check out file into current dir

[Scott McDermott]

howcome if I have

        export CVS_RSH=ssh
        export CVSROOT=remote:/path/to/repository

then

        cvs init
        cd /path/to/vendor/tree
        cvs import base/category/thing vendorname start
        cd /some/tmp/path
        cvs co -d . base/cateogory/thing/file

does not work but if I use

        mount /mnt/tmp remote:/path/to/repository
        unset CVS_RSH
        export CVSROOT=/mnt/tmp

then the commands work? I can't do this using CVS_RSH to access the
repository, and instead it must be a locally accessible filesystem? The
error I get is

        cvs server: existing repository /path/to/repository does not
        match /path/to/repository/base/cateogory/thing

        cvs server: ignoring module base/category/thing/file

what gives?