Integrating CVS Version Control with Netbeans® 4.0 Java IDE

If you are here, you should have completed the introductory steps described in my original CVS-Netbeans® page. If not, go there now or risk being confused!

Steps (continued)

4)  This continued instruction set assumes that you have CVSNT installed for basic CVS client operations on the XP workstation. If not, you'll need to adjust your settings where you specify the cvs executable (e.g. c:\program files\cvsnt\cvs.exe might be c:\cygwin\bin\cvs.exe if you're using the cvs client that ships with Cygwin). It also assumes a PuTTY installation. See here for the complete software suite that I used with Netbeans® 4.0.

Since I'm using PuTTY, I will take advantage of the fact that I can store a PuTTY session that has the proper host, username, SSH options, etc. for connecting to the Linux/Un*x host that runs the CVS server. I won't describe this simple process, but will assume that a session has been setup with the name 'cvssession'. I also assume that like my previous example with Cygwin SSH/CVS, you have setup a method to allow cvs/ssh transactions to occur without prompting you for a password every time. I did this with PuTTY by defining a private key with puttygen.exe, and configuring my 'cvssession' to use the private key for authentication. I then added the public key component of that key to my authorized_keys file on the server side.

Finally, once per XP login session I do have to type in the passphrase for that private key, using pageant.exe, to allow PuTTY to cache it for the life of my login. With all these steps, CVS should be able to use PuTTY's command line tool (plink.exe) repeatedly without any further password prompts, which is the way most people want to have things setup. Again, see my previous example page for an example of how to do this with Cygwin SSH .. PuTTY is just a little different.

5)   In the IDE, choose

Tools -> Options -> Source Creation and Management -> Generic VCS Profiles -> CVS

CVS_SERVER=cvssession
CVS_USERNAME=nathan (if your name is 'Nathan', like mine is ;)
CVS_REPOSITORY=/home/cvsroot (or whatever your CVS server uses locally for $CVSROOT)
CVS_EXE=c:\program files\cvsnt\cvs.exe

6)   Then, also in the IDE, select

Versioning -> Versioning Manager

c:\program files\cvsnt\cvs.exe
c:\program files\putty\plink.exe

7)   While still in the Versioning Manager dialog for your working directory, choose the Environment tabbed pane. You will need to make sure that an environment variable (either system-wide, or user-level) is defined for:

CVS_RSH=c:\program files\putty\plink.exe
CVS_SSH=c:\program files\putty\plink.exe

8)   Remember that using the PuTTY plink.exe method of ssh'ing (a.k.a. CVS_RSH), you will have to cache your password with the PuTTY authentication agent, pageant.exe, before attempting to use the CVS functions within the IDE. If you don't do this, the background command will essentially be waiting for a passphrase, with you totally unaware of how to supply one. Therefore, the command will hang indefinitely. If you forget to use pageant.exe before starting the IDE, you can go into the Runtime explorer tab in the IDE and find the currently running VCS commands and manually kill them. But, don't forget next time!

Finally, I generally haven't had good success checking things out from within the IDE. I usually will use the cvs command line, or WinCVS to check out a project. Then, once my sandbox is populated, I create a new project (with existing java sources) from the IDE. Good luck!