MacCVSClient - User Guide - SSH on Mac OS X

:: MacCVSClient :: User Guide
	MacCVSClient and SSH on Mac OS X

This page covers Mac OS X SSH issues. There is a separate page for information on Classic Mac OS SSH.

If you need to access CVS repositories over the internet with good security, you can use SSH encryption software as an intermediary between MacCVSClient and CVS server.

To make all this work, SSH server software needs to be installed on the CVS server machine. Additionally, you need to configure the preinstalled SSH (client) software on your Mac OS X based Macintosh. This page is to help you with this configuration.

Instructions on how to get an SSH server installed and running on the CVS server is beyond the scope of this MacCVSClient manual. Please find out elsewhere; if you know a good source of information about this, please let me know and I'll link to it.

Basic SSH Setup

This is a quick overview of how to set up a private/public key pair using the SSH command line tools from a terminal and then installing them on the CVS server. We use the Sourceforge setup as an example.

Step	Description
1	You start with generating the key pair. In a terminal command line type: ssh-keygen -t dsa You will be prompted to enter a passphrase. Remember this passphrase well.
2	Install the public key (from the .ssh directory) on the sourceforge server. There are original sourceforge instructions how to do this.
3	Important — DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP! Try to login to the CVS server account using the SSH command line tool: ssh username@cvs.sourceforge.net Now you will be prompted to accept the unknown host `cvs.sourceforge.net`. Accept it. From now on, when trying to login to `cvs.sourceforge.net`, SSH will not ask you again about this host. The sourceforge machine will immediately kick you out again because the accounts on `cvs.sourceforge.net` are restricted for CVS use only. The step was important, though, as you have now added the host to the known hosts list.
4	Just try it. Again type ssh username@cvs.sourceforge.net and you should now be thrown out of the login straight away and without being asked to accept the unknown host.

CVS RSH Tunneling (Sourceforge)

Here is how you set up a login profile in MacCVSClient to use SSH to access repostories such as the ones hosted at Sourceforge.

Remember to replace the host (here cvs.sourceforge.net), root (here /cvsroot/maccvsclient) and user (here jbu) in the example MacCVSClient login profile. Please also refer to the explanation of throughput limiting.

Rev. 1.9