1This is cvs.info, produced by makeinfo version 4.0 from cvs.texinfo. 2 3START-INFO-DIR-ENTRY 4* CVS: (cvs). Concurrent Versions System 5END-INFO-DIR-ENTRY 6 7 Copyright (C) 1992, 1993 Signum Support AB Copyright (C) 1993, 1994 8Free Software Foundation, Inc. 9 10 Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this 11manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are 12preserved on all copies. 13 14 Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of 15this manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided also 16that the entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms 17of a permission notice identical to this one. 18 19 Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this 20manual into another language, under the above conditions for modified 21versions, except that this permission notice may be stated in a 22translation approved by the Free Software Foundation. 23 24 25File: cvs.info, Node: cvsignore, Next: checkoutlist, Prev: rcsinfo, Up: Administrative files 26 27Ignoring files via cvsignore 28============================ 29 30 There are certain file names that frequently occur inside your 31working copy, but that you don't want to put under CVS control. 32Examples are all the object files that you get while you compile your 33sources. Normally, when you run `cvs update', it prints a line for 34each file it encounters that it doesn't know about (*note update 35output::). 36 37 CVS has a list of files (or sh(1) file name patterns) that it should 38ignore while running `update', `import' and `release'. This list is 39constructed in the following way. 40 41 * The list is initialized to include certain file name patterns: 42 names associated with CVS administration, or with other common 43 source control systems; common names for patch files, object files, 44 archive files, and editor backup files; and other names that are 45 usually artifacts of assorted utilities. Currently, the default 46 list of ignored file name patterns is: 47 48 RCS SCCS CVS CVS.adm 49 RCSLOG cvslog.* 50 tags TAGS 51 .make.state .nse_depinfo 52 *~ #* .#* ,* _$* *$ 53 *.old *.bak *.BAK *.orig *.rej .del-* 54 *.a *.olb *.o *.obj *.so *.exe 55 *.Z *.elc *.ln 56 core 57 58 * The per-repository list in `$CVSROOT/CVSROOT/cvsignore' is 59 appended to the list, if that file exists. 60 61 * The per-user list in `.cvsignore' in your home directory is 62 appended to the list, if it exists. 63 64 * Any entries in the environment variable `$CVSIGNORE' is appended 65 to the list. 66 67 * Any `-I' options given to CVS is appended. 68 69 * As CVS traverses through your directories, the contents of any 70 `.cvsignore' will be appended to the list. The patterns found in 71 `.cvsignore' are only valid for the directory that contains them, 72 not for any sub-directories. 73 74 In any of the 5 places listed above, a single exclamation mark (`!') 75clears the ignore list. This can be used if you want to store any file 76which normally is ignored by CVS. 77 78 Specifying `-I !' to `cvs import' will import everything, which is 79generally what you want to do if you are importing files from a 80pristine distribution or any other source which is known to not contain 81any extraneous files. However, looking at the rules above you will see 82there is a fly in the ointment; if the distribution contains any 83`.cvsignore' files, then the patterns from those files will be 84processed even if `-I !' is specified. The only workaround is to 85remove the `.cvsignore' files in order to do the import. Because this 86is awkward, in the future `-I !' might be modified to override 87`.cvsignore' files in each directory. 88 89 Note that the syntax of the ignore files consists of a series of 90lines, each of which contains a space separated list of filenames. 91This offers no clean way to specify filenames which contain spaces, but 92you can use a workaround like `foo?bar' to match a file named `foo bar' 93(it also matches `fooxbar' and the like). Also note that there is 94currently no way to specify comments. 95 96 97File: cvs.info, Node: checkoutlist, Next: history file, Prev: cvsignore, Up: Administrative files 98 99The checkoutlist file 100===================== 101 102 It may be helpful to use CVS to maintain your own files in the 103`CVSROOT' directory. For example, suppose that you have a script 104`logcommit.pl' which you run by including the following line in the 105`commitinfo' administrative file: 106 107 ALL $CVSROOT/CVSROOT/logcommit.pl 108 109 To maintain `logcommit.pl' with CVS you would add the following line 110to the `checkoutlist' administrative file: 111 112 logcommit.pl 113 114 The format of `checkoutlist' is one line for each file that you want 115to maintain using CVS, giving the name of the file. 116 117 After setting up `checkoutlist' in this fashion, the files listed 118there will function just like CVS's built-in administrative files. For 119example, when checking in one of the files you should get a message 120such as: 121 122 cvs commit: Rebuilding administrative file database 123 124 and the checked out copy in the `CVSROOT' directory should be 125updated. 126 127 Note that listing `passwd' (*note Password authentication server::) 128in `checkoutlist' is not recommended for security reasons. 129 130 For information about keeping a checkout out copy in a more general 131context than the one provided by `checkoutlist', see *Note Keeping a 132checked out copy::. 