Essential CVS, 2nd Edition

Chapter 9. Troubleshooting

It would be nice if CVS were perfect, but it isn’t. There are times when CVS doesn’t work as expected, but with the techniques and information in this chapter, you should be able to fix the most common problems.

General Troubleshooting Techniques

Most of the CVS error messages are helpful but concise. They usually tell you what is wrong and may contain key words or phrases that lead you toward a resolution to the problem. Few of the error messages actually provide a resolution, however, because usually there are several possible causes of any given problem.

If your problem seems to be confined to a single sandbox, the simplest solution is usually to check out a new sandbox. To save changed files, copy them to the new sandbox before erasing the old sandbox. (If the new sandbox has newer revisions of some files, don’t copy over them.)

To fix problems in a single sandbox directory, check the sandbox administrative files in the CVS subdirectory. If a command has been aborted, the administrative files may have been partially changed. Chapter 6 explains the sandbox administrative files.

Many repository problems are caused by permissions errors. If a user (system username) can’t read the repository and the problem doesn’t seem to be a networking issue, check the repository permissions. The username of the user must be a member of a group with access to the files that they’re trying to read. Thankfully, permissions problems are easy to fix. Chapter 6 covers ...