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How to add more remote commands

It's the usual simple twelve step process. Let's say you're making the existing cvs fix command work remotely.

• Add a declaration for the fix function, which already implements the cvs fix command, to `server.c'.
• Now, the client side. Add a function client_fix to `client.c', which calls parse_cvsroot and then calls the usual fix function.
• Add a declaration for client_fix to `client.h'.
• Add client_fix to the "fix" entry in the table of commands in `main.c'.
• Now for the server side. Add the serve_fix routine to `server.c'; make it do:

  static void
  serve_fix (arg)
      char *arg;
  {
      do_cvs_command (fix);
  }
  

• Add the server command "fix" to the table of requests in `server.c'.
• The fix function can now be entered in three different situations: local (the old situation), client, and server. On the server side it probably will not need any changes to cope. Modify the fix function so that if it is run when the variable client_active is set, it starts the server, sends over parsed arguments and possibly files, sends a "fix" command to the server, and handles responses from the server. Sample code:

      if (!client_active) {
          /* Do whatever you used to do */
      } else {
          /* We're the local client.  Fire up the remote server.  */
          start_server ();
  
          if (local)
              if (fprintf (to_server, "Argument -l\n") == EOF)
                  error (1, errno, "writing to server");
          send_option_string (options);
  
          send_files (argc, argv, local);
  
          if (fprintf (to_server, "fix\n") == EOF)
              error (1, errno, "writing to server");
          err = get_responses_and_close ();
      }
  

• Build it locally. Copy the new version into somewhere on the remote system, in your path so that rsh host cvs finds it. Now you can test it.
• You may want to set the environment variable CVS_CLIENT_PORT to -1 to prevent the client from contacting the server via a direct TCP link. That will force the client to fall back to using rsh, which will run your new binary.
• Set the environment variable CVS_CLIENT_LOG to a filename prefix such as `/tmp/cvslog'. Whenever you run a remote CVS command, the commands and responses sent across the client/server connection will be logged in `/tmp/cvslog.in' and `/tmp/cvslog.out'. Examine them for problems while you're testing.

This should produce a good first cut at a working remote cvs fix command. You may have to change exactly how arguments are passed, whether files or just their names are sent, and how some of the deeper infrastructure of your command copes with remoteness.

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