this is obsolete doc -- see http://doc.nethence.com/ instead

Configuring ViewCVS on RHEL 

(version 1.1.18) 

Requirements 

Make sure you've got those packages available, 

rpm -q python rcs

Installation 

Get ViewVC (http://viewvc.tigris.org/), extract it and install it as root, 

wget http://viewvc.tigris.org/files/documents/3330/49264/viewvc-1.1.18.tar.gz

tar xzf viewvc-1.1.18.tar.gz

cd viewvc-1.1.18/

./viewvc-install (defaults are alright, even the empty DESTDIR)

Configuration 

Configure ViewVC, 

cd /usr/local/viewvc-1.1.18/

ls -l viewvc.conf*

sed '/^$/d; /^#/d;' viewvc.conf.dist > viewvc.conf

vi viewvc.conf

change, 

[general]

root_parents = /cvsroot : cvs

Note. Please, no identation here. 

Apache virtual host 

Create your virtual host for ViewVC e.g., 

cd /data/www.apache/

mkdir -p cvs.example.net/

cd cvs.example.net/

cat > index.html <<EOF9

<p><a href="cvs/viewvc.cgi>ViewVC</a>

EOF9

touch favicon.ico

touch robots.txt

and configure it, 

cd /etc/httpd/conf.d/

vi vhosts.conf

like, 

<VirtualHost *:8080>

ServerName cvs.example.net 

        ServerAlias     cvs

DocumentRoot /data/www.apache/cvs.example.net 

        CustomLog       logs/cvs.example.net.access.log common

        ErrorLog        logs/cvs.example.net.error.log

        ScriptAlias /cvs "/usr/local/viewvc-1.1.18/bin/cgi"

</VirtualHost>

apply, 

service httpd restart

Note. Otherwise you could also copy the CGI executable and use that configuration, 

        <Directory "/path/to/website">

                Options +ExecCGI

                AddHandler cgi-script .cgi

        </Directory>

Note. I also tryed with Thttpd (no chroot) but it didn't work so well, the layout didn't show up as expected and even the links on the front page didn't resolv (the hostname was missing). 

References 

ViewVC - DreamHost : http://wiki.dreamhost.com/ViewVC 

ViewVC: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) : http://www.viewvc.org/faq.html