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).

`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 See BUGS.  If you experience this error while
     using CVS, retrying the operation which produced it should work
     fine.

`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 (see BUGS.).  Usually there is a
     workaround--the exact nature of which would depend on the
     situation but which hopefully could be figured out.

`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 See BUGS.

`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.

`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'
     This message seems to be caused by a hard-to-track-down bug in CVS
     or the systems it runs on (we don't know--we haven't tracked it
     down yet!).  If you see it, 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 
See 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 See Remote repositories.

`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 
See modules.

`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).  CVS only works with RCS version 5 and
     later.

`cvs [server aborted]: received broken pipe signal'
     This message seems to be caused by a hard-to-track-down bug in CVS
     or the systems it runs on (we don't know--we haven't tracked it
     down yet!).  It seems to happen only after a CVS command has
     completed, and you should be able to just ignore the message.
     However, if you have discovered information concerning its cause,
     please let us know as described in See BUGS.

`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 cacErrCodes.h' and you are ready to `cvs commit'.  If it
     detects conflicts it will print a message saying so, will report
     `C cacErrCodes.h', and you need to manually resolve the conflict.
     For more details on this process see See 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 solution is to
     make sure `rcsmerge' finds GNU diff3.  Depending on how `rcsmerge'
     was compiled, it might be sufficient to place GNU diff3 in your
     `PATH', or it might be necessary to recompile `rcsmerge' or find a
     binary distribution of `rcsmerge' which looks in the `PATH'.

`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