<div id="Troubleshooting"></div>
<table class="header" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" border="0">
<tr><td valign="middle" align="left">|[[cvs: Compatibility between CVS Versions#Compatibility between CVS Versions| &lt;&lt; ]]|</td>
<td valign="middle" align="left">|[[cvs: Compatibility between CVS Versions#Compatibility between CVS Versions| &lt; ]]|</td>
<td valign="middle" align="left">|[[cvs#Top| Up ]]|</td>
<td valign="middle" align="left">|[[#Partial list of error messages| &gt; ]]|</td>
<td valign="middle" align="left">|[[cvs: Credits#Credits| &gt;&gt; ]]|</td>
<td valign="middle" align="left"> &nbsp; </td>
<td valign="middle" align="left"> &nbsp; </td>
<td valign="middle" align="left"> &nbsp; </td>
<td valign="middle" align="left"> &nbsp; </td>
<td valign="middle" align="left">|[[cvs#Top|Top]]|</td>
<td valign="middle" align="left">|[[cvs: Table of Contents#SEC_Contents|Contents]]|</td>
<td valign="middle" align="left">|[[cvs: Index#Index|Index]]|</td>
<td valign="middle" align="left">|[[cvs: About this Manual#SEC_About| ? ]]|</td>
</tr></table>
<div id="Troubleshooting-1"></div>
== Troubleshooting ==

If you are having trouble with <small>CVS</small>, 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.

<div class="menu-preformatted" style="font-family: serif">
 [[#Partial list of error messages|&bull; Error messages]]::              Partial list of CVS errors
 [[#Trouble making a connection to a CVS server|&bull; Connection]]::                  Trouble making a connection to a CVS server
 [[#Other common problems|&bull; Other problems]]::              Problems not readily listed by error message
</div>



----

<div id="Error-messages"></div>
<table class="header" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" border="0">
<tr><td valign="middle" align="left">|[[#Troubleshooting| &lt;&lt; ]]|</td>
<td valign="middle" align="left">|[[#Troubleshooting| &lt; ]]|</td>
<td valign="middle" align="left">|[[#Troubleshooting| Up ]]|</td>
<td valign="middle" align="left">|[[#Trouble making a connection to a CVS server| &gt; ]]|</td>
<td valign="middle" align="left">|[[cvs: Credits#Credits| &gt;&gt; ]]|</td>
<td valign="middle" align="left"> &nbsp; </td>
<td valign="middle" align="left"> &nbsp; </td>
<td valign="middle" align="left"> &nbsp; </td>
<td valign="middle" align="left"> &nbsp; </td>
<td valign="middle" align="left">|[[cvs#Top|Top]]|</td>
<td valign="middle" align="left">|[[cvs: Table of Contents#SEC_Contents|Contents]]|</td>
<td valign="middle" align="left">|[[cvs: Index#Index|Index]]|</td>
<td valign="middle" align="left">|[[cvs: About this Manual#SEC_About| ? ]]|</td>
</tr></table>
<div id="Partial-list-of-error-messages"></div>
=== Partial list of error messages ===

Here is a partial list of error messages that you may
see from <small>CVS</small>.  It is not a complete list&mdash;<small>CVS</small>
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 &lsquo;<code>cvs update: </code>&rsquo; is not considered in
ordering them.

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

;<code><var>file</var>:<var>line</var>: Assertion '<var>text</var>' failed</code>
: The exact format of this message may vary depending on your system.  It indicates a bug in <small>CVS</small>, which can be handled as described in [[cvs: Dealing with bugs in CVS or this manual#Dealing with bugs in CVS or this manual|Dealing with bugs in CVS or this manual]].

;<code>cvs <var>command</var>: authorization failed: server <var>host</var> rejected access</code>
: 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 <code>CVSROOT</code> specified is allowed by &lsquo;<code>--allow-root</code>&rsquo; in &lsquo;<tt>inetd.conf</tt>&rsquo;.  See [[cvs: The Repository#Direct connection with password authentication|Direct connection with password authentication]].

