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(cvs.info)Server requirements

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Server requirements
-------------------

   The quick answer to what sort of machine is suitable as a server is
that requirements are modest--a server with 32M of memory or even less
can handle a fairly large source tree with a fair amount of activity.

   The real answer, of course, is more complicated.  Estimating the
known areas of large memory consumption should be sufficient to
estimate memory requirements.  There are two such areas documented
here; other memory consumption should be small by comparison (if you
find that is not the case, let us know, as described in Note: BUGS,
so we can update this documentation).

   The first area of big memory consumption is large checkouts, when
using the CVS server.  The server consists of two processes for each
client that it is serving.  Memory consumption on the child process
should remain fairly small.  Memory consumption on the parent process,
particularly if the network connection to the client is slow, can be
expected to grow to slightly more than the size of the sources in a
single directory, or two megabytes, whichever is larger.

   Multiplying the size of each CVS server by the number of servers
which you expect to have active at one time should give an idea of
memory requirements for the server.  For the most part, the memory
consumed by the parent process probably can be swap space rather than
physical memory.

   The second area of large memory consumption is `diff', when checking
in large files.  This is required even for binary files.  The rule of
thumb is to allow about ten times the size of the largest file you will
want to check in, although five times may be adequate.  For example, if
you want to check in a file which is 10 megabytes, you should have 100
megabytes of memory on the machine doing the checkin (the server
machine for client/server, or the machine running CVS for
non-client/server).  This can be swap space rather than physical
memory.  Because the memory is only required briefly, there is no
particular need to allow memory for more than one such checkin at a
time.

   Resource consumption for the client is even more modest--any machine
with enough capacity to run the operating system in question should
have little trouble.

   For information on disk space requirements, see Note: Creating a
repository.