[Feature] partial read-only access to CVS repository

[Dieter Maurer]

Dear CVS community,

we would like to use CVS as a tool to manage distributed
development including external partners.
These partners need read-only access to a large part of the repository
but write access only to a small part of the repository.

While "pserver" provides a flexible way to specify read-only
access to a complete repository, there is no concept of
"read-only" access to parts of the repository with "write" access
to a different part.


I plan to implement such a concept for CVS by combining two
already existing CVS features, the hierarchical configuration
used by e.g. "loginfo" and the "access list" of the underlying RCS.
More precisely, I plan to

  *  introduce a new administrative file "writeaccess".

     It has a format similar to "loginfo", i.e. a sequence
     of lines consisting of a directory pattern and
     an (optionally empty) user list.

     The user list is interpreted as follows:

      - an empty list is equivalent to all users (without restriction)
        This is the same interpretation as for the "access list"
        in RCS

      - a space separated list of user names

        A user must be in this list to perform any modifying
        operation on a RCS file in the matched directory

     Directory matching is done in the same way as for "loginfo",
     i.e. the first matching line is effective.

  *  change modifying cvs commands to determine for the
     affected directory (same way as for "loginfo")
     the corresponding list of users and check whether the
     current user is in this list. An empty list is
     interpreted as "no restriction".
     An error is returned when the user is not in the list.


If you are interested, I will provide the modifications for
inclusion in the CVS core.


Comments? Improvements? Advice?



Dieter