Section B.4. Metadata Tools

B.4. Metadata Tools

The tools described in this section provide metadata about the CVS project files or use existing file metadata to provide additional functionality. Using these tools, you can search your log comments or your repository, see a graph showing the rate of file accesses over the past week, or find out who changed which files most recently.

B.4.1. CVS Monitor

CVS Monitor is a specialized CVS client that displays module and file information, graphic summaries of user activity within modules, change logs, file histories, and other information. It runs as a CGI script and presents its output in a web browser. CVS Monitor is available from http://ali.as/devel/cvsmonitor/.

B.4.2. CVSPlot

CVSPlot is a Perl script that plots statistics from a CVS project, such as the number of lines of data or the number of files in a module. It generates the results as a text file or as a .png graph that models the change over time.

CVSPlot is called from the command line and can be used in a script. It allows you to specify the period of time and the file types you are interested in. It requires Perl, and to plot graphically it also requires gnuplot. CVSPlot is available from http://cvsplot.sourceforge.net.

B.4.3. CVSSearch

CVSSearch runs keyword searches on the comments stored as a result of file commits, and can do keyword searches in the code as well. Its output includes not only every comment that contains keywords you specify, but also filenames and links to the code that matches the comment.

CVSSearch requires a web server and operates as CGI code. It is available from http://cvssearch.sourceforge.net.

B.4.4. CVSTrac

CVSTrac is a combination of repository browser, bug-tracking system, patch-set tracking system, and log manipulator. It can be run as a CGI script, or as a standalone web server, and has several security measures built in, including the ability to have anonymous users with limited permissions. CVSTrac is available from http://www.cvstrac.org.