This is cvs.info, produced by makeinfo version 4.3 from
../../doc/cvs.texinfo.

INFO-DIR-SECTION GNU Packages
START-INFO-DIR-ENTRY
* CVS: (cvs).                   Concurrent Versions System
END-INFO-DIR-ENTRY
INFO-DIR-SECTION Individual utilities
START-INFO-DIR-ENTRY
* cvs: (cvs)CVS commands.       Concurrent Versions System
END-INFO-DIR-ENTRY


File: cvs.info,  Node: Environment variables,  Next: Compatibility,  Prev: Administrative files,  Up: Top

All environment variables which affect CVS
******************************************

   This is a complete list of all environment variables that affect CVS
(Windows users, please bear with this list; $VAR is equivalent to %VAR%
at the Windows command prompt).

`$CVSIGNORE'
     A whitespace-separated list of file name patterns that CVS should
     ignore. *Note cvsignore::.

`$CVSWRAPPERS'
     A whitespace-separated list of file name patterns that CVS should
     treat as wrappers. *Note Wrappers::.

`$CVSREAD'
     If this is set, `checkout' and `update' will try hard to make the
     files in your working directory read-only.  When this is not set,
     the default behavior is to permit modification of your working
     files.

`$CVSREADONLYFS'
     Turns on read-only repository mode. This allows one to check out
     from a read-only repository, such as within an anoncvs server, or
     from a CD-ROM repository.

     It has the same effect as if the `-R' command-line option is used.
     This can also allow the use of read-only NFS repositories.

`$CVSUMASK'
     Controls permissions of files in the repository.  See *Note File
     permissions::.

`$CVSROOT'
     Should contain the full pathname to the root of the CVS source
     repository (where the RCS files are kept).  This information must
     be available to CVS for most commands to execute; if `$CVSROOT' is
     not set, or if you wish to override it for one invocation, you can
     supply it on the command line: `cvs -d cvsroot cvs_command...'
     Once you have checked out a working directory, CVS stores the
     appropriate root (in the file `CVS/Root'), so normally you only
     need to worry about this when initially checking out a working
     directory.

`$CVSEDITOR'
`$EDITOR'
`$VISUAL'
     Specifies the program to use for recording log messages during
     commit.  `$CVSEDITOR' overrides `$EDITOR', which overrides
     `$VISUAL'.  See *Note Committing your changes:: for more or *Note
     Global options:: for alternative ways of specifying a log editor.

`$PATH'
     If `$RCSBIN' is not set, and no path is compiled into CVS, it will
     use `$PATH' to try to find all programs it uses.

`$HOME'

`$HOMEPATH'

`$HOMEDRIVE'
     Used to locate the directory where the `.cvsrc' file, and other
     such files, are searched.  On Unix, CVS just checks for `HOME'.
     On Windows NT, the system will set `HOMEDRIVE', for example to
     `d:' and `HOMEPATH', for example to `\joe'.  On Windows 95, you'll
     probably need to set `HOMEDRIVE' and `HOMEPATH' yourself.

`$CVS_RSH'
     Specifies the external program which CVS connects with, when
     `:ext:' access method is specified.  *note Connecting via rsh::.

`$CVS_SERVER'
     Used in client-server mode when accessing a remote repository
     using RSH.  It specifies the name of the program to start on the
     server side (and any necessary arguments) when accessing a remote
     repository using the `:ext:', `:fork:', or `:server:' access
     methods.  The default value for `:ext:' and `:server:' is `cvs';
     the default value for `:fork:' is the name used to run the client.
     *note Connecting via rsh::

`$CVS_PASSFILE'
     Used in client-server mode when accessing the `cvs login server'.
     Default value is `$HOME/.cvspass'.  *note Password authentication
     client::

`$CVS_CLIENT_PORT'
     Used in client-server mode to set the port to use when accessing
     the server via Kerberos, GSSAPI, or CVS's password authentication
     protocol if the port is not specified in the CVSROOT.  *note
     Remote repositories::

`$CVS_PROXY_PORT'
     Used in client-server mode to set the port to use when accessing a
     server via a web proxy, if the port is not specified in the
     CVSROOT.  Works with GSSAPI, and the password authentication
     protocol.  *note Remote repositories::

`$CVS_RCMD_PORT'
     Used in client-server mode.  If set, specifies the port number to
     be used when accessing the RCMD demon on the server side.
     (Currently not used for Unix clients).

