Open Source Development with CVS: Learn How to Work With Open Source Software

by Karl Franz Fogel

Book Overview

Written by the co-creator of CVS (concurrent versions system), this title is one of the first books available that teaches development and implementation of open source software from an under-the-hood perspective. Fogel describes what open source software is, why it is successful, why there is so much media hype, and where it is going in the future.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1576104907
• ISBN13: 9781576104903
• Release Date: October 1999
• Publisher: Coriolis Group, LLC, The
• Length: 316 Pages
• Weight: 1.28 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 7.4" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

A must have, in my humble opinion

First off, I would have to say that you'll (or, at least, I did get) get the most out of this book if you read the Per Cederqvist (sp?) manual either beforehand or concurrently. This book uses more of a tutorial, heavily example-oriented approach, whereas the Cederqvist goes feature-by-feature, with small examples. And, before you gripe about the wealth of open-source info in this book, remember that CVS was originally created (at least so I've heard, don't quote me word for word here) to facilite decentralized open-source development. So, that considered, it is infact not at all out of place in this book, and in my case, just as interesting as the rest of the book. I'm a novice config mgr, and I've only been using unix, and more specifically GNU/Linux software for under a year now, but as my skills progress, I'll definately get more involved in the free software movement.This book in some ways, starts where the Cederqvist leaves off, providing a much needed (for me), and much higher-level exposition of CVS's key features. For example, I didn't really get the 'update -j' semantics until I read this book. Not long afterward, I was writing a lengthy script to automate branch merges, and efter re-reading this book, I found out that you could, infact pass -j to checkout as well, and took a good 40% off of the overhead of my script. CVS wrappers such as log.pl and others are nicely described here as well. True, this book doesn't make the perfect reference, but I've found myself many-a-time frantically flipping through its pages to find out why something I'm doing Isn't working! But, this book may soon become obsolete, by its author no less. Karl Fogel is part of a development team working on a much desired replacement for cvs. There should be more details at 'subversion.tigris.org' (check out the rest of tigris.org while you're at it)... I'm not sure what state it's in right now, but several months ago I tried checking out the sources to it on a i586 Linux box (i think the sources are covered by the apache license), and was unfortunately not able to build it (oversight on my part?). But, it's up there, for anyone who wants it, and by now it's probably a lot better than when I tried it. Can't wait for the full release :)

Indispensible

This book has 2 aims:1) To give you all of the knowledge you need to use and administer CVS, and 2) To provide you with insight on the Open Source movement and management of an Open Source projectOn both accounts, Kurt does a top-notch job. His explanations for (1) were detailed, provided command-line input and output to leave no question as to what's supposed to happen, and the language was familiar and easy to read. It is thus far a head above any other book on CVS I've found. His thoughts on (2) obviously showed a strong familiarity with Open Source combined with a realistic and analytical view that I would liken to combining parts of The Cathedral and the Bazaar with an instruction manual.I highly recommend it. I'd buy it again if I didn't already own it ;-)

Not only technical, but also community info...

I found this book a joy to read. Before ordering this book, I had read the GPL'd chapters online and found them to be quite good so I wanted to support the author with my wallet. I figgured the rest would be the regular pomp about Open Source that we are seeing alot of lately, but I could not have been more incorrect! The author not only knows his technical details about the CVS system, he fully groks the Open Source movement, personalities and community.The author alternates chapters between community issues (ethics, forking, project maintenance and administration, as well as "people skills") and the technical nuts and bolts of running a CVS server and/or using a CVS client.While the title touts the Open Source movement, CVS is just as at home in a closed environment, say a web development team, inhouse application development, or anywhere else that you need to track text based files. Mr. Fogel does a good job of showing run of the mill examples and code, as well as some more esoteric uses of CVS commands and utilities.If you are doing any sort of development and are investigating content version control software this book (and application) are for you.

It helped us !

I was charged with setting up a CVS setup for our company and have found the book very helpful in explaining things like how to set up a repository and install CVS properly on solaris. I've been reading through the chapters on building and tagging and found the way forward. Usually the book comes to the rescue when we find we need to extend our use and knowledge of CVS a step further. What more can I say ?

Great Book

I've been using CVS for a couple of years, read the manual and had great success. However, there have been lots of gaps in my understanding and places where I wasn't really sure what was happenning. This book answered those. It has lots of well chosen examples that illustrate points that I've wondered about, but been afraid to try out for fear of really messing up my CVS repository.The book is a little heavy on the "Open Source" religion, but dismissing it because of that would be a big mistake. This is a fine book.