Acronym for Concurrent Versions System, a VersionControlSystem. (Not to be confused with CSV.)

It was born as a batch of Shell scripts wrapping RCS and diff3(1), but evolved into something much greater. Unfortunately, its roots also imply some annoying limitations like being unable to rename/move files in the repository without losing the associated history.

See also:

• cvs(1), the user interface to CVS

• Open Source Development with CVS by Coriolis Open Press.

  • Online version
  • Offline HTML version
  • PostScript version

  Note that some (irrelevant?) chapters regarding the philosophy behind CVS in OpenSource are only present in the printed edition.

• very brief example usage in our CVSHowto page.

Notes

A message such as

2402/path/to/repository: no such repository

means that your client is older than version 1.11.x and doesn't understand host:port being part of the pserver path (eg cvs -d :pserver:hostname:2402/path/to/repository). You need to upgrade.