Unable to access cvs public repository anonymous access

Question

I am trying to migrate cvs to git repository. I tried to test how it works. So I tried to access cvs public repository using the doc

There is support to access cvs repositories with an anonymous account with an empty password, but I am unable to access it.

cvs -d :pserver:[email protected]:/var/cvs/$repository login

Logging in to :pserver:[email protected]:2401/var/cvs/config

CVS password: 

cvs [login aborted]: unrecognized auth response from cvs.infodrom.org: /usr/bin/cvs: unrecognized option '--allow_root=/var/cvs/debian'

How can I access cvs repository with an anonymous user?

Answer 1

Two points:

1. Try using infodrom rather than config as a $repository value as that's what's documented here: http://www.infodrom.org/projects/cfingerd/cvs.php and in similar projects i.e.

   cvs -d :pserver:[email protected]:/var/cvs/infodrom login

2. You normally need the whole server-side repo to do a proper cvs2git, not just a client-side checkout. Which you cannot get from a repo on the web, you can only get if you are the sysadmin on your own cvs repo.