Do you use git far more than you use cvs? Do you use cvs more than “not at all”? Try this drop-in wrapper to make it a bit more gittish.

Installation

Two options:

1. Place the script in /usr/local/bin (or wherever you usually install programs), then alias cvs=cvs-for-gits.
2. Place the script in $HOME/bin (or some other place very early in $PATH) with the name cvs.

Usage

For most subcommands, cvs-for-gits simply executes cvs(1), passing along any command-line arguments.

cvs diff

Output is colorized and paged just like git diff. You’ll need colordiff and less installed. (You might need to configure colordiff to use the same colors as git diff.)

When you need a plain diff, use cvs plaindiff.

cvs show

Colorizes and pages the latest commitdiff. cvs show HEAD^ shows the previous one, and cvs show HEAD~2 the one before that. You’ll need cvsps and less installed.

cvs gitlog

Lists the commitlogs (oldest first, but skipping ahead to the end). You’ll need cvsps and less installed.

If newer commits aren’t showing up, cvs gitlog -x rebuilds the commitlog cache.

cvs annotate, log, status

Long output is paged just like git.

Improvements

If the wrapper interferes with anything you use cvs for, that’s a bug. I’ll also want to hear about cvs tasks we might be able to make easier.