133 134 135File: cvs.info, Node: history file, Next: Variables, Prev: checkoutlist, Up: Administrative files 136 137The history file 138================ 139 140 The file `$CVSROOT/CVSROOT/history' is used to log information for 141the `history' command (*note history::). This file must be created to 142turn on logging. This is done automatically if the `cvs init' command 143is used to set up the repository (*note Creating a repository::). 144 145 The file format of the `history' file is documented only in comments 146in the CVS source code, but generally programs should use the `cvs 147history' command to access it anyway, in case the format changes with 148future releases of CVS. 149 150 151File: cvs.info, Node: Variables, Next: config, Prev: history file, Up: Administrative files 152 153Expansions in administrative files 154================================== 155 156 Sometimes in writing an administrative file, you might want the file 157to be able to know various things based on environment CVS is running 158in. There are several mechanisms to do that. 159 160 To find the home directory of the user running CVS (from the `HOME' 161environment variable), use `~' followed by `/' or the end of the line. 162Likewise for the home directory of USER, use `~USER'. These variables 163are expanded on the server machine, and don't get any reasonable 164expansion if pserver (*note Password authenticated::) is in use; 165therefore user variables (see below) may be a better choice to 166customize behavior based on the user running CVS. 167 168 One may want to know about various pieces of information internal to 169CVS. A CVS internal variable has the syntax `${VARIABLE}', where 170VARIABLE starts with a letter and consists of alphanumeric characters 171and `_'. If the character following VARIABLE is a non-alphanumeric 172character other than `_', the `{' and `}' can be omitted. The CVS 173internal variables are: 174 175`CVSROOT' 176 This is the value of the CVS root in use. *Note Repository::, for 177 a description of the various ways to specify this. 178 179`RCSBIN' 180 In CVS 1.9.18 and older, this specified the directory where CVS 181 was looking for RCS programs. Because CVS no longer runs RCS 182 programs, specifying this internal variable is now an error. 183 184`CVSEDITOR' 185`VISUAL' 186`EDITOR' 187 These all expand to the same value, which is the editor that CVS 188 is using. *Note Global options::, for how to specify this. 189 190`USER' 191 Username of the user running CVS (on the CVS server machine). 192 When using pserver, this is the user specified in the repository 193 specification which need not be the same as the username the 194 server is running as (*note Password authentication server::). 195 196 If you want to pass a value to the administrative files which the 197user who is running CVS can specify, use a user variable. To expand a 198user variable, the administrative file contains `${=VARIABLE}'. To set 199a user variable, specify the global option `-s' to CVS, with argument 200`VARIABLE=VALUE'. It may be particularly useful to specify this option 201via `.cvsrc' (*note ~/.cvsrc::). 202 203 For example, if you want the administrative file to refer to a test 204directory you might create a user variable `TESTDIR'. Then if CVS is 205invoked as 206 207 cvs -s TESTDIR=/work/local/tests 208 209and the administrative file contains `sh ${=TESTDIR}/runtests', then 210that string is expanded to `sh /work/local/tests/runtests'. 211 212 All other strings containing `$' are reserved; there is no way to 213quote a `$' character so that `$' represents itself. 214 215 Environment variables passed to administrative files are: 216 217`CVS_USER' 218 The CVS-specific username provided by the user, if it can be 219 provided (currently just for the pserver access method), and to 220 the empty string otherwise. (CVS_USER and USER may differ when 221 `$CVSROOT/CVSROOT/passwd' is used to map cvs usernames to system 222 usernames.) 223 224 225File: cvs.info, Node: config, Prev: Variables, Up: Administrative files 226 227The CVSROOT/config configuration file 228===================================== 229 230 The administrative file `config' contains various miscellaneous 231settings which affect the behavior of CVS. The syntax is slightly 232different from the other administrative files. Variables are not 233expanded. Lines which start with `#' are considered comments. Other 234lines consist of a keyword, `=', and a value. Note that this syntax is 235very strict. Extraneous spaces or tabs are not permitted. 236 237 Currently defined keywords are: 238 239`RCSBIN=BINDIR' 240 For CVS 1.9.12 through 1.9.18, this setting told CVS to look for 241 RCS programs in the BINDIR directory. Current versions of CVS do 242 not run RCS programs; for compatibility this setting is accepted, 243 but it does nothing. 244 245`SystemAuth=VALUE' 246 If VALUE is `yes', then pserver should check for users in the 247 system's user database if not found in `CVSROOT/passwd'. If it is 248 `no', then all pserver users must exist in `CVSROOT/passwd'. The 249 default is `yes'. For more on pserver, see *Note Password 250 authenticated::. 251 252`TopLevelAdmin=VALUE' 253 Modify the `checkout' command to create a `CVS' directory at the 254 top level of the new working directory, in addition to `CVS' 255 directories created within checked-out directories. The default 256 value is `no'. 257 258 This option is useful if you find yourself performing many 259 commands at the top level of your working directory, rather than 260 in one of the checked out subdirectories. The `CVS' directory 261 created there will mean you don't have to specify `CVSROOT' for 262 each command. It also provides a place for the `CVS/Template' 263 file (*note Working directory storage::). 