Partial checkout of an ampersand module

[Bill Biessman]

QUESTION:
Is there a way to check out just one file from the tree below an ampersand
module specifying the complete path?

TOOLS:
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I am using a Win2k machine with CVSNT with:
Concurrent Versions System (CVS) NT 1.11.1.2 Beta 3 (Build 33)
(client/server)
and NT clients with:
Concurrent Versions System (CVS) 1.10.8 (client/server)

MORE DETAIL:
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I have a line in my modules file that looks like:
whole_thing     &part_one &part_two

We usually check out the whole thing with:
cvs co -P -d whole_thing

which produces

whole_thing
whole_thing/CVS
whole_thing/part_one
whole_thing/part_one/CVS
whole_thing/part_one/the_rest_of_the_part_one_files_and_subdirectories
whole_thing/part_two
whole_thing/part_two/CVS
whole_thing/part_two/the_rest_of_the_part_two_files_and_subdirectories

This is what I expect.

since the whole project is about 5,000 files, I don't want to check it all
out when I don't have to.

In certain instances, I want to check out a file under part_one first, and
then check out the whole_thing.  e.g.:

cvs co whole_thing/part_one/subdir/my_file
look at the file for a while with a script, and then:
cvs update -C -P -d whole_thing
to get the rest of the files in the project.

The problem is that when I execute
cvs co whole_thing/part_one/subdir/myfile
 get the following error message:
cvs server: modules file missing directory for module
whole_thing/part_one/subdir/myfile
cvs.exe [checkout aborted]: cannot expand modules

trying to check out whole_thing/part_one/subdir also fails

If I first make a whole_thing directory, enter it, then check out
part_one/subdir/myfile
I get the desired file, but I do not get whole_thing/CVS, so when I execute
the
cvs update -C -P -d whole_thing
later on I get:
cvs server: nothing known about whole_thing

The problem occurs when executing the commands either from a client PC or in
a cygwin bash on the server.

Thanks
Bill