`$CVS_CLIENT_LOG'
     Used for debugging only in client-server mode.  If set, everything
     sent to the server is logged into ``$CVS_CLIENT_LOG'.in' and
     everything sent from the server is logged into
     ``$CVS_CLIENT_LOG'.out'.

`$CVS_SERVER_SLEEP'
     Used only for debugging the server side in client-server mode.  If
     set, delays the start of the server child process the specified
     amount of seconds so that you can attach to it with a debugger.

`$CVS_IGNORE_REMOTE_ROOT'
     For CVS 1.10 and older, setting this variable prevents CVS from
     overwriting the `CVS/Root' file when the `-d' global option is
     specified.  Later versions of CVS do not rewrite `CVS/Root', so
     `CVS_IGNORE_REMOTE_ROOT' has no effect.

`$CVS_LOCAL_BRANCH_NUM'
     Setting this variable allows some control over the branch number
     that is assigned. This is specifically to support the local commit
     feature of CVSup. If one sets `CVS_LOCAL_BRANCH_NUM' to (say) 1000
     then branches the local repository, the revision numbers will look
     like 1.66.1000.xx. There is almost a dead-set certainty that there
     will be no conflicts with version numbers.

`$COMSPEC'
     Used under OS/2 only.  It specifies the name of the command
     interpreter and defaults to CMD.EXE.

`$TMPDIR'
     Directory in which temporary files are located.  *Note Global
     options::, for more on setting the temporary directory.

`$CVS_PID'
     This is the process identification (aka pid) number of the CVS
     process. It is often useful in the programs and/or scripts
     specified by the `commitinfo', `verifymsg', `loginfo' files.


File: cvs.info,  Node: Compatibility,  Next: Troubleshooting,  Prev: Environment variables,  Up: Top

Compatibility between CVS Versions
**********************************

   The repository format is compatible going back to CVS 1.3.  But see
*Note Watches Compatibility::, if you have copies of CVS 1.6 or older
and you want to use the optional developer communication features.

   The working directory format is compatible going back to CVS 1.5.
It did change between CVS 1.3 and CVS 1.5.  If you run CVS 1.5 or newer
on a working directory checked out with CVS 1.3, CVS will convert it,
but to go back to CVS 1.3 you need to check out a new working directory
with CVS 1.3.

   The remote protocol is interoperable going back to CVS 1.5, but no
further (1.5 was the first official release with the remote protocol,
but some older versions might still be floating around).  In many cases
you need to upgrade both the client and the server to take advantage of
new features and bug fixes, however.


File: cvs.info,  Node: Troubleshooting,  Next: Credits,  Prev: Compatibility,  Up: Top

Troubleshooting
***************

   If you are having trouble with CVS, this appendix may help.  If
there is a particular error message which you are seeing, then you can
look up the message alphabetically.  If not, you can look through the
section on other problems to see if your problem is mentioned there.

* Menu:

* Error messages::              Partial list of CVS errors
* Connection::                  Trouble making a connection to a CVS server
* Other problems::              Problems not readily listed by error message


File: cvs.info,  Node: Error messages,  Next: Connection,  Up: Troubleshooting

Partial list of error messages
==============================

   Here is a partial list of error messages that you may see from CVS.
It is not a complete list--CVS is capable of printing many, many error
messages, often with parts of them supplied by the operating system,
but the intention is to list the common and/or potentially confusing
error messages.

   The messages are alphabetical, but introductory text such as `cvs
update: ' is not considered in ordering them.

   In some cases the list includes messages printed by old versions of
CVS (partly because users may not be sure which version of CVS they are
using at any particular moment).