;<code>cvs <var>command</var>: conflict: removed <var>file</var> was modified by second party</code>
: This message indicates that you removed a file, and someone else modified it.  To resolve the conflict, first run &lsquo;<code>cvs add <var>file</var></code>&rsquo;.  If desired, look at the other party&rsquo;s modification to decide whether you still want to remove it.  If you don&rsquo;t want to remove it, stop here.  If you do want to remove it, proceed with &lsquo;<code>cvs remove <var>file</var></code>&rsquo; and commit your removal.

;<code>cannot change permissions on temporary directory</code>
<div class="example" style="margin-left: 3.2em">
 Operation not permitted
</div>
: 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&rsquo;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, &lsquo;<code>Operation not permitted</code>&rsquo; would be likely to read &lsquo;<code>Not owner</code>&rsquo; or whatever the system in question uses for the unix <code>EPERM</code> error.  If you have any information to add, please let us know as described in [[cvs: Dealing with bugs in CVS or this manual#Dealing with bugs in CVS or this manual|Dealing with bugs in CVS or this manual]].  If you experience this error while using <small>CVS</small>, retrying the operation which produced it should work fine.

;<code>cvs <nowiki>[</nowiki>server aborted<nowiki>]</nowiki>: Cannot check out files into the repository itself</code>
: The obvious cause for this message (especially for non-client/server <small>CVS</small>) is that the <small>CVS</small> root is, for example, &lsquo;<tt>/usr/local/cvsroot</tt>&rsquo; and you try to check out files when you are in a subdirectory, such as &lsquo;<tt>/usr/local/cvsroot/test</tt>&rsquo;.  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 &lsquo;<tt>/var/tmp</tt>&rsquo;; see <code>TMPDIR</code> in [[cvs: All environment variables which affect CVS#All environment variables which affect CVS|All environment variables which affect CVS]], for how to set the temporary directory.

;<code>cannot commit files as 'root'</code>
: See &lsquo;<code>'root' is not allowed to commit files</code>&rsquo;.

;<code>cannot open CVS/Entries for reading: No such file or directory</code>
: This generally indicates a <small>CVS</small> internal error, and can be handled as with other <small>CVS</small> bugs (see section [[cvs: Dealing with bugs in CVS or this manual#Dealing with bugs in CVS or this manual|Dealing with bugs in CVS or this manual]]).  Usually there is a workaround&mdash;the exact nature of which would depend on the situation but which hopefully could be figured out.

;<code>cvs <nowiki>[</nowiki>init aborted<nowiki>]</nowiki>: cannot open CVS/Root: No such file or directory</code>
: 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 <small>CVS</small>, but it is documented here for the benefit of <small>CVS</small> 1.9 and older.

;<code>cvs server: cannot open /root/.cvsignore: Permission denied</code>
;<code>cvs <nowiki>[</nowiki>server aborted<nowiki>]</nowiki>: can't chdir(/root): Permission denied</code>
: See [[#Trouble making a connection to a CVS server|Trouble making a connection to a CVS server]].

;<code>cvs <nowiki>[</nowiki>checkout aborted<nowiki>]</nowiki>: cannot rename file <var>file</var> to CVS/,,<var>file</var>: Invalid argument</code>
: This message has been reported as intermittently happening with <small>CVS</small> 1.9 on Solaris 2.5.  The cause is unknown; if you know more about what causes it, let us know as described in [[cvs: Dealing with bugs in CVS or this manual#Dealing with bugs in CVS or this manual|Dealing with bugs in CVS or this manual]].

;<code>cvs <nowiki>[</nowiki><var>command</var> aborted<nowiki>]</nowiki>: cannot start server via rcmd</code>
: This, unfortunately, is a rather nonspecific error message which <small>CVS</small> 1.9 will print if you are running the <small>CVS</small> client and it is having trouble connecting to the server.  Current versions of <small>CVS</small> should print a much more specific error message.  If you get this message when you didn&rsquo;t mean to run the client at all, you probably forgot to specify <code>:local:</code>, as described in [[cvs: The Repository#The Repository|The Repository]].

