fromcvs installation [was: cvsimport bug on branches [was: conversion to git]]

From: Steffen Prohaska <prohaska@zib.de>
Date: Sep 22, 2007, 08:07 UTC
Message-ID: <86B33DFE-65E6-4F8D-8483-509ACA4FA2F8@zib.de>
In-Reply-To: <200709220116.26369.robin.rosenberg.lists@dewire.com>

On Sep 22, 2007, at 1:16 AM, Robin Rosenberg wrote:

Show 17 quoted lines

> fredag 21 september 2007 skrev Johannes Schindelin:
>> No, it's yet another dependency.  And the quality of the code still
>> depends on the programmer, not the language.
>
> I think I can agree there, on both counts. But, if you want a good  
> incremental
> CVS importer and have access to the rcs files, that's the one there  
> is.
>
> git-cvsimport has a dependency on cvsps, which isn't included. You  
> have to
> to look it up yourself chooing among a dozen unequally bad versions.
> Installing ruby isn't any harder.
>
> The dependency excludes it from being included with Git, but it  
> does not
> disqualify it as a tool on it's own.

Nonetheless a more detailed description how to install fromcvs would be helpful. I remember it was not obvious to me.

The README of fromcvs only says
'''
Prerequisites:
- ruby (1.8.5 known working)
- fromcvs, <http://ww2.fs.ei.tum.de/~corecode/hg/fromcvs>
- rcsparse, <http://ww2.fs.ei.tum.de/~corecode/hg/rcsparse> (ruby  
module)
- Ruby/RBTree, <http://raa.ruby-lang.org/project/ruby-rbtree/>
- for git: git-fast-import, part of git 1.5
- for db/commitset: sqlite3 + sqlite3-ruby (available as gem)
'''

I didn't use ruby before and had no idea how to install a ruby module or what 'available as gem' means. And by the way, it was not obvious for me that I can download the tip of the mercurial branch by clicking on the 'gz' link at the top of the page.

I think a step by step explanation how to proceed would have helped me.

	Steffen