264 265`LockDir=DIRECTORY' 266 Put CVS lock files in DIRECTORY rather than directly in the 267 repository. This is useful if you want to let users read from the 268 repository while giving them write access only to DIRECTORY, not 269 to the repository. You need to create DIRECTORY, but CVS will 270 create subdirectories of DIRECTORY as it needs them. For 271 information on CVS locks, see *Note Concurrency::. 272 273 Before enabling the LockDir option, make sure that you have 274 tracked down and removed any copies of CVS 1.9 or older. Such 275 versions neither support LockDir, nor will give an error 276 indicating that they don't support it. The result, if this is 277 allowed to happen, is that some CVS users will put the locks one 278 place, and others will put them another place, and therefore the 279 repository could become corrupted. CVS 1.10 does not support 280 LockDir but it will print a warning if run on a repository with 281 LockDir enabled. 282 283`LogHistory=VALUE' 284 Control what is logged to the `CVSROOT/history' file. Default of 285 `TOFEWGCMAR' (or simply `all') will log all transactions. Any 286 subset of the default is legal. (For example, to only log 287 transactions that modify the `*,v' files, use `LogHistory=TMAR'.) 288 289 290File: cvs.info, Node: Environment variables, Next: Compatibility, Prev: Administrative files, Up: Top 291 292All environment variables which affect CVS 293****************************************** 294 295 This is a complete list of all environment variables that affect CVS. 296 297`$CVSIGNORE' 298 A whitespace-separated list of file name patterns that CVS should 299 ignore. *Note cvsignore::. 300 301`$CVSWRAPPERS' 302 A whitespace-separated list of file name patterns that CVS should 303 treat as wrappers. *Note Wrappers::. 304 305`$CVSREAD' 306 If this is set, `checkout' and `update' will try hard to make the 307 files in your working directory read-only. When this is not set, 308 the default behavior is to permit modification of your working 309 files. 310 311`$CVSUMASK' 312 Controls permissions of files in the repository. See *Note File 313 permissions::. 314 315`$CVSROOT' 316 Should contain the full pathname to the root of the CVS source 317 repository (where the RCS files are kept). This information must 318 be available to CVS for most commands to execute; if `$CVSROOT' is 319 not set, or if you wish to override it for one invocation, you can 320 supply it on the command line: `cvs -d cvsroot cvs_command...' 321 Once you have checked out a working directory, CVS stores the 322 appropriate root (in the file `CVS/Root'), so normally you only 323 need to worry about this when initially checking out a working 324 directory. 325 326`$EDITOR' 327`$CVSEDITOR' 328`$VISUAL' 329 Specifies the program to use for recording log messages during 330 commit. `$CVSEDITOR' overrides `$EDITOR'. See *Note Committing 331 your changes::. 332 333`$PATH' 334 If `$RCSBIN' is not set, and no path is compiled into CVS, it will 335 use `$PATH' to try to find all programs it uses. 336 337`$HOME' 338 339`$HOMEPATH' 340 341`$HOMEDRIVE' 342 Used to locate the directory where the `.cvsrc' file, and other 343 such files, are searched. On Unix, CVS just checks for `HOME'. 344 On Windows NT, the system will set `HOMEDRIVE', for example to 345 `d:' and `HOMEPATH', for example to `\joe'. On Windows 95, you'll 346 probably need to set `HOMEDRIVE' and `HOMEPATH' yourself. 347 348`$CVS_RSH' 349 Specifies the external program which CVS connects with, when 350 `:ext:' access method is specified. *note Connecting via rsh::. 351 352`$CVS_SERVER' 353 Used in client-server mode when accessing a remote repository 354 using RSH. It specifies the name of the program to start on the 355 server side when accessing a remote repository using RSH. The 356 default value is `cvs'. *note Connecting via rsh:: 357 358`$CVS_PASSFILE' 359 Used in client-server mode when accessing the `cvs login server'. 360 Default value is `$HOME/.cvspass'. *note Password authentication 361 client:: 362 363`$CVS_CLIENT_PORT' 364 Used in client-server mode when accessing the server via Kerberos, 365 GSSAPI, or CVS's password authentication if the port is not 366 specified in $CVSROOT. *note Remote repositories:: 367 368`$CVS_RCMD_PORT' 369 Used in client-server mode. If set, specifies the port number to 370 be used when accessing the RCMD demon on the server side. 371 (Currently not used for Unix clients). 372 373`$CVS_CLIENT_LOG' 374 Used for debugging only in client-server mode. If set, everything 375 sent to the server is logged into ``$CVS_CLIENT_LOG'.in' and 376 everything sent from the server is logged into 377 ``$CVS_CLIENT_LOG'.out'. 378 379`$CVS_SERVER_SLEEP' 380 Used only for debugging the server side in client-server mode. If 381 set, delays the start of the server child process the specified 382 amount of seconds so that you can attach to it with a debugger. 383 384`$CVS_IGNORE_REMOTE_ROOT' 385 For CVS 1.10 and older, setting this variable prevents CVS from 386 overwriting the `CVS/Root' file when the `-d' global option is 387 specified. Later versions of CVS do not rewrite `CVS/Root', so 388 `CVS_IGNORE_REMOTE_ROOT' has no effect. 389 390`$COMSPEC' 391 Used under OS/2 only. It specifies the name of the command 392 interpreter and defaults to CMD.EXE. 393 394`$TMPDIR' 395`$TMP' 396`$TEMP' 397 Directory in which temporary files are located. The CVS server 398 uses `TMPDIR'. *Note Global options::, for a description of how 399 to specify this. Some parts of CVS will always use `/tmp' (via 400 the `tmpnam' function provided by the system). 