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

;<code>cvs checkout: could not check out <var>file</var></code>
: With <small>CVS</small> 1.9, this can mean that the <code>co</code> program (part of <small>RCS</small>) 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 <small>CVS</small>, which does not run <code>co</code>, if this message occurs without another error message, it is definitely a <small>CVS</small> bug (see section [[cvs: Dealing with bugs in CVS or this manual#Dealing with bugs in CVS or this manual|Dealing with bugs in CVS or this manual]]).

;<code>cvs <nowiki>[</nowiki>login aborted<nowiki>]</nowiki>: could not find out home directory</code>
: This means that you need to set the environment variables that <small>CVS</small> uses to locate your home directory. See the discussion of <code>HOME</code>, <code>HOMEDRIVE</code>, and <code>HOMEPATH</code> in [[cvs: All environment variables which affect CVS#All environment variables which affect CVS|All environment variables which affect CVS]].

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

;<code>cvs <nowiki>[</nowiki>update aborted<nowiki>]</nowiki>: could not patch <var>file</var>: No such file or directory</code>
: This means that there was a problem finding the <code>patch</code> program.  Make sure that it is in your <code>PATH</code>.  Note that despite appearances the message is ''not'' referring to whether it can find <var>file</var>. If both the client and the server are running a current version of <small>CVS</small>, 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 <small>CVS</small> 1.9, then you need <code>patch</code>.

;<code>cvs update: could not patch <var>file</var>; will refetch</code>
: 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 <small>CVS</small> does.

;<code>dying gasps from <var>server</var> unexpected</code>
: There is a known bug in the server for <small>CVS</small> 1.9.18 and older which can cause this.  For me, this was reproducible if I used the &lsquo;<code>-t</code>&rsquo; global option.  It was fixed by Andy Piper&rsquo;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 [[cvs: Dealing with bugs in CVS or this manual#Dealing with bugs in CVS or this manual|Dealing with bugs in CVS or this manual]].

;<code>end of file from server (consult above messages if any)</code>
: The most common cause for this message is if you are using an external <code>rsh</code> program and it exited with an error.  In this case the <code>rsh</code> program should have printed a message, which will appear before the above message.  For more information on setting up a <small>CVS</small> client and server, see [[cvs: The Repository#Remote repositories|Remote repositories]].

;<code>cvs <nowiki>[</nowiki>update aborted<nowiki>]</nowiki>: EOF in key in RCS file <var>file</var>,v</code>
;<code>cvs <nowiki>[</nowiki>checkout aborted<nowiki>]</nowiki>: EOF while looking for end of string in RCS file <var>file</var>,v</code>
: This means that there is a syntax error in the given <small>RCS</small> file.  Note that this might be true even if <small>RCS</small> can read the file OK; <small>CVS</small> does more error checking of errors in the RCS file.  That is why you may see this message when upgrading from <small>CVS</small> 1.9 to <small>CVS</small> 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 <small>CVS</small> seems to corrupting the file, by all means report it, (see section [[cvs: Dealing with bugs in CVS or this manual#Dealing with bugs in CVS or this manual|Dealing with bugs in CVS or this manual]]). There are quite a few variations of this error message, depending on exactly where in the <small>RCS</small> file <small>CVS</small> finds the syntax error.

<div id="index-mkmodules"></div>
;<code>cvs commit: Executing 'mkmodules'</code>
: This means that your repository is set up for a version of <small>CVS</small> prior to <small>CVS</small> 1.8.  When using <small>CVS</small> 1.8 or later, the above message will be preceded by

<div class="example" style="margin-left: 3.2em">
 cvs commit: Rebuilding administrative file database
</div>

: 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 <small>CVS</small> 1.7 or earlier in use, remove <code>-i mkmodules</code> every place it appears in your <code>modules</code> file.  For more information on the <code>modules</code> file, see [[cvs: Reference manual for Administrative files#The modules file|The modules file]].