`FILE:LINE: Assertion 'TEXT' failed'
     The exact format of this message may vary depending on your
     system.  It indicates a bug in CVS, which can be handled as
     described in *Note BUGS::.

`cvs COMMAND: authorization failed: server HOST rejected access'
     This is a generic response when trying to connect to a pserver
     server which chooses not to provide a specific reason for denying
     authorization.  Check that the username and password specified are
     correct and that the `CVSROOT' specified is allowed by
     `--allow-root' in `inetd.conf'.  See *Note Password
     authenticated::.

`cvs COMMAND: conflict: removed FILE was modified by second party'
     This message indicates that you removed a file, and someone else
     modified it.  To resolve the conflict, first run `cvs add FILE'.
     If desired, look at the other party's modification to decide
     whether you still want to remove it.  If you don't want to remove
     it, stop here.  If you do want to remove it, proceed with `cvs
     remove FILE' and commit your removal.

`cannot change permissions on temporary directory'
          Operation not permitted
     This message has been happening in a non-reproducible, occasional
     way when we run the client/server testsuite, both on Red Hat Linux
     3.0.3 and 4.1.  We haven't been able to figure out what causes it,
     nor is it known whether it is specific to Linux (or even to this
     particular machine!).  If the problem does occur on other unices,
     `Operation not permitted' would be likely to read `Not owner' or
     whatever the system in question uses for the unix `EPERM' error.
     If you have any information to add, please let us know as
     described in *Note BUGS::.  If you experience this error while
     using CVS, retrying the operation which produced it should work
     fine.

`cvs [server aborted]: Cannot check out files into the repository itself'
     The obvious cause for this message (especially for
     non-client/server CVS) is that the CVS root is, for example,
     `/usr/local/cvsroot' and you try to check out files when you are
     in a subdirectory, such as `/usr/local/cvsroot/test'.  However,
     there is a more subtle cause, which is that the temporary
     directory on the server is set to a subdirectory of the root
     (which is also not allowed).  If this is the problem, set the
     temporary directory to somewhere else, for example `/var/tmp'; see
     `TMPDIR' in *Note Environment variables::, for how to set the
     temporary directory.

`cannot commit files as 'root''
     See `'root' is not allowed to commit files'.

`cannot open CVS/Entries for reading: No such file or directory'
     This generally indicates a CVS internal error, and can be handled
     as with other CVS bugs (*note BUGS::).  Usually there is a
     workaround--the exact nature of which would depend on the
     situation but which hopefully could be figured out.

`cvs [init aborted]: cannot open CVS/Root: No such file or directory'
     This message is harmless.  Provided it is not accompanied by other
     errors, the operation has completed successfully.  This message
     should not occur with current versions of CVS, but it is documented
     here for the benefit of CVS 1.9 and older.

`cvs server: cannot open /root/.cvsignore: Permission denied'
`cvs [server aborted]: can't chdir(/root): Permission denied'
     See *Note Connection::.

`cvs [checkout aborted]: cannot rename file FILE to CVS/,,FILE: Invalid argument'
     This message has been reported as intermittently happening with
     CVS 1.9 on Solaris 2.5.  The cause is unknown; if you know more
     about what causes it, let us know as described in *Note BUGS::.

`cvs [COMMAND aborted]: cannot start server via rcmd'
     This, unfortunately, is a rather nonspecific error message which
     CVS 1.9 will print if you are running the CVS client and it is
     having trouble connecting to the server.  Current versions of CVS
     should print a much more specific error message.  If you get this
     message when you didn't mean to run the client at all, you
     probably forgot to specify `:local:', as described in *Note
     Repository::.

`ci: FILE,v: bad diff output line: Binary files - and /tmp/T2a22651 differ'
     CVS 1.9 and older will print this message when trying to check in
     a binary file if RCS is not correctly installed.  Re-read the
     instructions that came with your RCS distribution and the INSTALL
     file in the CVS distribution.  Alternately, upgrade to a current
     version of CVS, which checks in files itself rather than via RCS.

