cvs -n

[Kaloian Doganov]

I've started fill java-trap.bg.po on my local system.  When I've ran
make to build java-trap.bg.html, the cvs program connected to the
repository and then actually scheduled the file for addition on my
working copy:

    [ -f ../../philosophy/java-trap.bg.html ] || \
    (touch ../../philosophy/java-trap.bg.html ; \
    cvs -n add ../../philosophy/java-trap.bg.html)
    Enter passphrase for key '/home/kaloian/.ssh/id_rsa':
    cvs add: scheduling file `../../philosophy/java-trap.bg.html' for addition
    cvs add: use `cvs commit' to add this file permanently

Indeed, the documentation about `-n' does not mention anything about
addition:

    `-n' Do not change any files.  Attempt to execute the `cvs_command',
         but only to issue reports; do not remove, update, or merge any
         existing files, or create any new files.

This is a trick.  The `-n' option has a consistent effect over the given
cvs command, but only for the mentioned commands.  For any other
commands, users have to find out the results themselves.  It is
unfortunate that documentation silently ignores the cases when the
specified option or command will behave unusually (and sometimes - in a
dangerous way).  Exactly the same way the documentation for `add' covers
only addition of files, but does not mention what we should expect for
directories, since directories are added immediately without `commit'.

Aside from that, my conclusion is that `cvs -n' is not a viable way to
block out cvs commands.  We could use `echo cvs' instead.