GUI source control for Linux and Windows

October 11, 2004 5:04 PM

Source Control: I need a good, free GUI that runs on Linux and Windows that will allow me to create, manipulate, and update a CVS repository on a remote Linux machine via SSH.

Quite honestly, I'm tired of having to reference the manual every time I need to do something simple, and I'm about to enter an environment where I'll have whole bunches of branches off of a main CVS tree for a particular project. I need something to make management of the mess easier. Any suggestions? While I do have a CVS repository running currently, I'd be willing to switch to a different product, too, but free is a priority.

posted by SpecialK to computers & internet (4 comments total)

I've considered building a network appliance that does what you ask (web-based GUI). I would need more than one customer to make it into a business though.
posted by b1tr0t at 7:03 PM on October 11, 2004

Heh, b1tr0t, if that's the case then I'll just beat you to it. ;)
posted by SpecialK at 7:30 PM on October 11, 2004

Unfortunately, windows-only, but TortoiseCVS is the best CVS client I've used (extends Explorer and can do pretty much everything, including SSH tunneling). Now, if you are going to do many branches, I'd recommend just switching to Subversion which is a much better, IMHO, source control system anyway, and handles branching much better than CVS (and is open source as well and actively improved upon, unlike CVS). SVN has TortoiseSVN which is a rip-off of TortoiseCVS and also rocks. There is a CVS-to-SVN conversion script linked from the SVN home page that will get you ported pretty easily and they also have a free Subversion Book to get you started (read at least the chapter on Subversion for CVS users).

I think on linux some file managers have CVS shell extensions as well, but I usually run linux only server-side.
posted by costas at 1:54 AM on October 12, 2004

I second Tortoise. It kicks WinCVS's arse with razor blade boots.

For Linux, KDE's Cervisia (kdesdk package) is the simplest I've seen, though it's not nearly as slick as Tortoise.
posted by BobInce at 9:37 AM on October 12, 2004