cvs 1.11.1p1 server: "Protocol error: uncounted data discarded"

[Stewart Brodie]

Ever since we upgraded from version 1.10.8 to 1.11.1p1, our CVS server has
been returning errors saying:

  Protocol error: uncounted data discarded

Typically, the error is generated during a "cvs checkout" operation, although
it has been seen less often in a "cvs update".

All clients are accessing the server using pserver.  The clients most
affected appear to be Windows NT, although this is not exclusive - I've had
the problem on Redhat Linux 7.1 too.

The clients most affected appear to be not on the same local LAN as the
server - users on the same site as the server are only seeing problems
rarely.  Clients running across our WAN are seeing the error more frequently.

Unfortunately, we are having difficulty reproducing this fault consistently. 

This may be related to gnu.cvs.bug posting by Vanderputten_Jennifer@emc.com
(<DB0089742DBFD4119B5500104B2ABA72022EEF56@corpusmx3.us.dg.com>).  We also
use rtag a lot on our repository, but in our case it is not to create
branches, but to apply a "stable" symbolic tag to a particular tagged version
of a component using "cvs -fqQ rtag -a -f -F -r versiontag stable directory"

Today, I have reverted our server to version 1.10.8 to verify that the
problem has been introduced in the newer version of the server.  However,
this is sub-optimal as it prevents "cvs export" working - since all our
directories have template log messages set in rcsinfo - a known bug which has
been fixed.

Has anybody else seen the same/similar behaviour?


Server: x86 Solaris 2.7 (with recommended Sun patches as of August 15th 2001)
        cvs 1.11.1p1
        
Clients: x86 Windows NT 4.0
         cvs 1.11, some running under CygWin, some under WinCVS.

         x86 Solaris 2.7 as per server
         cvs 1.11.1p1
         
         x86 Redhat Linux 7.1
         cvs 1.11.1p1


-- 
Stewart Brodie, Senior Software Engineer   Cambridge CVS administration team
Pace Micro Technology PLC
645 Newmarket Road
Cambridge, CB5 8PB, United Kingdom         WWW: http://www.pacemicro.com/