HOW-TO: Using CVS over SSH with IntelliJ IDEA on Windows

Author: Ian Brown spam@hccp.org

This is a detailed HOW-TO on using CVS over SSH with IntelliJ IDEA on Windows. It is based on configuration information originally provided by SimonLei on the IntelliJ Community Wiki, where alternate strategies for enabling CVS over SSH with IDEA can be found.

Download and Install WinCvs

Download and Install PuTTY

Create BAT file to invoke plink.exe

Configure IntelliJ IDEA

Download and Install WinCvs

Download WinCVS 1.3 (or higher):

Binary distributions are available at the WinCvs homepage: http://www.wincvs.org/download.html . . . as well as directly from SourceForge: http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/cvsgui/WinCvs13b13-2.zip?download
After installation, make sure that cvs.exe is in your path:

Download and Install PuTTY

Download PuTTY:

Be sure to download the entire PuTTY toolset (not just PuTTY.exe), which can be found at http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/ . . .
After installation, make sure that plink.exe is in your path:

Create a BAT file to invoke plink.exe:

Save the following BAT script:

@echo off
set CMD_LINE_ARGS=
:setArgs
if ""%1""=="""" goto doneSetArgs
set CMD_LINE_ARGS=%CMD_LINE_ARGS% %1
shift
goto setArgs
:doneSetArgs

plink.exe -ssh -pw your-password-goes-here %CMD_LINE_ARGS%

Be sure to enter your password into the line that invokes plink.exe
Set the environment property CVS_RSH to the above BAT file:

Configure IntelliJ IDEA:

Select CVS from the VCS Support dropdown in the IntelliJ Project Properties panel:

Set the path to WinCvs client:

Edit CVS roots:

Right click on src node in project sidebar, select CVS, then Checkout from the menu:

Enter the module you would like to work with into the CVS Checkout panel. This should be the relative directory path from the cvs root:

Source should now be downloaded from the remote CVS repository!

Use the Commit option to send changes back to the CVS repository.

For more information on developing with CVS, visit http://www.cvshome.org/