`cvs checkout: could not check out FILE'
     With CVS 1.9, this can mean that the `co' program (part of RCS)
     returned a failure.  It should be preceded by another error
     message, however it has been observed without another error
     message and the cause is not well-understood.  With the current
     version of CVS, which does not run `co', if this message occurs
     without another error message, it is definitely a CVS bug (*note
     BUGS::).

`cvs [login aborted]: could not find out home directory'
     This means that you need to set the environment variables that CVS
     uses to locate your home directory.  See the discussion of `HOME',
     `HOMEDRIVE', and `HOMEPATH' in *Note Environment variables::.

`cvs update: could not merge revision REV of FILE: No such file or directory'
     CVS 1.9 and older will print this message if there was a problem
     finding the `rcsmerge' program.  Make sure that it is in your
     `PATH', or upgrade to a current version of CVS, which does not
     require an external `rcsmerge' program.

`cvs [update aborted]: could not patch FILE: No such file or directory'
     This means that there was a problem finding the `patch' program.
     Make sure that it is in your `PATH'.  Note that despite
     appearances the message is _not_ referring to whether it can find
     FILE.  If both the client and the server are running a current
     version of CVS, then there is no need for an external patch
     program and you should not see this message.  But if either client
     or server is running CVS 1.9, then you need `patch'.

`cvs update: could not patch FILE; will refetch'
     This means that for whatever reason the client was unable to apply
     a patch that the server sent.  The message is nothing to be
     concerned about, because inability to apply the patch only slows
     things down and has no effect on what CVS does.

`dying gasps from SERVER unexpected'
     There is a known bug in the server for CVS 1.9.18 and older which
     can cause this.  For me, this was reproducible if I used the `-t'
     global option.  It was fixed by Andy Piper's 14 Nov 1997 change to
     src/filesubr.c, if anyone is curious.  If you see the message, you
     probably can just retry the operation which failed, or if you have
     discovered information concerning its cause, please let us know as
     described in *Note BUGS::.

`end of file from server (consult above messages if any)'
     The most common cause for this message is if you are using an
     external `rsh' program and it exited with an error.  In this case
     the `rsh' program should have printed a message, which will appear
     before the above message.  For more information on setting up a
     CVS client and server, see *Note Remote repositories::.

`cvs [update aborted]: EOF in key in RCS file FILE,v'
`cvs [checkout aborted]: EOF while looking for end of string in RCS file FILE,v'
     This means that there is a syntax error in the given RCS file.
     Note that this might be true even if RCS can read the file OK; CVS
     does more error checking of errors in the RCS file.  That is why
     you may see this message when upgrading from CVS 1.9 to CVS 1.10.
     The likely cause for the original corruption is hardware, the
     operating system, or the like.  Of course, if you find a case in
     which CVS seems to corrupting the file, by all means report it,
     (*note BUGS::).  There are quite a few variations of this error
     message, depending on exactly where in the RCS file CVS finds the
     syntax error.

`cvs commit: Executing 'mkmodules''
     This means that your repository is set up for a version of CVS
     prior to CVS 1.8.  When using CVS 1.8 or later, the above message
     will be preceded by

          cvs commit: Rebuilding administrative file database

     If you see both messages, the database is being rebuilt twice,
     which is unnecessary but harmless.  If you wish to avoid the
     duplication, and you have no versions of CVS 1.7 or earlier in
     use, remove `-i mkmodules' every place it appears in your `modules'
     file.  For more information on the `modules' file, see *Note
     modules::.

`missing author'
     Typically this can happen if you created an RCS file with your
     username set to empty.  CVS will, bogusly, create an illegal RCS
     file with no value for the author field.  The solution is to make
     sure your username is set to a non-empty value and re-create the
     RCS file.

`cvs [checkout aborted]: no such tag TAG'
     This message means that CVS isn't familiar with the tag TAG.
     Usually the root cause is that you have mistyped a tag name.
     Ocassionally this can also occur because the users creating tags
     do not have permissions to write to the `CVSROOT/val-tags' file
     (*note File permissions::, for more).