;<code>missing author</code>
: Typically this can happen if you created an RCS file with your username set to empty.  <small>CVS</small> 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.

;<code>cvs <nowiki>[</nowiki>checkout aborted<nowiki>]</nowiki>: no such tag <var>tag</var></code>
: This message means that <small>CVS</small> isn&rsquo;t familiar with the tag <var>tag</var>.  Usually this means that you have mistyped a tag name; however there are (relatively obscure) cases in which <small>CVS</small> will require you to try a few other <small>CVS</small> commands involving that tag, before you find one which will cause <small>CVS</small> to update the &lsquo;<tt>val-tags</tt>&rsquo; file; see discussion of val-tags in [[cvs: The Repository#File permissions|File permissions]].  You only need to worry about this once for a given tag; when a tag is listed in &lsquo;<tt>val-tags</tt>&rsquo;, it stays there.  Note that using &lsquo;<code>-f</code>&rsquo; to not require tag matches does not override this check; see [[cvs: Guide to CVS commands#Common command options|Common command options]].

;<code>*PANIC* administration files missing</code>
: This typically means that there is a directory named <small>CVS</small> but it does not contain the administrative files which <small>CVS</small> puts in a CVS directory.  If the problem is that you created a CVS directory via some mechanism other than <small>CVS</small>, then the answer is simple, use a name other than <small>CVS</small>.  If not, it indicates a <small>CVS</small> bug (see section [[cvs: Dealing with bugs in CVS or this manual#Dealing with bugs in CVS or this manual|Dealing with bugs in CVS or this manual]]).

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

;<code>cvs <nowiki>[</nowiki>server aborted<nowiki>]</nowiki>: received broken pipe signal</code>
: This message seems to be caused by a hard-to-track-down bug in <small>CVS</small> or the systems it runs on (we don&rsquo;t know&mdash;we haven&rsquo;t tracked it down yet!).  It seems to happen only after a <small>CVS</small> 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 [[cvs: Dealing with bugs in CVS or this manual#Dealing with bugs in CVS or this manual|Dealing with bugs in CVS or this manual]].

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

;<code>Too many arguments!</code>
: This message is typically printed by the &lsquo;<tt>log.pl</tt>&rsquo; script which is in the &lsquo;<tt>contrib</tt>&rsquo; directory in the <small>CVS</small> source distribution.  In some versions of <small>CVS</small>, &lsquo;<tt>log.pl</tt>&rsquo; has been part of the default <small>CVS</small> installation.  The &lsquo;<tt>log.pl</tt>&rsquo; script gets called from the &lsquo;<tt>loginfo</tt>&rsquo; administrative file. Check that the arguments passed in &lsquo;<tt>loginfo</tt>&rsquo; match what your version of &lsquo;<tt>log.pl</tt>&rsquo; expects.  In particular, the &lsquo;<tt>log.pl</tt>&rsquo; from <small>CVS</small> 1.3 and older expects the logfile as an argument whereas the &lsquo;<tt>log.pl</tt>&rsquo; from <small>CVS</small> 1.5 and newer expects the logfile to be specified with a &lsquo;<code>-f</code>&rsquo; option.  Of course, if you don&rsquo;t need &lsquo;<tt>log.pl</tt>&rsquo; you can just comment it out of &lsquo;<tt>loginfo</tt>&rsquo;.

;<code>cvs <nowiki>[</nowiki>update aborted<nowiki>]</nowiki>: unexpected EOF reading <var>file</var>,v</code>
: See &lsquo;<code>EOF in key in RCS file</code>&rsquo;.

;<code>cvs <nowiki>[</nowiki>login aborted<nowiki>]</nowiki>: unrecognized auth response from <var>server</var></code>
: This message typically means that the server is not set up properly.  For example, if &lsquo;<tt>inetd.conf</tt>&rsquo; points to a nonexistent cvs executable.  To debug it further, find the log file which inetd writes (&lsquo;<tt>/var/log/messages</tt>&rsquo; or whatever inetd uses on your system).  For details, see [[#Trouble making a connection to a CVS server|Trouble making a connection to a CVS server]], and [[cvs: The Repository#Setting up the server for password authentication|Setting up the server for password authentication]].

