How do I check out Eclipse projects from CVS using the command line

Question

Hi.

I'm trying to check out the Mylyn project from Eclipse. However, I can't use Eclipse to check out the projects and am having to do it via the command line. I'm behind a firewall so am basing my attempt on http://wiki.eclipse.org/CVS_Howto#CVS_and_firewalls.

I'm not very familiar with CVS.

When I run my CVS command, it fails to connect:

cvs -td :pserver:[email protected]:443/cvsroot/tools checkout mylyn
  -> main: Session ID is w4PO5KiMwQmaD6uu
  -> main loop with CVSROOT=/cvsroot/tools
  -> safe_location( where=(null) )
  -> open_connection_to_server (:pserver:[email protected]:443/cvsroot/tools)
  -> Connecting to proxy.eclipse.org(206.191.52.48):443.
cvs [checkout aborted]: unrecognized auth response from proxy.eclipse.org: SSH-1.99-OpenSSH_4.2

Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong?

Thanks

Answer 1

Getting Mylyn is actually tricky:

1. there are a lot of Mylyn modules and sub-modules: see here for the full list
2. as mentioned in this thread, proxy.eclipse.org:80 should work (not dev.eclipse.org)
3. but 'mylyn' does not exist when you look at the main CVS/SVN eclipse repos

The only official way to get the code is through Eclipse, loading a PSF (Project Set File)

See Mylyn contributor page:

Checkout

The Mylyn CVS repository contains the following branches.
Each can be checked via saving the linked .psf file locally, and then using File -> Import -> Team Project Set.
Use username "anonymous" and an empty password.
If you are only interested in parts of Mylyn, the additional projects can be deleted after the import.
After the checkout you should have no errors or warnings from the Mylyn projects.

Note: these project sets specify anonymous pserver access

Direct links:

• http://www.eclipse.org/mylyn/doc/dev/mylyn.psf (anonymous pserver)
• http://www.eclipse.org/mylyn/doc/dev/mylyn-extssh.psf (extssh for committers)

Now, the only way to manually checkout those projects is through bug 265847:

Given a .psf file (project set file) defining projects to check out from cvs/svn into the workspace, generate an ant script so that the checkout process can be scripted.

You can try this script and generate the appropriate ant build script to checkout all the appropriate Mylyn CVS repos.

---

All that being said, that leaves the issue of the firewall.
The best best is to use port 80

cvs -td :pserver:[email protected]:80/cvsroot/tools checkout mylyn

but since 'mylyn' might not be a valid CVS repo node, I would recommend using one that actually exists to validate the possibility to access and import a CVS repo content behind your firewall.

If your firewall need authentication, that means CVS will have to use some kind of URI authentication scheme, potentially using Passive Mode

Passive mode is similar in that it also uses two TCP connections to implement the four unidirectional channels.
However, in passive mode the client connects to the server to create the second TCP connection.
Passive mode can be useful when the client is behind a firewall that allows outbound connections, but denies most incoming connections.
To select passive mode, use the option '-P -'.
Passive mode cannot be used through a SOCKS proxy server.

Answer 2

Thanks for the great information VonC.

I never managed to get the passive connection working, but was able to convince our network admins to change the firewall rules.