Re: [Non-DoD Source] Re: CVS lock issue

[Mark D. Baushke]

In order to write a tag or a new revision of a file to particular
'foo.cc' in the repository, CVS must update the 'foo.cc,v' file in the
repository. After it locks the directory, it opens a new file ',foo.cc,'
which is where it starts copying the foo.cc,v along with the added line
containing the tag. When the update and copy is finished, it renames
',foo.cc,' to 'foo.c,v' and removes the write locks.

If there is a problem during the write, there are cases where the
',foo.cc,' file is left so that no information from 'foo.cc,v' is lost
(other than the update being made). This should have resulted in an
error message.

For read operations, the existence of ,foo.cc, will not be a problem.

However, for write operations, that file must not exist. A repository
maintainer must go in and see if they can salvage anything that we left
around and also possibly see if they can understand what problem arose.

In my experience, the most common case of a ',foo.cc,' file being left
around was if the repository was on an NFS filesystem and it lost some
of the file it was trying to write.

        Good luck,
        -- Mark