Re: Cvs temporary directories for server

[Larry Jones]

Anita Chacko writes:
> 
> CVS server creates temporary directories in /tmp
> directory as cvs-servpid.Why are these
> required?

The way client/server CVS works is that the server uses local CVS
commands on a mirror of (the relevant parts of) the client's working
directory.  The temporary directory is where the server constructs the
mirror.

> Sometimes they are not removed automatically.

That shouldn't happen unless CVS crashes, which also shouldn't happen. 
If you can determine the circumstances that cause that to happen, we'd
be very interested to know what they are.  (And, if you're not running
the current version of CVS [1.11], you should upgrade and see if that
doesn't fix, or at least reduce, the problem.)

> In that case,if we don't remove these
> directories manually ,will it affect the normal
> operations for other users?

Eventually.  Prior to CVS 1.11, if the desired temporary directory
already existed, the server would just try to use it, which could cause
permission problems.  As of CVS 1.11, if the desired temporary directory
already exists, it appends a letter (a-z); if all of those directories
also exist, it returns an error.

> And also sometimes,it creates files such as
> #cvs.lastdir.43762 in /tmp directory.Why are these
> created and will these affect the operation of CVS?

I have no idea what those files are -- I don't see any code in CVS that
would generate names of that form.

> In my project,one developer is getting the lock error
> when trying to checkout;there is no lock dir/file
> anywhere except this file in /tmp.But I am able to
> checkout normally.I don't know why only he is getting
> the lock error.Can someone explain this?

Locks are in the repository (or in LockDir if you've specified it in
your CVSROOT/config file), not in the temporary working directories. 
Perhaps you're looking in the wrong place.

-Larry Jones

Even if lives DID hang in the balance, it would depend on whose they were.
-- Calvin