     Prior to CVS version 1.12.10, there were a few relatively obscure
     cases where a given tag could be created in an archive file in the
     repository but CVS would require the user to try a few other CVS
     commands involving that tag until one was found whch caused CVS to
     update the `val-tags' file, at which point the originally failing
     command would begin to work.  This same method can be used to
     repair a `val-tags' file that becomes out of date due to the
     permissions problem mentioned above.  This updating is only
     required once per tag - once a tag is listed in `val-tags', it
     stays there.

     Note that using `tag -f' to not require tag matches did not and
     does not override this check (*note Common options::).

`*PANIC* administration files missing'
     This typically means that there is a directory named CVS but it
     does not contain the administrative files which CVS puts in a CVS
     directory.  If the problem is that you created a CVS directory via
     some mechanism other than CVS, then the answer is simple, use a
     name other than CVS.  If not, it indicates a CVS bug (*note
     BUGS::).

`rcs error: Unknown option: -x,v/'
     This message will be followed by a usage message for RCS.  It
     means that you have an old version of RCS (probably supplied with
     your operating system), as well as an old version of CVS.  CVS
     1.9.18 and earlier only work with RCS version 5 and later; current
     versions of CVS do not run RCS programs.

`cvs [server aborted]: received broken pipe signal'
     This message can be caused by a loginfo program that fails to read
     all of the log information from its standard input.  If you find
     it happening in any other circumstances, please let us know as
     described in *Note BUGS::.

`'root' is not allowed to commit files'
     When committing a permanent change, CVS makes a log entry of who
     committed the change.  If you are committing the change logged in
     as "root" (not under "su" or other root-priv giving program), CVS
     cannot determine who is actually making the change.  As such, by
     default, CVS disallows changes to be committed by users logged in
     as "root".  (You can disable this option by passing the
     `--enable-rootcommit' option to `configure' and recompiling CVS.
     On some systems this means editing the appropriate `config.h' file
     before building CVS.)

`cvs [server aborted]: Secondary out of sync with primary!'
     This usually means that the version of CVS running on a secondary
     server is incompatible with the version running on the primary
     server (*note Write proxies::).  This will not occur if the client
     supports redirection.

     It is not the version number that is significant here, but the
     list of supported requests that the servers provide to the client.
     For example, even if both servers were the same version, if the
     secondary was compiled with GSSAPI support and the primary was not,
     the list of supported requests provided by the two servers would
     be different and the secondary would not work as a transparent
     proxy to the primary.  Conversely, even if the two servers were
     radically different versions but both provided the same list of
     valid requests to the client, the transparent proxy would succeed.

`Terminated with fatal signal 11'
     This message usually indicates that CVS (the server, if you're
     using client/server mode) has run out of (virtual) memory.
     Although CVS tries to catch the error and issue a more meaningful
     message, there are many circumstances where that is not possible.
     If you appear to have lots of memory available to the system, the
     problem is most likely that you're running into a system-wide
     limit on the amount of memory a single process can use or a
     similar process-specific limit.  The mechanisms for displaying and
     setting such limits vary from system to system, so you'll have to
     consult an expert for your particular system if you don't know how
     to do that.

`Too many arguments!'
     This message is typically printed by the `log.pl' script which is
     in the `contrib' directory in the CVS source distribution.  In
     some versions of CVS, `log.pl' has been part of the default CVS
     installation.  The `log.pl' script gets called from the `loginfo'
     administrative file.  Check that the arguments passed in `loginfo'
     match what your version of `log.pl' expects.  In particular, the
     `log.pl' from CVS 1.3 and older expects the log file as an
     argument whereas the `log.pl' from CVS 1.5 and newer expects the
     log file to be specified with a `-f' option.  Of course, if you
     don't need `log.pl' you can just comment it out of `loginfo'.

`cvs [update aborted]: unexpected EOF reading FILE,v'
     See `EOF in key in RCS file'.

`cvs [login aborted]: unrecognized auth response from SERVER'
     This message typically means that the server is not set up
     properly.  For example, if `inetd.conf' points to a nonexistent
     cvs executable.  To debug it further, find the log file which
     inetd writes (`/var/log/messages' or whatever inetd uses on your
     system).  For details, see *Note Connection::, and *Note Password
     authentication server::.

