Providing customized source code control with CVS

The standard CVS distribution contains a client as well as a server (the aren't separated), but there are several additional clients available.

I recommend the set of CvsGui clients as being full-featured and reliable. CvsGui makes WinCVS for Microsoft Windows, MacCVS for Macintosh use, and gCVS using the Gnu GTK+ toolkit for Unix and Windows. For those who wish to access CVS repositories with browsers, I also recommend cvsweb.

There are other clients available, which I will list here for completeness. I don't know how good these are, but they all should compile and at least partly work. The links go directly to the projects themselves.

For Microsoft Windows:

• Smart CVS
• Tortoise CVS
• BorCVS (for Borland Delphi and C++ Builder)
• Visual Age to CVS client for IBM's Visual Age for Java
• CvsIn, which is a plugin for Visual C++ 5.0 or 6.0
• NetCvsLib in C# for .NET
• CS-CVS
• Igloo, a Visual Studio interface
• abCVS, a plugin for Metrowerks Codewarrior for Windows

For Unix:

• Cervisia
• Pharmacy
• CvsShell
• LinCVS

For Web access:

• ViewCVS
• CVS WebClient

For the Macintosh:

• CWCVS, a plugin for Metrowerks Codewarrior on the Macintosh
• MacCVS Pro
• MacCVSClient

For multiple platforms:

• jCVS (Java-based)
• JavaCVS (Java bean)
• tkCVS
• Another Java client
• Uncle Unc, an ambitious multiplatform multiprotocol project

And stranger yet:

• an Amiga OS port

(I am interested in keeping this list up to date. If you know of a CVS client I have not listed, please email me about it.)

All contents of these pages Copyright 2002 by David H. Thornley.
Permission granted for verbatim copying and use within an organization.