;<code>cvs commit: Up-to-date check failed for `<var>file</var>'</code>
: This means that someone else has committed a change to that file since the last time that you did a <code>cvs update</code>.  So before proceeding with your <code>cvs commit</code> you need to <code>cvs update</code>.  <small>CVS</small> 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 &lsquo;<code>M <var>file</var></code>&rsquo; and you are ready to <code>cvs commit</code>.  If it detects conflicts it will print a message saying so, will report &lsquo;<code>C <var>file</var></code>&rsquo;, and you need to manually resolve the conflict.  For more details on this process see [[cvs: Multiple developers#Conflicts example|Conflicts example]].

;<code>Usage:	diff3 <nowiki>[</nowiki>-exEX3 <nowiki>[</nowiki>-i | -m<nowiki>]</nowiki> <nowiki>[</nowiki>-L label1 -L label3<nowiki>]]</nowiki> file1 file2 file3</code>
<div class="example" style="margin-left: 3.2em">
 Only one of <nowiki>[</nowiki>exEX3<nowiki>]</nowiki> allowed
</div>
: This indicates a problem with the installation of <code>diff3</code> and <code>rcsmerge</code>.  Specifically <code>rcsmerge</code> 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 <small>CVS</small>, which does not rely on external <code>rcsmerge</code> or <code>diff3</code> programs.

;<code>warning: unrecognized response `<var>text</var>' from cvs server</code>
: If <var>text</var> contains a valid response (such as &lsquo;<code>ok</code>&rsquo;) 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 &lsquo;<code>:ext:</code>&rsquo; 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 &lsquo;<code>:server:</code>&rsquo; instead of &lsquo;<code>:ext:</code>&rsquo;.  If <var>text</var> is something else, this may signify a problem with your <small>CVS</small> server. Double-check your installation against the instructions for setting up the <small>CVS</small> server.

;<code>cvs commit: <nowiki>[</nowiki><var>time</var><nowiki>]</nowiki> waiting for <var>user</var>'s lock in <var>directory</var></code>
: This is a normal message, not an error.  See [[cvs: Multiple developers#Several developers simultaneously attempting to run CVS|Several developers simultaneously attempting to run CVS]], for more details.

;<code>cvs commit: warning: editor session failed</code>
<div id="index-Exit-status_002c-of-editor"></div>
: This means that the editor which <small>CVS</small> 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 <code>CVSEDITOR</code> environment variable to a small script such as:

<div class="example" style="margin-left: 3.2em">
 #!/bin/sh
 vi $*
 exit 0
</div>



----

<div id="Connection"></div>
<table class="header" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" border="0">
<tr><td valign="middle" align="left">|[[#Troubleshooting| &lt;&lt; ]]|</td>
<td valign="middle" align="left">|[[#Partial list of error messages| &lt; ]]|</td>
<td valign="middle" align="left">|[[#Troubleshooting| Up ]]|</td>
<td valign="middle" align="left">|[[#Other common problems| &gt; ]]|</td>
<td valign="middle" align="left">|[[cvs: Credits#Credits| &gt;&gt; ]]|</td>
<td valign="middle" align="left"> &nbsp; </td>
<td valign="middle" align="left"> &nbsp; </td>
<td valign="middle" align="left"> &nbsp; </td>
<td valign="middle" align="left"> &nbsp; </td>
<td valign="middle" align="left">|[[cvs#Top|Top]]|</td>
<td valign="middle" align="left">|[[cvs: Table of Contents#SEC_Contents|Contents]]|</td>
<td valign="middle" align="left">|[[cvs: Index#Index|Index]]|</td>
<td valign="middle" align="left">|[[cvs: About this Manual#SEC_About| ? ]]|</td>
</tr></table>
<div id="Trouble-making-a-connection-to-a-CVS-server"></div>
=== Trouble making a connection to a CVS server ===

This section concerns what to do if you are having
trouble making a connection to a <small>CVS</small> server.  If
you are running the <small>CVS</small> command line client
running on Windows, first upgrade the client to
<small>CVS</small> 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,
<small>CVS</small> 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.

