be) in use by MacCVSClient is currently in use by another application. It is evident that if you have e.g. a file opened in CWIE or BBEdit while updating it in MacCVSClient you might lose data. My recommendation therefore is to e.g. close all editing windows in your text editor(s) before switching to MacCVSClient. This is nothing special to MacCVSClient but a general principle to obey when working with different applications on the same files at the same time. See also: Error -47. |
Rev. 1.37 | Copyright © 1997-1998 Fontworks Ltd., © 2000-2003 Jörg Bullmann |