[needs test case.

-kingdon]

From: Warren Jones <wjones@tc.fluke.com>
Subject: Check for writable history file not always needed
To: bug-cvs@gnu.org
Date: Mon, 1 Feb 1999 15:36:32 -0800 (PST)

If the user doesn't have write permission for the CVSROOT/history
file, CVS will fail with a message like this:

    cvs annotate: Sorry, you don't have read/write access to the history file
    cvs [annotate aborted]: /blah/blah/CVSROOT/history: Permission denied

This failure seems unnecessary when cvs is run with the "-l" flag,
which turns off history logging.  I'm including a patch which will
skip the check for a writable history file when the "-l" flag is
present.  Does this patch seem reasonable, or are there some
issues that I've overlooked?

The primary motive for this patch is to allow a web interface
to CVS to run the annotate command without giving world write
permission to the history file.  The web interface typically
runs with the limited permission of httpd or nobody.
(http://linux.fh-heilbronn.de/~zeller/cgi/cvsweb.cgi/)

Actually, there are a number of CVS commands that don't ever write
to the history file (including annotate).  A more complete solution
might involve checking to see if the current command is one that
keeps a history before checking for write permission.  I haven't
made a patch for this change, but if I did, it would probably
involve the lookup_command_attribute() function, which might
add another status bit (CVS_CMD_NO_HISTORY?) to its return value.
Can anyone comment of the usefulness of such a change?

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Warren Jones              | To keep every cog and wheel is the first
Fluke Corporation         | precaution of intelligent tinkering.
Everett, Washington, USA  |                          -- Aldo Leopold


Index: main.c
===================================================================
RCS file: /usr0/sweng/src/active/CVS.repo/cvs/src/main.c,v
retrieving revision 1.5
diff -c -r1.5 main.c
*** main.c	1998/10/16 15:51:17	1.5
--- main.c	1999/01/27 19:42:54
***************
*** 980,986 ****
  		    }
  		    (void) strcat (path, "/");
  		    (void) strcat (path, CVSROOTADM_HISTORY);
! 		    if (isfile (path) && !isaccessible (path, R_OK | W_OK))
  		    {
  			save_errno = errno;
  			error (0, 0, "Sorry, you don't have read/write access to the history file");
--- 980,986 ----
  		    }
  		    (void) strcat (path, "/");
  		    (void) strcat (path, CVSROOTADM_HISTORY);
! 		    if (!logoff && isfile (path) && !isaccessible (path, R_OK | W_OK))
  		    {
  			save_errno = errno;
  			error (0, 0, "Sorry, you don't have read/write access to the history file");
Index: server.c
===================================================================
RCS file: /usr0/sweng/src/active/CVS.repo/cvs/src/server.c,v
retrieving revision 1.1.1.8
diff -c -r1.1.1.8 server.c
*** server.c	1998/10/12 23:32:55	1.1.1.8
--- server.c	1999/01/27 19:44:07
***************
*** 814,820 ****
      }
      (void) strcat (path, "/");
      (void) strcat (path, CVSROOTADM_HISTORY);
!     if (isfile (path) && !isaccessible (path, R_OK | W_OK))
      {
  	save_errno = errno;
  	pending_error_text = malloc (80 + strlen (path));
--- 814,820 ----
      }
      (void) strcat (path, "/");
      (void) strcat (path, CVSROOTADM_HISTORY);
!     if (!logoff && isfile (path) && !isaccessible (path, R_OK | W_OK))
      {
  	save_errno = errno;
  	pending_error_text = malloc (80 + strlen (path));