[Techtalk] CVS question

[Kathryn Andersen]

On Fri, Nov 25, 2005 at 05:25:24PM +1100, Mary wrote:
> On Fri, Nov 25, 2005, John Clarke wrote:
> > If you want to grant write access to some parts of the repository and
> > read-only access to others, you might need to change your access
> > method.  I don't think you can do it with pserver.
> 
> I think the problem is that she wants to block write access to the
> *entire* repository for one user, rather than wanting to grant access
> differently to different parts of the repository.

Well, it may come down to granting access differently... I don't know,
at this point, until folks get back to me, whether there is any
particular project which requires that the "general" user has write
access.

According to
http://cvsbook.red-bean.com/cvsbook.html#The%20Password-Authenticating%20Server
it does sound like it would be possible to do, though, if
(a) one made a new "I can-write-to-cvs" user (who can't log in
in the ordinary way)
(b) changed all the permissions in the repository to be for that user
(c) added entries for all legal users to the CVSROOT/passwd file
and alias them to the special cvs user

It makes things less easy to maintain, since everyone would have to
be added to the CVSROOT/passwd file, and they also wouldn't be able
to change their passwords.  Not very nice.

I don't think we can just remove the "general" user from the CVS server
machine altogether, because it isn't just used for CVS and I think
the "general" user has to have access to it for other reasons.

On the other hand... perhaps it may be solveable with the solution
suggested earlier: to make a special "cvs" group and change the
permissions on the repository to be group-write for only that group,
and make sure that the "general" user isn't a member of that group.
Because pserver allows access to the repository with the permissions
of the user that that person is cvs-login logged in as, that should
work in denying write permission.

I'll have to talk to the admin person about that.

Thanks, folks!

Kathryn Andersen
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