401 402 On Windows NT, `TMP' is used (via the `_tempnam' function provided 403 by the system). 404 405 The `patch' program which is used by the CVS client uses `TMPDIR', 406 and if it is not set, uses `/tmp' (at least with GNU patch 2.1). 407 Note that if your server and client are both running CVS 1.9.10 or 408 later, CVS will not invoke an external `patch' program. 409 410 411File: cvs.info, Node: Compatibility, Next: Troubleshooting, Prev: Environment variables, Up: Top 412 413Compatibility between CVS Versions 414********************************** 415 416 The repository format is compatible going back to CVS 1.3. But see 417*Note Watches Compatibility::, if you have copies of CVS 1.6 or older 418and you want to use the optional developer communication features. 419 420 The working directory format is compatible going back to CVS 1.5. 421It did change between CVS 1.3 and CVS 1.5. If you run CVS 1.5 or newer 422on a working directory checked out with CVS 1.3, CVS will convert it, 423but to go back to CVS 1.3 you need to check out a new working directory 424with CVS 1.3. 425 426 The remote protocol is interoperable going back to CVS 1.5, but no 427further (1.5 was the first official release with the remote protocol, 428but some older versions might still be floating around). In many cases 429you need to upgrade both the client and the server to take advantage of 430new features and bugfixes, however. 431 432 433File: cvs.info, Node: Troubleshooting, Next: Credits, Prev: Compatibility, Up: Top 434 435Troubleshooting 436*************** 437 438 If you are having trouble with CVS, this appendix may help. If 439there is a particular error message which you are seeing, then you can 440look up the message alphabetically. If not, you can look through the 441section on other problems to see if your problem is mentioned there. 442 443* Menu: 444 445* Error messages:: Partial list of CVS errors 446* Connection:: Trouble making a connection to a CVS server 447* Other problems:: Problems not readily listed by error message 448 449 450File: cvs.info, Node: Error messages, Next: Connection, Up: Troubleshooting 451 452Partial list of error messages 453============================== 454 455 Here is a partial list of error messages that you may see from CVS. 456It is not a complete list--CVS is capable of printing many, many error 457messages, often with parts of them supplied by the operating system, 458but the intention is to list the common and/or potentially confusing 459error messages. 460 461 The messages are alphabetical, but introductory text such as `cvs 462update: ' is not considered in ordering them. 463 464 In some cases the list includes messages printed by old versions of 465CVS (partly because users may not be sure which version of CVS they are 466using at any particular moment). 467 468`cvs COMMAND: authorization failed: server HOST rejected access' 469 This is a generic response when trying to connect to a pserver 470 server which chooses not to provide a specific reason for denying 471 authorization. Check that the username and password specified are 472 correct and that the `CVSROOT' specified is allowed by 473 `--allow-root' in `inetd.conf'. See *Note Password 474 authenticated::. 475 476`FILE:LINE: Assertion 'TEXT' failed' 477 The exact format of this message may vary depending on your 478 system. It indicates a bug in CVS, which can be handled as 479 described in *Note BUGS::. 480 481`cvs COMMAND: conflict: removed FILE was modified by second party' 482 This message indicates that you removed a file, and someone else 483 modified it. To resolve the conflict, first run `cvs add FILE'. 484 If desired, look at the other party's modification to decide 485 whether you still want to remove it. If you don't want to remove 486 it, stop here. If you do want to remove it, proceed with `cvs 487 remove FILE' and commit your removal. 488 489`cannot change permissions on temporary directory' 490 Operation not permitted 491 This message has been happening in a non-reproducible, occasional 492 way when we run the client/server testsuite, both on Red Hat Linux 493 3.0.3 and 4.1. We haven't been able to figure out what causes it, 494 nor is it known whether it is specific to linux (or even to this 495 particular machine!). If the problem does occur on other unices, 496 `Operation not permitted' would be likely to read `Not owner' or 497 whatever the system in question uses for the unix `EPERM' error. 498 If you have any information to add, please let us know as 499 described in *Note BUGS::. If you experience this error while 500 using CVS, retrying the operation which produced it should work 501 fine. 502 503`cvs [server aborted]: Cannot check out files into the repository itself' 504 The obvious cause for this message (especially for 505 non-client/server CVS) is that the CVS root is, for example, 506 `/usr/local/cvsroot' and you try to check out files when you are 507 in a subdirectory, such as `/usr/local/cvsroot/test'. However, 508 there is a more subtle cause, which is that the temporary 509 directory on the server is set to a subdirectory of the root 510 (which is also not allowed). If this is the problem, set the 511 temporary directory to somewhere else, for example `/var/tmp'; see 512 `TMPDIR' in *Note Environment variables::, for how to set the 513 temporary directory. 