TkCVS in Mac OS X X11

TkCVS (TkSVN) is one of the best tools I've found for visualizing CVS and Subversion branches. Since it is written in Tcl/Tk you can use it on Mac, Linux, and that other OS.

Here's how to install it on Mac for use in the X11 environment and how to integrate it with BBEdit. This assumes you have the X11 environment and BBEdit command line tools (bbedit and bbdiff) installed. Also, you should have a /usr/local directory and it has been added to your $PATH. You'll have to find out how to do this on your own if you don't already know how.

Download the Unix distro (the latest was 8.0.4 as of this writing) to your Desktop.

1. Unpack the distro.
   
   tar -xvzf tkcvs_8_0_4.tar.gz
   
2. Install into /usr/local
   
   cd tkcvs_8_0_4
   sudo ./doinstall.tcl -nox /usr/local
   
3. Launch X11 and launch TkCVS from the xterm. Or, better yet, customize the X11 "Applications" menu and add a command for tkcvs (I set mine to command-t).
   
   tkcvs
   
4. Edit the cvsdiff script in the contrib directory.
   
   bbedit contrib/cvsdiff
   
   
   Find the line: VDIFF="gvim -d -f" and replace it with:
   
   VDIFF="bbdiff --wait --resume"
   
5. Copy the cvsdiff script in the contrib directory to /usr/local/bin.
   
   sudo cp contrib/cvsdiff /usr/local/bin/cvsdiff
   
6. Edit the .tkcvs config file to use the diff wrapper script and bbedit for comparing and editing.
   
   bbedit ~/.tkcvs
   
   
   Add the following lines to the config file.
   
   set cvscfg(editor) "bbedit --wait --resume"
   set cvscfg(tkdiff) "/usr/local/bin/cvsdiff"
   
7. Launch TkCVS again via X11 xterm and you're good to go!
   
   tkcvs
   

Oh yeah. Don't forget that to cut/copy/paste (etc...) you need to use the control key and not the command key. You're in X-Windows after all.