`cvs commit: Up-to-date check failed for `FILE''
     This means that someone else has committed a change to that file
     since the last time that you did a `cvs update'.  So before
     proceeding with your `cvs commit' you need to `cvs update'.  CVS
     will merge the changes that you made and the changes that the
     other person made.  If it does not detect any conflicts it will
     report `M FILE' and you are ready to `cvs commit'.  If it detects
     conflicts it will print a message saying so, will report `C FILE',
     and you need to manually resolve the conflict.  For more details
     on this process see *Note Conflicts example::.

`Usage:	diff3 [-exEX3 [-i | -m] [-L label1 -L label3]] file1 file2 file3'
          Only one of [exEX3] allowed
     This indicates a problem with the installation of `diff3' and
     `rcsmerge'.  Specifically `rcsmerge' was compiled to look for GNU
     diff3, but it is finding unix diff3 instead.  The exact text of
     the message will vary depending on the system.  The simplest
     solution is to upgrade to a current version of CVS, which does not
     rely on external `rcsmerge' or `diff3' programs.

`warning: unrecognized response `TEXT' from cvs server'
     If TEXT contains a valid response (such as `ok') followed by an
     extra carriage return character (on many systems this will cause
     the second part of the message to overwrite the first part), then
     it probably means that you are using the `:ext:' access method
     with a version of rsh, such as most non-unix rsh versions, which
     does not by default provide a transparent data stream.  In such
     cases you probably want to try `:server:' instead of `:ext:'.  If
     TEXT is something else, this may signify a problem with your CVS
     server.  Double-check your installation against the instructions
     for setting up the CVS server.

`cvs commit: [TIME] waiting for USER's lock in DIRECTORY'
     This is a normal message, not an error.  See *Note Concurrency::,
     for more details.

`cvs commit: warning: editor session failed'
     This means that the editor which CVS is using exits with a nonzero
     exit status.  Some versions of vi will do this even when there was
     not a problem editing the file.  If so, point the `CVSEDITOR'
     environment variable to a small script such as:

          #!/bin/sh
          vi $*
          exit 0

`cvs update: warning: FILE was lost'
     This means that the working copy of FILE has been deleted but it
     has not been removed from CVS.  This is nothing to be concerned
     about, the update will just recreate the local file from the
     repository.  (This is a convenient way to discard local changes to
     a file: just delete it and then run `cvs update'.)

`cvs update: warning: FILE is not (any longer) pertinent'
     This means that the working copy of FILE has been deleted, it has
     not been removed from CVS in the current working directory, but it
     has been removed from CVS in some other working directory.  This
     is nothing to be concerned about, the update would have removed
     the local file anyway.


File: cvs.info,  Node: Connection,  Next: Other problems,  Prev: Error messages,  Up: Troubleshooting

Trouble making a connection to a CVS server
===========================================

   This section concerns what to do if you are having trouble making a
connection to a CVS server.  If you are running the CVS command line
client running on Windows, first upgrade the client to CVS 1.9.12 or
later.  The error reporting in earlier versions provided much less
information about what the problem was.  If the client is non-Windows,
CVS 1.9 should be fine.

   If the error messages are not sufficient to track down the problem,
the next steps depend largely on which access method you are using.

`:ext:'
     Try running the rsh program from the command line.  For example:
     "rsh servername cvs -v" should print CVS version information.  If
     this doesn't work, you need to fix it before you can worry about
     CVS problems.

`:server:'
     You don't need a command line rsh program to use this access
     method, but if you have an rsh program around, it may be useful as
     a debugging tool.  Follow the directions given for :ext:.

`:pserver:'
     Errors along the lines of "connection refused" typically indicate
     that inetd isn't even listening for connections on port 2401
     whereas errors like "connection reset by peer", "received broken
     pipe signal", "recv() from server: EOF", or "end of file from
     server" typically indicate that inetd is listening for connections
     but is unable to start CVS (this is frequently caused by having an
     incorrect path in `inetd.conf' or by firewall software rejecting
     the connection).  "unrecognized auth response" errors are caused
     by a bad command line in `inetd.conf', typically an invalid option
     or forgetting to put the `pserver' command at the end of the line.
     Another less common problem is invisible control characters that
     your editor "helpfully" added without you noticing.

