[Info-cvs] Sticky tag does not prevent from removing files

[Vincent Deconinck]

I am new to cvs "advanced" features, so maybe this message will seem completely
odd to cvs gurus... sorry in advance if it's the case.

Here's the problem : while experiencing with branches, I came across the
following situation :

I had a release tagged "REL-1", from which I wanted to branch to implement
a few fixes, independently from the main trunk, so I did a :

cvs rtag -r REL1 -b REL1-FIX foo
cvs checkout -r REL1-FIX foo

I changed a few files, committed the changes then tagged the new version
with

cvs tag REL1-FIX1 foo

... and exported that fixed version to the production directory. Nothing
very special until now.

A few weeks later, I wanted to fix another issue, by simply removing a file.
So I checked out once again the files to an empty dir, but as I am (was)
not an expert, I checked out the revision REL1-FIX1 instead of the branch
REL1-FIX (note that if I'd been an advanced user, it could have been a typo).
So here's what I typed :

cvs checkout -r REL1-FIX1 foo
cd foo
rm menu.html
cvs remove menu.html
cvs commit -m "Unused"

... and it worked ! CVS allowed me to commit even though I had a revision
checked out, not a branch. Not even a warning... Worse, it took me a long
time to realize something abnormal had happened, because i went on tagging
and releasing that version : 

cd ..
cvs tag REL1-FIX2

... and then exporting from that tag REL1-FIX2, without any problem.

But the problem surfaced a few weeks later, when I wanted to implement a
third fix (Yes, I know, it's a pity to leave so many bugs in release versions
:-)), because when I made a :

cvs checkout -r REL1-FIX foo

... and my menu.html was back to life, though I had erased it before...


So, is that a bug in CVS or am I missing something important with tags and
branches ?


Any help/tip/comment is greatly appreciated

Vincent.

Vincent Deconinck
Canal+ Belgium
mailto:address@hidden


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