CVS not using environment variables

[Jerry Neely]

I'm trying to access a CVS repository on a remote server, but it doesn't appear 
to be 
using the environment variables I've set.  For example:

$ set | grep CVS
CVSROOT=:ext:address@hidden:/usr/src/cvsroot
CVS_RSH=ssh

$ cvs status
cvs status: No CVSROOT specified!  Please use the `-d' option
cvs [status aborted]: or set the CVSROOT environment variable.

Apparently, CVS doesn't see that CVSROOT is set in my environment.  Though it's 
not 
something I'd care to have to type all the time, I can get around this with the 
-d option, 
but this fails as well.  Using the -t (trace) option shows why:

$ cvs -t -d :ext:address@hidden:/usr/src/cvsroot status
 -> main loop with CVSROOT=:ext:address@hidden:/usr/src/cvsroot
 -> Starting server: rsh cvs.server.com -l my_id cvs server
cvs.server.com: Connection refused
cvs [status aborted]: end of file from server (consult above messages if any)
 -> Lock_Cleanup()

And I know of no command line options to replace CVS_RSH.  Does anyone have any 
idea why CVS isn't picking up the environment variables?  I'm seeing the exact 
same 
behavior on two systems.  One is running CVS 1.11.2 on Redhat 9.0, the other is 
CVS 
1.11.1p1 on Redhat 7.1.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Jerry
--
Jerry Neely
address@hidden