     One good debugging tool is to "telnet servername 2401".  After
     connecting, send any text (for example "foo" followed by return).
     If CVS is working correctly, it will respond with

          cvs [pserver aborted]: bad auth protocol start: foo

     If instead you get:

          Usage: cvs [cvs-options] command [command-options-and-arguments]
          ...

     then you're missing the `pserver' command at the end of the line
     in `inetd.conf'; check to make sure that the entire command is on
     one line and that it's complete.

     Likewise, if you get something like:

          Unknown command: `pserved'
          
          CVS commands are:
                  add          Add a new file/directory to the repository
          ...

     then you've misspelled `pserver' in some way.  If it isn't
     obvious, check for invisible control characters (particularly
     carriage returns) in `inetd.conf'.

     If it fails to work at all, then make sure inetd is working right.
     Change the invocation in `inetd.conf' to run the echo program
     instead of cvs.  For example:

          2401  stream  tcp  nowait  root /bin/echo echo hello

     After making that change and instructing inetd to re-read its
     configuration file, "telnet servername 2401" should show you the
     text hello and then the server should close the connection.  If
     this doesn't work, you need to fix it before you can worry about
     CVS problems.

     On AIX systems, the system will often have its own program trying
     to use port 2401.  This is AIX's problem in the sense that port
     2401 is registered for use with CVS.  I hear that there is an AIX
     patch available to address this problem.

     Another good debugging tool is the `-d' (debugging) option to
     inetd.  Consult your system documentation for more information.

     If you seem to be connecting but get errors like:

          cvs server: cannot open /root/.cvsignore: Permission denied
          cvs [server aborted]: can't chdir(/root): Permission denied

     then you probably haven't specified `-f' in `inetd.conf'.  (In
     releases prior to CVS 1.11.1, this problem can be caused by your
     system setting the `$HOME' environment variable for programs being
     run by inetd.  In this case, you can either have inetd run a shell
     script that unsets `$HOME' and then runs CVS, or you can use `env'
     to run CVS with a pristine environment.)

     If you can connect successfully for a while but then can't, you've
     probably hit inetd's rate limit.  (If inetd receives too many
     requests for the same service in a short period of time, it
     assumes that something is wrong and temporarily disables the
     service.)  Check your inetd documentation to find out how to
     adjust the rate limit (some versions of inetd have a single rate
     limit, others allow you to set the limit for each service
     separately.)


File: cvs.info,  Node: Other problems,  Prev: Connection,  Up: Troubleshooting

Other common problems
=====================

   Here is a list of problems which do not fit into the above
categories.  They are in no particular order.

   * On Windows, if there is a 30 second or so delay when you run a CVS
     command, it may mean that you have your home directory set to
     `C:/', for example (see `HOMEDRIVE' and `HOMEPATH' in *Note
     Environment variables::).  CVS expects the home directory to not
     end in a slash, for example `C:' or `C:\cvs'.

   * If you are running CVS 1.9.18 or older, and `cvs update' finds a
     conflict and tries to merge, as described in *Note Conflicts
     example::, but doesn't tell you there were conflicts, then you may
     have an old version of RCS.  The easiest solution probably is to
     upgrade to a current version of CVS, which does not rely on
     external RCS programs.


File: cvs.info,  Node: Credits,  Next: BUGS,  Prev: Troubleshooting,  Up: Top

Credits
*******

   Roland Pesch, then of Cygnus Support <roland@wrs.com> wrote the
manual pages which were distributed with CVS 1.3.  Much of their text
was copied into this manual.  He also read an early draft of this
manual and contributed many ideas and corrections.

   The mailing-list `info-cvs' is sometimes informative. I have
included information from postings made by the following persons: David
G. Grubbs <dgg@think.com>.