<div id="index-_003aext_003a_002c-troubleshooting"></div>
;<code>:ext:</code>
: Try running the rsh program from the command line.  For example: &quot;rsh servername cvs -v&quot; should print <small>CVS</small> version information.  If this doesn&rsquo;t work, you need to fix it before you can worry about <small>CVS</small> problems.

<div id="index-_003aserver_003a_002c-troubleshooting"></div>
;<code>:server:</code>
: You don&rsquo;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<nowiki> :</nowiki>ext:.

<div id="index-_003apserver_003a_002c-troubleshooting"></div>
;<code>:pserver:</code>
: Errors along the lines of &quot;connection refused&quot; typically indicate that inetd isn&rsquo;t even listening for connections on port 2401 whereas errors like &quot;connection reset by peer&quot;, &quot;received broken pipe signal&quot;, &quot;recv() from server: EOF&quot;, or &quot;end of file from server&quot; typically indicate that inetd is listening for connections but is unable to start <small>CVS</small> (this is frequently caused by having an incorrect path in &lsquo;<tt>inetd.conf</tt>&rsquo; or by firewall software rejecting the connection). &quot;unrecognized auth response&quot; errors are caused by a bad command line in &lsquo;<tt>inetd.conf</tt>&rsquo;, typically an invalid option or forgetting to put the &lsquo;<code>pserver</code>&rsquo; command at the end of the line. Another less common problem is invisible control characters that your editor &quot;helpfully&quot; added without you noticing.

: One good debugging tool is to &quot;telnet servername 2401&quot;.  After connecting, send any text (for example &quot;foo&quot; followed by return).  If <small>CVS</small> is working correctly, it will respond with

<div class="example" style="margin-left: 3.2em">
 cvs <nowiki>[</nowiki>pserver aborted<nowiki>]</nowiki>: bad auth protocol start: foo
</div>

: If instead you get:

<div class="example" style="margin-left: 3.2em">
 Usage: cvs <nowiki>[</nowiki>cvs-options<nowiki>]</nowiki> command <nowiki>[</nowiki>command-options-and-arguments<nowiki>]</nowiki>
 ...
</div>

: then you&rsquo;re missing the &lsquo;<code>pserver</code>&rsquo; command at the end of the line in &lsquo;<tt>inetd.conf</tt>&rsquo;; check to make sure that the entire command is on one line and that it&rsquo;s complete.

: Likewise, if you get something like:

<div class="example" style="margin-left: 3.2em">
 Unknown command: `pserved'
 
 CVS commands are:
         add          Add a new file/directory to the repository
 ...
</div>

: then you&rsquo;ve misspelled &lsquo;<code>pserver</code>&rsquo; in some way.  If it isn&rsquo;t obvious, check for invisible control characters (particularly carriage returns) in &lsquo;<tt>inetd.conf</tt>&rsquo;.

: If it fails to work at all, then make sure inetd is working right.  Change the invocation in &lsquo;<tt>inetd.conf</tt>&rsquo; to run the echo program instead of cvs.  For example:

<div class="example" style="margin-left: 3.2em">
 2401  stream  tcp  nowait  root /bin/echo echo hello
</div>

: After making that change and instructing inetd to re-read its configuration file, &quot;telnet servername 2401&quot; should show you the text hello and then the server should close the connection.  If this doesn&rsquo;t work, you need to fix it before you can worry about <small>CVS</small> problems.

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

: Another good debugging tool is the &lsquo;<code>-d</code>&rsquo; (debugging) option to inetd.  Consult your system documentation for more information.

