The EXPRESS archive is managed using a version control system called CVS. Anyone can look at files and their version histories using this web interface, or a CVS client on their local machine. Convenors and other authorized people can use a CVS client to upload new files and manage the archive.
Using this web interface, files are listed with the latest revision number and who loaded it into the archive. Select the version number to see the body of the file. Select the filename to list all versions. In the list, the HEAD is the latest version. There are download tags by each version. Simply right click on that tag and select "Save Link As" or "Save Target As" to save a local copy of the file.
Use a CVS client if you want to download a large number of files, like all of the integrated resources. There are GUI and command-line clients available for download:
Once you have a CVS client, you can configure it for anonymous read access to the SC4 archive. With WinCVS, the first time it starts it will prompt you for your CVS archive. Set it to:
anonymous@cvs.steptools.com:/cvs/sc4and set the authentication to passwd file on cvs server. If you ever want to change these settings, you can find them under Admin | Preferences on the General tab. The first time you check something out, WinCVS will also ask you for a "home" directory where it stores some config info. This can be found under the preferences WinCVS tab.
After you log in to the archive, go to Create | Checkout module, enter one of the module names ("AICs", "APs", "IRs", "PLIB", "imp-methods", or "modules") and a directory where you would like things to go. You can release (and remove) a checked out directory using Trace | release selection.
If you are using the command-line CVS client, you can access the archive by with the following commands. Just enter an empty password if asked.
cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.steptools.com:/cvs/sc4 login
cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.steptools.com:/cvs/sc4 co IRs
SC4 convenors and deputy convenors SC4 are given full read-write access so they can manage the files from their working group. You will need a different userid and passwork to access the archive, please contact Dave Loffredo (loffredo@steptools.com).
Once you have an account, you can access the archive in the same manner as anonymous access, except that you will also be able to commit changes to the archive. Change your CVS archive setting by replacing anonymous with your username. Then you should log in with the new account. On WinCVS, do Admin | Login. You may need to release any copy of the archive previously checked out as anonymous.
To modify files, first do Trace | Edit selection, then just change them as needed. When you are done, do Modify | Commit selection to update the archive. You can commit individual files or entire directories, but if you commit multiple files at once, the same changelog entry applies to each of them. Given that SC4 files tend to change one at a time, you probably want to commit each file individually and give it a custom message.
To add a new file, copy it into the appropriate place in your local directory, then do Modify | Add selection to register the file with the archive, then do Modify | Commit selection to update the archive.