Re: [viewvc-users] need help with viewvc setup with cvs/rancid

On 01/29/2015 05:29 AM, Jason Hsu wrote:
> I am at my wits end and tired. I have rancid working and CVS installed and they are working well together. I have been unable to get this vcviewer to work correctly.
>
> I've gotten past problem after problem after problem; too many to count. Its a real nightmare. I actually got the vcview page to load once but the list was blank for repositories. Followed more advice from threads, which really all seems to be speculation mostly. Currently getting internal server error 500. Some speculation that 'cvs add' is needed but get this error.
>
> rancid@new-rancid:/usr/local/rancid/var$ cvs add CVS
> cvs add: cannot add special file `CVS'; skipping
>
> I am beyond frustrated at this point and basically ready to scrap it and start over with something else. Its like "what the next problem gonna be after this one". Is there a set of instructions that are accurate from start to finish and actually work anywhere?

Jason,

Sorry you're having a crummy experience with Rancid/ViewVC.  I've never
used Rancid myself, so I'm not going to be able to offer any assistance
on simply getting Rancid+CVS working.  But you appear to have that
problem solved already.

As for ViewVC's interaction with the pair, I can tell you only what I know:

1.  It can be done.  There are some pretty thorough instructions
scattered around the web (e.g.,
http://www.shrubbery.net/rancid/SteveSmithFedora15.pdf).
2.  ViewVC has no customizations related to Rancid -- it only cares
about the CVS/Subversion repository that Rancid uses to store its data
in.  So long as that's a standard CVS/Subversion repository, I expect no
problems.
3.  ...and yet, I hear more complaints and problems on this list related
to Rancid than with any other single type of concern.

My sense has been that permissions are the single biggest issue here:
that Rancid wants to operate as one user with really restricted set of
permissions, and Apace+ViewVC run as a different user lacking the
permissions to harvest data from the CVS repsitory.  But again, that's
just what I've picked up over the years -- not personal experience.

Now, an internal server error 500 should leave information about the
failure in your Apache error_log, generally in the form of a multi-line
Python stack track.  Are you able to find that information and share it
here?

-- Mike

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