to import your previous history, make sure cvs2mysql has read access to your
repository and execute
./cvs2mysql.pl --import $CVSROOT/CVSROOT/history

to log all future log messages to the database, add a line similar to the following
to your CVSROOT/loginfo:
ALL cat | perl $CVSROOT/CVSROOT/cvs2mysql.pl -u $USER -f %{sv} >> $CVSROOT/CVSROOT/cvs2mysql.log


Example usage of the database:

Retreive last 5 most-recently updated projects:
SELECT `repo`, MAX(`committed`) AS `time`
FROM `cvslog` GROUP BY `repo` ORDER BY `time` DESC LIMIT 5;