Converting CMS to a Linux based code/source management system

Has anyone converted files stored in CMS to a Linux based code/source
management system? If so, which Linux system was the target and could it be
done automatically?

We are currently running CMS Version V4.2 on OpenVMS 7.3-2.

Thanks in advance.

Ken Robinson
Ken(removethis)rbnsn@gmail.com(.removethistoo)

Ken Robinson (GMail) wrote:[color=blue]
> Has anyone converted files stored in CMS to a Linux based code/source
> management system? If so, which Linux system was the target and could it be
> done automatically?
>
> We are currently running CMS Version V4.2 on OpenVMS 7.3-2.[/color]

I haven't done this, but I have looked at various conversions among
other version control systems. I assume by "converted files stored in
CMS" you mean preserving revision history and other data recorded in the
CMS library. That's a non-trivial task and it seems pretty unlikely
there are any ready-made tools to do it.

There are two basic approaches. One is to acquire a deep knowledge of
the internals of both origin and target systems and do a wholesale
conversion of the repository. The other approach is to use the published
interfaces to pull one change at a time from the old repository and
apply it to the new one. There are advantages and disadvantages to each
approach.

Either way you need to know a fair amount about how the concepts of the
two VCSs differ and how they can be mapped to each other and how much
information really needs to be preserved after the conversion. Do CMS
classes and groups correspond to branches, tags, or what exactly in the
system you would move to? Do you need to preserve the username
responsible for each change, or do you need to map it to a new username
on the target system? Do ACLs need to be translated to some form of
access control on the new system? Can you live with having the date of
each change look like the date of the conversion, or do you need to
preserve the date as recorded in the original system (which generally
means faking it on the new system)?

This is a small subset of the questions likely to come up when looking
for or building a conversion tool.

As far as what to convert to, that's a pretty open question. I would
hate to be a commercial VCS provider these days since there are so many
excellent free options. Subversion is probably the most similar to CMS
conceptually. git is what the Linux kernel developers use and is very
popular among Linux people. I've had a look-see at porting it to VMS and
may get back to it someday. Mercurial is used by Java, Mozilla,
Netbeans, and OpenSolaris and has the advantage of being available on
VMS (without being able to do the conversion locally, the second
approach mentioned above would be pretty much impossible).

There are *lots* of other options. You'll have to define what features
you want and look around.

On Thu, 30 Oct 2008 14:37:48 -0700, Craig A. Berry
<craigberry@nospam.mac.com> wrote:
[color=blue]
>
>
> Ken Robinson (GMail) wrote:[color=green]
>> Has anyone converted files stored in CMS to a Linux based code/source
>> management system? If so, which Linux system was the target and could
>> it be
>> done automatically?
>> We are currently running CMS Version V4.2 on OpenVMS 7.3-2.[/color]
>
> I haven't done this, but I have looked at various conversions among
> other version control systems. I assume by "converted files stored in
> CMS" you mean preserving revision history and other data recorded in the
> CMS library. That's a non-trivial task and it seems pretty unlikely
> there are any ready-made tools to do it.
>
> There are two basic approaches. One is to acquire a deep knowledge of
> the internals of both origin and target systems and do a wholesale
> conversion of the repository. The other approach is to use the published
> interfaces to pull one change at a time from the old repository and
> apply it to the new one. There are advantages and disadvantages to each
> approach.
>
> Either way you need to know a fair amount about how the concepts of the
> two VCSs differ and how they can be mapped to each other and how much
> information really needs to be preserved after the conversion. Do CMS
> classes and groups correspond to branches, tags, or what exactly in the
> system you would move to? Do you need to preserve the username
> responsible for each change, or do you need to map it to a new username
> on the target system? Do ACLs need to be translated to some form of
> access control on the new system? Can you live with having the date of
> each change look like the date of the conversion, or do you need to
> preserve the date as recorded in the original system (which generally
> means faking it on the new system)?
>
> This is a small subset of the questions likely to come up when looking
> for or building a conversion tool.
>
> As far as what to convert to, that's a pretty open question. I would
> hate to be a commercial VCS provider these days since there are so many
> excellent free options. Subversion is probably the most similar to CMS
> conceptually. git is what the Linux kernel developers use and is very
> popular among Linux people. I've had a look-see at porting it to VMS and
> may get back to it someday. Mercurial is used by Java, Mozilla,
> Netbeans, and OpenSolaris and has the advantage of being available on
> VMS (without being able to do the conversion locally, the second
> approach mentioned above would be pretty much impossible).
>
> There are *lots* of other options. You'll have to define what features
> you want and look around.[/color]

I have worked with various systems on Unix and CMS and I would be inclined
to keep a VMS system(s) for that purpose alone and set up checkout
procedures
and the like from the Linux side. I have one PC that runs Linux and VAX
VMS
as a guest and with 2 NICs one for each I can communicate between the two.

--
PL/I for OpenVMS
[url]www.kednos.com[/url]