Custom error message to client

[Norberto Meijome]

Hi,
CVS Server : 1.11.1p1, Linux RH 7.2
Clients : WinCVS (w/full TCL shell enabled).

I've replaced the CVS server entry in xinetd with my own script which, 
for now, simply handles the parameter passing to CVS.

I would like the various CVS repositories to be offline (most probably 
one at a time) while I'm doing the box's backup.The backup script puts a 
lock in a certain place and the my script run from xinetd knows what 
each flag means.

When a client wants to perform an operation on one of the repositories 
which are being backed up at the moment, the script from xinetd will 
block access to it,but I would like to send back a more descriptive 
error, something like 'This repository xxxxx is being backed up right 
now. Please try again in 30 minutes'.
I've tried a simple
echo 'msg'
exit 1

and

echo 'msg' >/dev/stderr
exit 1

but I just get in the client:

cvs [login aborted]: recv() from server cvs.au.office.aol.com: 
Connection reset by peer

*****CVS exited normally with code 1*****

Does anybody know where can I find a pointer to the proper way of doing 
this?

Thanks in advance,
Beto