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WinCVS module import - introduction

Some time ago I wrote an article on how to get started with WinCVS. In that tutorial I skipped the part about importing modules, because at that time I assumed the target audience already had a module on a CVS server that they would want to work with.

Since then I've realized that, while that is generally the case, there are often times you want to create a new module with WinCVS, and then begin working with it. Hence, this tutorial.

My goal in this tutorial is simple. I have a directory named C:AlDDProjectsWinCVS-CreateAModule that I want to import as a module into a CVS repository. As the name implies, this directory actually contains the contents of this tutorial, though as a practical matter this directory can contain whatever content you like, including text files, spreadsheets, cooking recipes, whatever.

Installing a CVS server

Although this is a little unusual, in my case I also want the CVS repository to be on this computer. In my cramped little office I only have this one computer, so I need to to use it both as a CVS server and a CVS client. So, for my purposes, I'm going to install the cvsnt server software on this system as part of this effort. If you have your own CVS repository already set up on another system you can skip this step of the tutorial.



Goals of this tutorial

Okay, before we jump all the way in, here are the goals that I want to demonstrate in this tutorial:

  • I'll briefly discuss the process of installing WinCVS and the cvsnt server.
  • I'll show you how to install the cvsnt server and create an initial CVS repository (using WinCVS) where I can store new modules.
  • I'll demonstrate how to use WinCVS to import one of my directories into the CVS repository as a new module.
  • I'll show how to check that module out of CVS so I can begin working with it in a local CVS sandbox.

Assumptions of this tutorial

There is one major assumption in this tutorial - you have an existing directory that contains one or more files that you want to import into CVS as a new module. I strongly recommend that you have your own project to import as you work through this tutorial. It's one thing to read about something, it's something altogether different to do it yourself. ("One learns by doing the thing.")