Mask Making for Keck Spectrographs: CVS for data versioning


The SPG CVS server at UCO/Lick has been in operation since 1998. The mechanics of operation for the SPG CVS server require that the administrative files for a given CVSROOT are group writable by all users of that CVSROOT. Until recently, there has been a single CVSROOT for a single repository on the SPG CVS server.

The database tables which contain the slitmask information are interrelated with database tables for source code and instrument configuration. The data from these tables have been routinely extracted and saved into the CVS repository alongside all of the source code for Keck and Lick instruments. Until recently, the CVS access for these database backups was done personally by De Clarke.

The new scheme for synchronizing the databases relies on CVS access by cron jobs. We did not wish for a cron job to have access to the entire source code history of Keck and Lick. Nor did we wish regular source code users to have unlimited access to database contents.

Therefore we have created a new CVSROOT for a new CVS repository on the SPG CVS server. We have also created a new Unix user and Unix group which have access to the new repository. The CVS archive of the slitmask tables is owned by this new user and group. The cron jobs have access to an ssh private key which admits them only to this new CVS repository. Holders of keys to the existing source repository cannot gain access to the new "data CVSROOT".


de@ucolick.org
webmaster@ucolick.org
De Clarke
UCO/Lick Observatory
University of California
Santa Cruz, CA 95064
Tel +1 408 459 2630
Fax +1 408 454 9863