ViewCVS Installation for Windows

Installing ViewCVS on Windows for Microsoft IIS

Last updated 16 Jan 2004 for ViewCVS 1.0-dev for Windows Release 5.

ViewCVS or CVSWeb?  ViewCVS has the following advantages:

• Doesn't require write access to the repository
• Annotate works when there is a LockDir specified
• cvsgraph support is built in

1. Install CVSNT
2. Add CVSNT to your path
   • c:\progra~1\cvsnt will work because it doesn't contain any spaces
3. Install ActivePython
4. Change your system PATH environment variable.  Remove the trailing "dot" from the python directory; e.g., c:\python22\. => c:\python22
5. Install IIS (on NT4, via NT Option Pack 4) on the computer that has the raw CVS repository files.  This machine is named tiger in these instructions.  You can use network shares, so the files don't necessarily have to reside on the IIS machine, but you will undoubtedly run into file access permissions hell.
6. These instructions assume that the IIS wwwroot folder is located at c:\inetpub\wwwroot.  Change these instructions to match the actual path of your wwwroot.
7. If you wish to allow anonymous access,
   • Give the users IUSR_ and IWAM_ "execute" permissions to cvs.exe and "read" permissions to the folders that it's contained in
   • Give the users IUSR_ and IWAM_ "execute" permissions to the files you extracted in the previous step (e.g., rcs.exe) and "read" permissions to the folders they are contained in
   • Give the users IUSR_ and IWAM_ "full control" permissions to c:\winnt\temp
   • Give the users IUSR_ and IWAM_ "read" and "list contents" for all files and folders in the CVS repository
8. Download ViewCVS and extract it
9. Go to the extract target directory and type
   python viewcvs-install
10. Enter c:/viewcvs as the install directory (use what you like)
11. Edit the viewcvs.conf file in the installation directory.  Change the following things:
    • cvs_roots
    • default_root
    • rcs_path
12. Create the directory c:\inetpub\wwwroot\cgi-bin
13. From Windows Explorer, run Start/Programs/Administrative Tools/Internet Services Manager
14. Right-click on the default web server icon
15. Right click on cgi-bin (to be compatible with TortoiseCVS, ViewCVS needs to be located here)
16. Choose New->Virtual Directory
17. Alias: viewcvs
18. Click Next
19. Directory: c:\viewcvs\www\cgi
20. Click Next
21. Check the Execute checkbox
22. Finish the dialog box
23. Right-click on the virtual directory "viewcvs" and select Properties...
    
24. Click the Documents tab
25. Add viewcvs.cgi
26. Click the Virtual Directory tab
27. Click the Configuration... button
28. If the CGI extension is already in the list, you must delete it.  This will break an application that has been installed on your web server (e.g., CVSWeb).
29. Click the Add button
30. Fill in the following information
    Executable: c:\python22\python.exe "%s"
    Extension: cgi
    Script Engine: checked
    Check that file exists: unchecked
31. Copy <extract directory>\windows\icons to c:\inetpub\wwwroot\icons
32. If you like, save your company logo on top of the file c:\inetpub\wwwroot\icons\apache_pb.gif
33. If you want to use cvsgraph with ViewCVS,
    • Edit viewcvs.conf and set use_cvsgraph=1
    • Download windows binaries (go to the cvsgraph website) into a directory that's in your PATH
34. See the Enscript Instructions
35. Fire up ViewCVS... http://localhost/cgi-bin/viewcvs
36. See here if you want to control access to ViewCVS.  Note that you must give all ViewCVS users "full" control over c:\winnt\temp