How can I configure Eclipse to use a local CVS repository?

  1. Create a shell script with the contents below somewhere on disk and make it executable.

  2. In Eclipse, go to the CVS preference page (Window > Preferences > Team > CVS > Ext Connection Method)

    • Select Use an external program to connect

    • For CVS_RSH enter the path to the script you just created

    • For Parameters enter a whitespace (won’t work if left empty)

    • For CVS_SERVER you should have cvs

  3. Add a new CVS repository location in Eclipse (File > New > Other > CVS > CVS Repository Location)

    • For Host enter localhost

    • For Repository path enter the local absolute path to your repository

    • For user and password you can enter anything (will not be taken into account)

    • For connection type select ext

At this point the repository you’ve just created should be functional in Eclipse. You can checkout a module to see that everything is OK. In order to make cvs work in the command line as well (with projects checked out from Eclipse) you have to set the system variable CVS_RSH to point to the script and CVSROOT to the the local absolute path to your repository.

Script content

#!/bin/sh
if [ "$1" != "cvs" ]; then
    # Remove -l {user} {host}
    shift
    shift
    shift
fi
exec "$@"