514 515`cannot open CVS/Entries for reading: No such file or directory' 516 This generally indicates a CVS internal error, and can be handled 517 as with other CVS bugs (*note BUGS::). Usually there is a 518 workaround--the exact nature of which would depend on the 519 situation but which hopefully could be figured out. 520 521`cvs [init aborted]: cannot open CVS/Root: No such file or directory' 522 This message is harmless. Provided it is not accompanied by other 523 errors, the operation has completed successfully. This message 524 should not occur with current versions of CVS, but it is documented 525 here for the benefit of CVS 1.9 and older. 526 527`cvs [checkout aborted]: cannot rename file FILE to CVS/,,FILE: Invalid argument' 528 This message has been reported as intermittently happening with 529 CVS 1.9 on Solaris 2.5. The cause is unknown; if you know more 530 about what causes it, let us know as described in *Note BUGS::. 531 532`cvs [COMMAND aborted]: cannot start server via rcmd' 533 This, unfortunately, is a rather nonspecific error message which 534 CVS 1.9 will print if you are running the CVS client and it is 535 having trouble connecting to the server. Current versions of CVS 536 should print a much more specific error message. If you get this 537 message when you didn't mean to run the client at all, you 538 probably forgot to specify `:local:', as described in *Note 539 Repository::. 540 541`ci: FILE,v: bad diff output line: Binary files - and /tmp/T2a22651 differ' 542 CVS 1.9 and older will print this message when trying to check in 543 a binary file if RCS is not correctly installed. Re-read the 544 instructions that came with your RCS distribution and the INSTALL 545 file in the CVS distribution. Alternately, upgrade to a current 546 version of CVS, which checks in files itself rather than via RCS. 547 548`cvs checkout: could not check out FILE' 549 With CVS 1.9, this can mean that the `co' program (part of RCS) 550 returned a failure. It should be preceded by another error 551 message, however it has been observed without another error 552 message and the cause is not well-understood. With the current 553 version of CVS, which does not run `co', if this message occurs 554 without another error message, it is definitely a CVS bug (*note 555 BUGS::). 556 557`cvs [login aborted]: could not find out home directory' 558 This means that you need to set the environment variables that CVS 559 uses to locate your home directory. See the discussion of `HOME', 560 `HOMEDRIVE', and `HOMEPATH' in *Note Environment variables::. 561 562`cvs update: could not merge revision REV of FILE: No such file or directory' 563 CVS 1.9 and older will print this message if there was a problem 564 finding the `rcsmerge' program. Make sure that it is in your 565 `PATH', or upgrade to a current version of CVS, which does not 566 require an external `rcsmerge' program. 567 568`cvs [update aborted]: could not patch FILE: No such file or directory' 569 This means that there was a problem finding the `patch' program. 570 Make sure that it is in your `PATH'. Note that despite 571 appearances the message is _not_ referring to whether it can find 572 FILE. If both the client and the server are running a current 573 version of CVS, then there is no need for an external patch 574 program and you should not see this message. But if either client 575 or server is running CVS 1.9, then you need `patch'. 576 577`cvs update: could not patch FILE; will refetch' 578 This means that for whatever reason the client was unable to apply 579 a patch that the server sent. The message is nothing to be 580 concerned about, because inability to apply the patch only slows 581 things down and has no effect on what CVS does. 582 583`dying gasps from SERVER unexpected' 584 There is a known bug in the server for CVS 1.9.18 and older which 585 can cause this. For me, this was reproducible if I used the `-t' 586 global option. It was fixed by Andy Piper's 14 Nov 1997 change to 587 src/filesubr.c, if anyone is curious. If you see the message, you 588 probably can just retry the operation which failed, or if you have 589 discovered information concerning its cause, please let us know as 590 described in *Note BUGS::. 591 592`end of file from server (consult above messages if any)' 593 The most common cause for this message is if you are using an 594 external `rsh' program and it exited with an error. In this case 595 the `rsh' program should have printed a message, which will appear 596 before the above message. For more information on setting up a 597 CVS client and server, see *Note Remote repositories::. 598 599`cvs [update aborted]: EOF in key in RCS file FILE,v' 600`cvs [checkout aborted]: EOF while looking for end of string in RCS file FILE,v' 601 This means that there is a syntax error in the given RCS file. 602 Note that this might be true even if RCS can read the file OK; CVS 603 does more error checking of errors in the RCS file. That is why 604 you may see this message when upgrading from CVS 1.9 to CVS 1.10. 605 The likely cause for the original corruption is hardware, the 606 operating system, or the like. Of course, if you find a case in 607 which CVS seems to corrupting the file, by all means report it, 608 (*note BUGS::). There are quite a few variations of this error 609 message, depending on exactly where in the RCS file CVS finds the 610 syntax error. 