Re: identifying user at commit time

[Todd Denniston]

address@hidden wrote, On 09/25/2007 11:48 AM:
> Hi all,
>
> I don't know if this is the right group for my question, but let's
> try... I hope I will find here some experienced CVS user/administrator
> that can help me!
>
> Scenario: CVSNT server on a Windows XP machine; clients are windows
> machines, too. Clients are always logged on a "standard" account
> (that, by the way, is the same on all clients), because they are
> "common" (not personal) PC in a laboratory. Because on each PC runs
> one (or more) program that cannot be started under multiple accounts,
> this situation cannot be changed.
As you use CVSNT you might get answers, we don't know about, by using their 
mailing lists:
http://www.cvsnt.org/
newsgroup:
http://www.cvsnt.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/cvsnt
or
news://news.cvsnt.org/support.cvsnt



> Issue: clients machines are used by different people in tha lab, that
> can modify files under cvs control. In a standard CVS scenario, cvs
> commit operation would be associated to the account they have been
> started from, so identifying the person that committed a change. In
> the scenario described above, anyway, the commit operation will always
> be perfomed under the same account on the client machine, so I would
> like to specify a username at commit time (I know that this is not an
> ideal solution, becouse in this scenario a commit operation could
> include modification made by different people: anyway it would be
> better than nothing...)
>
> Questions:
> - is it possible to specify an user name (and password) at commit
> time, regardless of the username that has been used to checkout the
> module?

Sort of.
You did not specify your connection method nor if you could have more than one 
user on the server, so I assume any connection method can be used and you can 
put users on the server.
1) If you can use ssh access, the user name on the server does not have to 
match the user on the client end, setup ssh(putty)/cvs to make it's 
connections with user name set to the appropriate value.
2) Although pserver has security issues (read the list for details if you want 
them), I believe it can be setup with "virtual" cvs users, i.e., user names 
cvs knows about instead of the system.  I am not sure but I suspect it will 
use those user names in the logs instead of the generic user it is running 
under. I  don't know if pserver will work with a windows (CVSNT) server.
> - do you know any client that could be configured to ask for this at
> each committ operation? or should each users learn command-line usage
> of cvs?

NO.

> - in case the solution I proposed is not feasible, do you have any
> suggestion/workaround/trick to track who made some change to a file
> even if it has been done on a common machine under a common account?

I think you should be able to setup individual user accounts on the server and 
connect using ssh, in this way the users can specify their user name and be 
required to prove it with the correct authentication data (password or key).

> Thak you very much!
>
> Giacomo

Good luck.
--
Todd Denniston
Crane Division, Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC Crane)
Harnessing the Power of Technology for the Warfighter