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authorAchilleas Pipinellis <axilleas@axilleas.me>2017-08-30 12:47:28 +0200
committerAchilleas Pipinellis <axilleas@axilleas.me>2017-09-06 15:46:57 +0200
commit0a835fbc6191158ac41579532c6332c3306931f4 (patch)
tree734120e7fab0f7fcb7430cd0a7e93e7c8bd49acf /doc
parenta0c13698f948d4ebc69ce54660c4022a4a394a0c (diff)
downloadgitlab-ce-0a835fbc6191158ac41579532c6332c3306931f4.tar.gz
Add CVS migration guide
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+# Migrating from CVS
+
+[CVS](https://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/cvs) is an old centralized version
+control system similar to [SVN](svn.md).
+
+## CVS vs Git
+
+The following list illustrates the main differences between CVS and Git:
+
+- **Git is distributed** while CVS is centralized using a client-server
+ architecture. This translates to Git having a more flexible workflow since
+ your working area is a copy of the entire repository. This decreases the
+ overhead when switching branches or merging for example, since you don't have
+ to communicate with a remote server.
+- **Atomic operations.** In Git all operations are
+ [atomic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_commit), either they succeed as
+ whole, or they fail without any changes. In CVS, commits (and other operations)
+ are not atomic. If an operation on the repository is interrupted in the middle,
+ the repository can be left in an inconsistent state.
+- **Changesets.** Changes in CVS are per file, while changes (commits) in Git
+ they always refer to the whole project. One of the consequences of this is that
+ it is very easy in Git to revert (create a change that undoes) or undo a whole
+ change.
+- **Revision IDs.** The fact that in CVS changes are per files, the revision ID
+ is depicted by version numbers, for example `1.4` reflects how many time a
+ given file has been changed. In Git, each version of a project as a whole
+ (each commit) has its unique name given by SHA-1.
+- **Merge tracking.** Git uses a commit-before-merge approach rather than
+ merge-before-commit (or update-then-commit) like CVS. If while you were
+ preparing to create a new commit (new revision) somebody other created a
+ new commit on the same branch and pushed to the central repository, CVS would
+ force you to first update your working directory and resolve conflicts before
+ allowing you to commit. This is not the case with Git. You first commit, save
+ your state in version control, then you merge the other developer's changes.
+ You can also ask the other developer to do the merge and resolve any conflicts
+ themselves.
+- **Signed commits.** Git supports signing your commits with GPG for additional
+ security and verification that the commit indeed came from its original author.
+ GitLab can [integrate with GPG](../repository/gpg_signed_commits/index.md)
+ and show whether a signed commit is correctly verified.
+
+_Some of the items above were taken from this great
+[Stack Overflow post](https://stackoverflow.com/a/824241/974710). For a more
+complete list of differences, consult the
+Wikipedia article on [comparing the different version control software](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_version_control_software)._
+
+## Why migrate
+
+CVS is old with no new release since 2008. Git provides more tools to work
+with (`git bisect` for one) which makes for a more productive workflow.
+Migrating to Git/GitLab there is:
+
+- **Shorter learning curve**, Git has a big community and a vast number of
+ tutorials to get you started.
+- **Integration with modern tools**, migrating to Git and GitLab you can have
+ an open source end-to-end software development platform with built-in version
+ control, issue tracking, code review, CI/CD, and more.
+- **Support for many network protocols**. Git supports SSH, HTTP/HTTPS and rsync
+ among others, whereas CVS supports only SSH and its own insecure pserver
+ protocol with no user authentication.
+
+## How to migrate
+
+Here's a few links to get you started with the migration:
+
+- [Migrate using the `cvs-fast-export` tool](http://www.catb.org/~esr/reposurgeon/dvcs-migration-guide.html) ([_source code_](https://gitlab.com/esr/cvs-fast-export))
+- [Stack Overflow post on importing the CVS repo](https://stackoverflow.com/a/11490134/974710)
+- [Convert a CVS repository to Git](http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/linux-and-open-source/convert-cvs-repositories-to-git/)
+- [Man page of the `git-cvsimport` tool](https://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-cvsimport.html)
diff --git a/doc/user/project/import/index.md b/doc/user/project/import/index.md
index 67e856a97cd..cfc8e04399c 100644
--- a/doc/user/project/import/index.md
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@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
1. [From SVN](svn.md)
1. [From ClearCase](clearcase.md)
1. [From Perforce](perforce.md)
+1. [From CVS](cvs.md)
In addition to the specific migration documentation above, you can import any
Git repository via HTTP from the New Project page. Be aware that if the