611 612`cvs commit: Executing 'mkmodules'' 613 This means that your repository is set up for a version of CVS 614 prior to CVS 1.8. When using CVS 1.8 or later, the above message 615 will be preceded by 616 617 cvs commit: Rebuilding administrative file database 618 619 If you see both messages, the database is being rebuilt twice, 620 which is unnecessary but harmless. If you wish to avoid the 621 duplication, and you have no versions of CVS 1.7 or earlier in 622 use, remove `-i mkmodules' every place it appears in your `modules' 623 file. For more information on the `modules' file, see *Note 624 modules::. 625 626`missing author' 627 Typically this can happen if you created an RCS file with your 628 username set to empty. CVS will, bogusly, create an illegal RCS 629 file with no value for the author field. The solution is to make 630 sure your username is set to a non-empty value and re-create the 631 RCS file. 632 633`cvs [checkout aborted]: no such tag TAG' 634 This message means that CVS isn't familiar with the tag TAG. 635 Usually this means that you have mistyped a tag name; however 636 there are (relatively obscure) cases in which CVS will require you 637 to try a few other CVS commands involving that tag, before you 638 find one which will cause CVS to update the `val-tags' file; see 639 discussion of val-tags in *Note File permissions::. You only need 640 to worry about this once for a given tag; when a tag is listed in 641 `val-tags', it stays there. Note that using `-f' to not require 642 tag matches does not override this check; see *Note Common 643 options::. 644 645`*PANIC* administration files missing' 646 This typically means that there is a directory named CVS but it 647 does not contain the administrative files which CVS puts in a CVS 648 directory. If the problem is that you created a CVS directory via 649 some mechanism other than CVS, then the answer is simple, use a 650 name other than CVS. If not, it indicates a CVS bug (*note 651 BUGS::). 652 653`rcs error: Unknown option: -x,v/' 654 This message will be followed by a usage message for RCS. It 655 means that you have an old version of RCS (probably supplied with 656 your operating system), as well as an old version of CVS. CVS 657 1.9.18 and earlier only work with RCS version 5 and later; current 658 versions of CVS do not run RCS programs. 659 660`cvs [server aborted]: received broken pipe signal' 661 This message seems to be caused by a hard-to-track-down bug in CVS 662 or the systems it runs on (we don't know--we haven't tracked it 663 down yet!). It seems to happen only after a CVS command has 664 completed, and you should be able to just ignore the message. 665 However, if you have discovered information concerning its cause, 666 please let us know as described in *Note BUGS::. 667 668`Too many arguments!' 669 This message is typically printed by the `log.pl' script which is 670 in the `contrib' directory in the CVS source distribution. In 671 some versions of CVS, `log.pl' has been part of the default CVS 672 installation. The `log.pl' script gets called from the `loginfo' 673 administrative file. Check that the arguments passed in `loginfo' 674 match what your version of `log.pl' expects. In particular, the 675 `log.pl' from CVS 1.3 and older expects the logfile as an argument 676 whereas the `log.pl' from CVS 1.5 and newer expects the logfile to 677 be specified with a `-f' option. Of course, if you don't need 678 `log.pl' you can just comment it out of `loginfo'. 679 680`cvs [update aborted]: unexpected EOF reading FILE,v' 681 See `EOF in key in RCS file'. 682 683`cvs [login aborted]: unrecognized auth response from SERVER' 684 This message typically means that the server is not set up 685 properly. For example, if `inetd.conf' points to a nonexistent 686 cvs executable. To debug it further, find the log file which 687 inetd writes (`/var/log/messages' or whatever inetd uses on your 688 system). For details, see *Note Connection::, and *Note Password 689 authentication server::. 690 691`cvs server: cannot open /root/.cvsignore: Permission denied' 692`cvs [server aborted]: can't chdir(/root): Permission denied' 693 See *Note Connection::. 694 695`cvs commit: Up-to-date check failed for `FILE'' 696 This means that someone else has committed a change to that file 697 since the last time that you did a `cvs update'. So before 698 proceeding with your `cvs commit' you need to `cvs update'. CVS 699 will merge the changes that you made and the changes that the 700 other person made. If it does not detect any conflicts it will 701 report `M FILE' and you are ready to `cvs commit'. If it detects 702 conflicts it will print a message saying so, will report `C FILE', 703 and you need to manually resolve the conflict. For more details 704 on this process see *Note Conflicts example::. 705 706`Usage: diff3 [-exEX3 [-i | -m] [-L label1 -L label3]] file1 file2 file3' 707 Only one of [exEX3] allowed 708 This indicates a problem with the installation of `diff3' and 709 `rcsmerge'. Specifically `rcsmerge' was compiled to look for GNU 710 diff3, but it is finding unix diff3 instead. The exact text of 711 the message will vary depending on the system. The simplest 712 solution is to upgrade to a current version of CVS, which does not 713 rely on external `rcsmerge' or `diff3' programs. 714 715`warning: unrecognized response `TEXT' from cvs server' 716 If TEXT contains a valid response (such as `ok') followed by an 717 extra carriage return character (on many systems this will cause 718 the second part of the message to overwrite the first part), then 719 it probably means that you are using the `:ext:' access method 720 with a version of rsh, such as most non-unix rsh versions, which 721 does not by default provide a transparent data stream. In such 722 cases you probably want to try `:server:' instead of `:ext:'. If 723 TEXT is something else, this may signify a problem with your CVS 724 server. Double-check your installation against the instructions 725 for setting up the CVS server. 