August 01, 2003
Anonymous CVS Access
A common frustration when trying out new software is that I can't get to the latest and greatest versions.
This is usually because the project is hosted by someone like SourceForge and the latest version of the code is in CVS. The common configuration of these services is to only let developers access the full repository using a secure method (such as SSH) and make read only copies available to everyone else via an anonymous connection using plain http. Which is fine except the latter method doesn't work when you are behind a firewall or a proxy server.
Luckily there are solutions to this problem. Some enterprising folks have written utilities which 'scrape' the web repository viewer and create a local copy of the code.
SFCVS is useful if you are behind a proxy server (and gets bonus points for being written in Python) and CVSGrab is for those who prefer their solutions Java based or who are just behind a firewall.
Give them a try and then give the developers a pat on the back.
Posted by Andy Todd at August 01, 2003 01:56 PM
Luckily there are solutions to this problem. Some enterprising folks have written utilities
thanks
ken