How to control file permissions in CVS repository?

Question

Currently some users have their umask set in ways which result in execute permission on regular files, which I'd like to avoid.

Is there a way to force all files checked in to only be read with some exceptions?

What is the recommended way to handle this in CVS?

Answer 1

Cvs command option watch is also preventing file permissions to be restored. If watched, when file is checked out it will be read-only. From cvs man pages:

$ cvs watch --help_options

Usage: cvs watch {on|off|add|remove} [-lR] [-a <action>]... [<path>]...

on/off: turn on/off read-only checkouts of files

So, use cvs watch off filename to remove checkout from repository making it read only every time.

Answer 2

I am not sure if this is the best solution, but I would probably do something with the cvswrappers file in CVSROOT directory of the repo, using commitinfo, commitcheck and commit_prep.pl. If you don't have commit_prep.pl, you can use something like this one:

http://opensource.apple.com/source/cvs/cvs-29/cvs/contrib/commit_prep.pl

There are quite a few examples on the web, so just search for those commit* files if you don't already have those in your repo.

Note that, as this post suggests, the permission is really set only during the first commit of a file, after that, you'd need to "manually" modify the permission on the repository itself.

How do I add execute permission to a file in CVS after it's already been checked in?

In commit_prep.pl, you can clear the exec permission using chmod ugo-x , before the file is committed for the first time.

This solution assumes you are using linux.