University of Glasgow

Roderic Page

[![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2q_M2pIIbG8jOStxkt1tcWbmXcYjxMlN0iQptRglKVJAWLL7_VgcGRdchOwBj7T69yIfCirprynA1Bz2dVMyAg8mXgEUOODhKciGtThdoan2ZTBMf37qow4wbc6NSgVymMJC3/s320/sun.sparcstation5.12.jpg){#BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5126087534069653298
style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;"
border="0"
width="200"}](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2q_M2pIIbG8jOStxkt1tcWbmXcYjxMlN0iQptRglKVJAWLL7_VgcGRdchOwBj7T69yIfCirprynA1Bz2dVMyAg8mXgEUOODhKciGtThdoan2ZTBMf37qow4wbc6NSgVymMJC3/s1600-h/sun.sparcstation5.12.jpg)  
No, not taxonomy the discipline (although I\'ve [given a
talk](http://iphylo.blogspot.com/2005/12/google-yahoo-and-end-of-taxonomy.html)
asking this question), but
[taxonomy.zoology.gla.ac.uk](http://taxonomy.zoology.gla.ac.uk/), my
long-running web server hosting such venerable software projects as
[TreeView](http://taxonomy.zoology.gla.ac.uk/rod/treeview.html),
[NDE](http://taxonomy.zoology.gla.ac.uk/rod/NDE/nde.html), and
[GeneTree](http://taxonomy.zoology.gla.ac.uk/rod/genetree/genetree.html),
along with my [home
page](http://taxonomy.zoology.gla.ac.uk/rod/rod.html).  
  
A series of power cuts in my building while I was away finally did for
my ancient Sun Sparcstation5, running the CERN web server (yes, it\'s
**that** old). I can remember the thrill (mixed with mild terror) of
taking delivery of the Sparcstation and having to manually assemble it
(the CD ROM and floppy drives came separately), and the painful
introduction to the Unix command line. The joy of getting a web server
to run (way back in late 1995), followed by Samba, AppleTalk, and CVS.  
  
For the time being a backup copy of the documents and software hosted on
the Sparcstation are being served from a Mac. The only tricky thing was
setting up the CVS server that I use for version control for my
projects. Yes, I know CVS is also ancient, and that [Linus Torvalds will
think me a moron](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XpnKHJAok8), but for
now it\'s what I use. CVS comes with Apple\'s developer tools, but I
wanted to set up remote access. I found the articles by Daniel Côté
[Setting up a CVS server on Mac OS X](http://www.novajo.ca/cvs.html) and
on Mac OSX Hints [Enable CVS pserver on
10.2](http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20020918055124794) to
be helpful. Basically I initialised a new CVS repository, then copied
across the backed repository from a DVD. I then replaced some files in
CVSROOT that listed things like the modules in the repository and
notifications sent when code is comitted. Getting the pserver up and
running required some work. I created a file called cvspserver inside
/etc/xinetd.d/, with the following contents.  
  

``` {style="border: 1px solid #c7cfd5;background: #f1f5f9;padding:15px;"}
service cvspserver
{
        disable = no
        socket_type     = stream
        wait            = no
        user            = root
        server          = /usr/bin/cvs
        server_args     = -f --allow-root=/usr/local/CVS pserver
        groups          = yes
        flags           = REUSE
}
```

  
Then I started the service:  

``` {style="border: 1px solid #c7cfd5;background: #f1f5f9;padding:15px;"}
sudo /sbin/service cvspserver start
```

  
So far, so good, but I couldn\'t log in to CVS. Discovered that this is
because [Mac OS X uses ShadowHash
authentication_authority](http://www.macosxhints.com/comment.php?mode=display&format=threaded&order=ASC&pid=32077).
Hence, on a Mac CVS won\'t use the system user names and passwords
(probably a good thing). Therefore, we uncomment the line  

``` {style="border: 1px solid #c7cfd5;background: #f1f5f9;padding:15px;"}
# Set this to "no" if pserver shouldn't check system users/passwords
SystemAuth=no
```

  
in the file CVSROOT/config, then create a file CVSROOT/passwd. This file
contains the username, hash password, and the actual Mac OS X username
(nicely explained in [Daniel Côté\'s
article](http://www.novajo.ca/cvs.html)). To generate a hash password,
do this:  
  

``` {style="border: 1px solid #c7cfd5;background: #f1f5f9;padding:15px;"}
darwin: openssl passwd
Password: 123
Verifying - Password: 123
yrp85EUNQl01E
```

  
At last it all seems to work, and I can get back to coding. This is
about as geeky as this blog gets, but if you want a real geek overload,
spend some time listening to this talk by Linus Torvalds.  
  


No, not taxonomy the discipline (although I've given a talk asking this question), but taxonomy.zoology.gla.ac.uk, my long-running web server hosting such venerable software projects as TreeView, NDE, and GeneTree, along with my home page.

Messaggi di Rogue Scholar

Taxonomy is dead, long live taxonomy