726 727`cvs commit: [TIME] waiting for USER's lock in DIRECTORY' 728 This is a normal message, not an error. See *Note Concurrency::, 729 for more details. 730 731`cvs commit: warning: editor session failed' 732 This means that the editor which CVS is using exits with a nonzero 733 exit status. Some versions of vi will do this even when there was 734 not a problem editing the file. If so, point the `CVSEDITOR' 735 environment variable to a small script such as: 736 737 #!/bin/sh 738 vi $* 739 exit 0 740 741 742File: cvs.info, Node: Connection, Next: Other problems, Prev: Error messages, Up: Troubleshooting 743 744Trouble making a connection to a CVS server 745=========================================== 746 747 This section concerns what to do if you are having trouble making a 748connection to a CVS server. If you are running the CVS command line 749client running on Windows, first upgrade the client to CVS 1.9.12 or 750later. The error reporting in earlier versions provided much less 751information about what the problem was. If the client is non-Windows, 752CVS 1.9 should be fine. 753 754 If the error messages are not sufficient to track down the problem, 755the next steps depend largely on which access method you are using. 756 757`:ext:' 758 Try running the rsh program from the command line. For example: 759 "rsh servername cvs -v" should print CVS version information. If 760 this doesn't work, you need to fix it before you can worry about 761 CVS problems. 762 763`:server:' 764 You don't need a command line rsh program to use this access 765 method, but if you have an rsh program around, it may be useful as 766 a debugging tool. Follow the directions given for :ext:. 767 768`:pserver:' 769 Errors along the lines of "connection refused" typically indicate 770 that inetd isn't even listening for connections on port 2401 771 whereas errors like "connection reset by peer" or "recv() from 772 server: EOF" typically indicate that inetd is listening for 773 connections but is unable to start CVS (this is frequently caused 774 by having an incorrect path in `inetd.conf'). "unrecognized auth 775 response" errors are caused by a bad command line in `inetd.conf', 776 typically an invalid option or forgetting to put the `pserver' 777 command at the end of the line. Another less common problem is 778 invisible control characters that your editor "helpfully" added 779 without you noticing. 780 781 One good debugging tool is to "telnet servername 2401". After 782 connecting, send any text (for example "foo" followed by return). 783 If CVS is working correctly, it will respond with 784 785 cvs [pserver aborted]: bad auth protocol start: foo 786 787 If instead you get: 788 789 Usage: cvs [cvs-options] command [command-options-and-arguments] 790 ... 791 792 then you're missing the `pserver' command at the end of the line 793 in `inetd.conf'; check to make sure that the entire command is on 794 one line and that it's complete. 795 796 Likewise, if you get something like: 797 798 Unknown command: `pserved' 799 800 CVS commands are: 801 add Add a new file/directory to the repository 802 ... 803 804 then you've misspelled `pserver' in some way. If it isn't 805 obvious, check for invisible control characters (particularly 806 carriage returns) in `inetd.conf'. 807 808 If it fails to work at all, then make sure inetd is working right. 809 Change the invocation in `inetd.conf' to run the echo program 810 instead of cvs. For example: 811 812 2401 stream tcp nowait root /bin/echo echo hello 813 814 After making that change and instructing inetd to re-read its 815 configuration file, "telnet servername 2401" should show you the 816 text hello and then the server should close the connection. If 817 this doesn't work, you need to fix it before you can worry about 818 CVS problems. 819 820 On AIX systems, the system will often have its own program trying 821 to use port 2401. This is AIX's problem in the sense that port 822 2401 is registered for use with CVS. I hear that there is an AIX 823 patch available to address this problem. 824 825 Another good debugging tool is the `-d' (debugging) option to 826 inetd. Consult your system documentation for more information. 827 828 If you seem to be connecting but get errors like: 829 830 cvs server: cannot open /root/.cvsignore: Permission denied 831 cvs [server aborted]: can't chdir(/root): Permission denied 832 833 then you probably haven't specified `-f' in `inetd.conf'. 834 835 If you can connect successfully for a while but then can't, you've 836 probably hit inetd's rate limit. (If inetd receives too many 837 requests for the same service in a short period of time, it 838 assumes that something is wrong and temporarily disables the 839 service.) Check your inetd documentation to find out how to 840 adjust the rate limit (some versions of inetd have a single rate 841 limit, others allow you to set the limit for each service 842 separately.) 843 844 845File: cvs.info, Node: Other problems, Prev: Connection, Up: Troubleshooting 846 847Other common problems 848===================== 849 850 Here is a list of problems which do not fit into the above 851categories. They are in no particular order. 