   Some text has been extracted from the man pages for RCS.

   The CVS FAQ by David G. Grubbs has provided useful material.  The
FAQ is no longer maintained, however, and this manual is about the
closest thing there is to a successor (with respect to documenting how
to use CVS, at least).

   In addition, the following persons have helped by telling me about
mistakes I've made:

     Roxanne Brunskill <rbrunski@datap.ca>,
     Kathy Dyer <dyer@phoenix.ocf.llnl.gov>,
     Karl Pingle <pingle@acuson.com>,
     Thomas A Peterson <tap@src.honeywell.com>,
     Inge Wallin <ingwa@signum.se>,
     Dirk Koschuetzki <koschuet@fmi.uni-passau.de>
     and Michael Brown <brown@wi.extrel.com>.

   The list of contributors here is not comprehensive; for a more
complete list of who has contributed to this manual see the file
`doc/ChangeLog' in the CVS source distribution.


File: cvs.info,  Node: BUGS,  Next: Index,  Prev: Credits,  Up: Top

Dealing with bugs in CVS or this manual
***************************************

   Neither CVS nor this manual is perfect, and they probably never will
be.  If you are having trouble using CVS, or think you have found a
bug, there are a number of things you can do about it.  Note that if
the manual is unclear, that can be considered a bug in the manual, so
these problems are often worth doing something about as well as
problems with CVS itself.

   * If you want someone to help you and fix bugs that you report,
     there are companies which will do that for a fee.  One such
     company is:

          Ximbiot
          319 S. River St.
          Harrisburg, PA  17104-1657
          USA
          Email: info@ximbiot.com
          Phone: (717) 579-6168
          Fax:   (717) 234-3125
          <http://ximbiot.com/>

   * If you got CVS through a distributor, such as an operating system
     vendor or a vendor of freeware CD-ROMs, you may wish to see
     whether the distributor provides support.  Often, they will provide
     no support or minimal support, but this may vary from distributor
     to distributor.

   * If you have the skills and time to do so, you may wish to fix the
     bug yourself.  If you wish to submit your fix for inclusion in
     future releases of CVS, see the file HACKING in the CVS source
     distribution.  It contains much more information on the process of
     submitting fixes.

   * There may be resources on the net which can help.  A good place to
     start is:

          <http://cvs.nongnu.org/>

     If you are so inspired, increasing the information available on
     the net is likely to be appreciated.  For example, before the
     standard CVS distribution worked on Windows 95, there was a web
     page with some explanation and patches for running CVS on Windows
     95, and various people helped out by mentioning this page on
     mailing lists or newsgroups when the subject came up.

   * It is also possible to report bugs to <bug-cvs@nongnu.org>.  Note
     that someone may or may not want to do anything with your bug
     report--if you need a solution consider one of the options
     mentioned above.  People probably do want to hear about bugs which
     are particularly severe in consequences and/or easy to fix,
     however.  You can also increase your odds by being as clear as
     possible about the exact nature of the bug and any other relevant
     information.  The way to report bugs is to send email to
     <bug-cvs@nongnu.org>.  Note that submissions to
     <bug-cvs@nongnu.org> may be distributed under the terms of the GNU
     Public License, so if you don't like this, don't submit them.
     There is usually no justification for sending mail directly to one
     of the CVS maintainers rather than to <bug-cvs@nongnu.org>; those
     maintainers who want to hear about such bug reports read
     <bug-cvs@nongnu.org>.  Also note that sending a bug report to
     other mailing lists or newsgroups is _not_ a substitute for
     sending it to <bug-cvs@nongnu.org>.  It is fine to discuss CVS
     bugs on whatever forum you prefer, but there are not necessarily
     any maintainers reading bug reports sent anywhere except
     <bug-cvs@nongnu.org>.

   People often ask if there is a list of known bugs or whether a
particular bug is a known one.  The file BUGS in the CVS source
distribution is one list of known bugs, but it doesn't necessarily try
to be comprehensive.  Perhaps there will never be a comprehensive,
detailed list of known bugs.