: If you seem to be connecting but get errors like:

<div class="example" style="margin-left: 3.2em">
 cvs server: cannot open /root/.cvsignore: Permission denied
 cvs <nowiki>[</nowiki>server aborted<nowiki>]</nowiki>: can't chdir(/root): Permission denied
</div>

: then you probably haven&rsquo;t specified &lsquo;<code>-f</code>&rsquo; in &lsquo;<tt>inetd.conf</tt>&rsquo;. (In releases prior to <small>CVS</small> 1.11.1, this problem can be caused by your system setting the <code>$HOME</code> environment variable for programs being run by inetd.  In this case, you can either have inetd run a shell script that unsets <code>$HOME</code> and then runs <small>CVS</small>, or you can use <code>env</code> to run <small>CVS</small> with a pristine environment.)

: If you can connect successfully for a while but then can&rsquo;t, you&rsquo;ve probably hit inetd&rsquo;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.)


----

<div id="Other-problems"></div>
<table class="header" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" border="0">
<tr><td valign="middle" align="left">|[[#Troubleshooting| &lt;&lt; ]]|</td>
<td valign="middle" align="left">|[[#Trouble making a connection to a CVS server| &lt; ]]|</td>
<td valign="middle" align="left">|[[#Troubleshooting| Up ]]|</td>
<td valign="middle" align="left">|[[cvs: Credits#Credits| &gt; ]]|</td>
<td valign="middle" align="left">|[[cvs: Credits#Credits| &gt;&gt; ]]|</td>
<td valign="middle" align="left"> &nbsp; </td>
<td valign="middle" align="left"> &nbsp; </td>
<td valign="middle" align="left"> &nbsp; </td>
<td valign="middle" align="left"> &nbsp; </td>
<td valign="middle" align="left">|[[cvs#Top|Top]]|</td>
<td valign="middle" align="left">|[[cvs: Table of Contents#SEC_Contents|Contents]]|</td>
<td valign="middle" align="left">|[[cvs: Index#Index|Index]]|</td>
<td valign="middle" align="left">|[[cvs: About this Manual#SEC_About| ? ]]|</td>
</tr></table>
<div id="Other-common-problems"></div>
=== 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 <small>CVS</small> command, it may mean that you have your home directory set to &lsquo;<tt>C:/</tt>&rsquo;, for example (see <code>HOMEDRIVE</code> and <code>HOMEPATH</code> in [[cvs: All environment variables which affect CVS#All environment variables which affect CVS|All environment variables which affect CVS]]).  <small>CVS</small> expects the home directory to not end in a slash, for example &lsquo;<tt>C:</tt>&rsquo; or &lsquo;<tt>C:\cvs</tt>&rsquo;.


* If you are running <small>CVS</small> 1.9.18 or older, and <code>cvs update</code> finds a conflict and tries to merge, as described in [[cvs: Multiple developers#Conflicts example|Conflicts example]], but doesn&rsquo;t tell you there were conflicts, then you may have an old version of <small>RCS</small>.  The easiest solution probably is to upgrade to a current version of <small>CVS</small>, which does not rely on external <small>RCS</small> programs.


----

<table class="header" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" border="0">
<tr><td valign="middle" align="left">|[[#Troubleshooting| &lt;&lt; ]]|</td>
<td valign="middle" align="left">|[[cvs: Credits#Credits| &gt;&gt; ]]|</td>
<td valign="middle" align="left"> &nbsp; </td>
<td valign="middle" align="left"> &nbsp; </td>
<td valign="middle" align="left"> &nbsp; </td>
<td valign="middle" align="left"> &nbsp; </td>
<td valign="middle" align="left"> &nbsp; </td>
<td valign="middle" align="left">|[[cvs#Top|Top]]|</td>
<td valign="middle" align="left">|[[cvs: Table of Contents#SEC_Contents|Contents]]|</td>
<td valign="middle" align="left">|[[cvs: Index#Index|Index]]|</td>
<td valign="middle" align="left">|[[cvs: About this Manual#SEC_About| ? ]]|</td>
</tr></table>
This document was generated on <i>a sunny day</i> using [http://www.nongnu.org/texi2html/ <i>texi2html</i>].
