Re: Can check out file but not show history for it!

[Larry Jones]

Goran writes:
> 
> When i commited a file to a repository the owner of that file was
> root(it should not have been so) and now when i try to look at the
> history for this file with 'cvs -f log' i get the following error: cvs
> [log aborted]: unexpected '\x0' reading revision number in RCS file
> /mnt/G/cvs/alarm/alarm.c,v

The owner of the file has nothing whatsoever to do with the problem
you're having.  The problem is that the RCS file has been corrupted. 
The fact that the path to the file starts with /mnt leads me to believe
that you're using NFS to access your repository.  Many people have
reported exactly this sort of corruption when using NFS-mounted
repositories due to interoperability problems between the NFS
implementations on the client and server systems.  I strongly suggest
that you start using client/server CVS (with the CVS server having a
locally-mounted repository) instead of NFS-mounting the repository.

There was a perl script posted here a while back that would examine an
entire repository for corruption; I suggest you find it and run it to
make sure you don't have any other files in the same state.  Your only
options for repairing the damage is to revert to a good backup or to try
to repair the file by hand (the damaged file, a good backup, and a
thorough knowledge of the RCS file structure are required).

-Larry Jones

It's hard to be religious when certain people are never
incinerated by bolts of lightning. -- Calvin