852 853 * On Windows, if there is a 30 second or so delay when you run a CVS 854 command, it may mean that you have your home directory set to 855 `C:/', for example (see `HOMEDRIVE' and `HOMEPATH' in *Note 856 Environment variables::). CVS expects the home directory to not 857 end in a slash, for example `C:' or `C:\cvs'. 858 859 * If you are running CVS 1.9.18 or older, and `cvs update' finds a 860 conflict and tries to merge, as described in *Note Conflicts 861 example::, but doesn't tell you there were conflicts, then you may 862 have an old version of RCS. The easiest solution probably is to 863 upgrade to a current version of CVS, which does not rely on 864 external RCS programs. 865 866 867File: cvs.info, Node: Credits, Next: BUGS, Prev: Troubleshooting, Up: Top 868 869Credits 870******* 871 872 Roland Pesch, then of Cygnus Support <roland@wrs.com> wrote the 873manual pages which were distributed with CVS 1.3. Much of their text 874was copied into this manual. He also read an early draft of this 875manual and contributed many ideas and corrections. 876 877 The mailing-list `info-cvs' is sometimes informative. I have 878included information from postings made by the following persons: David 879G. Grubbs <dgg@think.com>. 880 881 Some text has been extracted from the man pages for RCS. 882 883 The CVS FAQ by David G. Grubbs has provided useful material. The 884FAQ is no longer maintained, however, and this manual is about the 885closest thing there is to a successor (with respect to documenting how 886to use CVS, at least). 887 888 In addition, the following persons have helped by telling me about 889mistakes I've made: 890 891 Roxanne Brunskill <rbrunski@datap.ca>, 892 Kathy Dyer <dyer@phoenix.ocf.llnl.gov>, 893 Karl Pingle <pingle@acuson.com>, 894 Thomas A Peterson <tap@src.honeywell.com>, 895 Inge Wallin <ingwa@signum.se>, 896 Dirk Koschuetzki <koschuet@fmi.uni-passau.de> 897 and Michael Brown <brown@wi.extrel.com>. 898 899 The list of contributors here is not comprehensive; for a more 900complete list of who has contributed to this manual see the file 901`doc/ChangeLog' in the CVS source distribution. 902 903 904File: cvs.info, Node: BUGS, Next: Index, Prev: Credits, Up: Top 905 906Dealing with bugs in CVS or this manual 907*************************************** 908 909 Neither CVS nor this manual is perfect, and they probably never will 910be. If you are having trouble using CVS, or think you have found a 911bug, there are a number of things you can do about it. Note that if 912the manual is unclear, that can be considered a bug in the manual, so 913these problems are often worth doing something about as well as 914problems with CVS itself. 915 916 * If you want someone to help you and fix bugs that you report, 917 there are companies which will do that for a fee. One such 918 company is: 919 920 Signum Support AB 921 Box 2044 922 S-580 02 Linkoping 923 Sweden 924 Email: info@signum.se 925 Phone: +46 (0)13 - 21 46 00 926 Fax: +46 (0)13 - 21 47 00 927 http://www.signum.se/ 928 929 * If you got CVS through a distributor, such as an operating system 930 vendor or a vendor of freeware CD-ROMs, you may wish to see 931 whether the distributor provides support. Often, they will provide 932 no support or minimal support, but this may vary from distributor 933 to distributor. 934 935 * If you have the skills and time to do so, you may wish to fix the 936 bug yourself. If you wish to submit your fix for inclusion in 937 future releases of CVS, see the file HACKING in the CVS source 938 distribution. It contains much more information on the process of 939 submitting fixes. 940 941 * There may be resources on the net which can help. Two good places 942 to start are: 943 944 http://www.cvshome.org 945 http://www.loria.fr/~molli/cvs-index.html 946 947 If you are so inspired, increasing the information available on 948 the net is likely to be appreciated. For example, before the 949 standard CVS distribution worked on Windows 95, there was a web 950 page with some explanation and patches for running CVS on Windows 951 95, and various people helped out by mentioning this page on 952 mailing lists or newsgroups when the subject came up. 953 954 * It is also possible to report bugs to `bug-cvs'. Note that 955 someone may or may not want to do anything with your bug 956 report--if you need a solution consider one of the options 957 mentioned above. People probably do want to hear about bugs which 958 are particularly severe in consequences and/or easy to fix, 959 however. You can also increase your odds by being as clear as 960 possible about the exact nature of the bug and any other relevant 961 information. The way to report bugs is to send email to 962 `bug-cvs@gnu.org'. Note that submissions to `bug-cvs' may be 963 distributed under the terms of the GNU Public License, so if you 964 don't like this, don't submit them. There is usually no 965 justification for sending mail directly to one of the CVS 966 maintainers rather than to `bug-cvs'; those maintainers who want 967 to hear about such bug reports read `bug-cvs'. Also note that 968 sending a bug report to other mailing lists or newsgroups is _not_ 969 a substitute for sending it to `bug-cvs'. It is fine to discuss 970 CVS bugs on whatever forum you prefer, but there are not 971 necessarily any maintainers reading bug reports sent anywhere 972 except `bug-cvs'. 973 974 People often ask if there is a list of known bugs or whether a 975particular bug is a known one. The file BUGS in the CVS source 976distribution is one list of known bugs, but it doesn't necessarily try 977to be comprehensive. Perhaps there will never be a comprehensive, 978detailed list of known bugs. 979 980