Do we have an alternative to tag, to record status of cvs repo

[Satya Prasad DV]

hi ,
In our orgn, we need to keep track of the code base status after each 
engineer's check in is done. We were using tagging to keep track of this. 
But the huge number of tags getting created over a long time have made the 
CVS repository bloated with tags. This is also making the sync. of 
repository with our branch located elsewhere too long.

I was wondering whether we have a whatfile kind of tool which was used in 
RCS(version no. of each file stored in a whatfile, which is used to check 
out the entire code base later). I tried to create a similar kind of tool 
using the CVS commands. I am able to create the info file by traversing 
through the Entries files in my local copy. But a check out using this file 
is taking around 4 hours, as I am issuing a check out command for each file 
separately.

Can any body give me a clue how to record the code base status, other than 
tagging, so that this can be used to check out the code later. I know that 
tag is the obvious solution. But I have problems with tagging, since it 
updates almost every file in the repo. This makes my update take too long.