CVS stands for Concurrent Versions System. It is a version control system that has been developed in the public domain by many people beginning in 1986. Using CVS, you can record the history of your source files and/or documents. It does not check your work for you, but it is a good safeguard against disasters, should they happen.
This HOWTO is not going to teach you everything about CVS, but it is designed to be a quick guide to using the CVS Repository. For more information on using CVS you can check:
CVSHome - http://www.cvshome.org/
Intro to CVS - http://linux.oreillynet.com/pub/a/linux/2002/01/03/cvs_intro.html
There are many free cvs clients you can download. If you are a Linux/Unix user, then you probably have it as part of your standard install. If you are a Windows user, you have two options:
Cygwin bash shell - http://sources.redhat.com/cygwin/
Cygwin is a UNIX environment for Windows, which comes with a command-line cvs client.
WinCVS - http://www.wincvs.org/
WinCVS is a graphical cvs client for MS-Windows
It is strongly recommended that you use the linux/unix cvs client. However, if you must use Windows, Cygwin bash shell is what we recommend. This HOWTO assumes that you either know the equivalent of commands on the graphical front-end, or use the command-line interface.