Re: EOF while looking for end of string in RCS file : How to delete problem file?

[Eric Siegerman]

On Tue, Mar 09, 2004 at 04:27:39AM -0800, Fred Phase wrote:
> I imported some MP3s into CVS by mistake
> [and can't "cvs delete" one of them because the ,v is corrupt]

Just go directly into the repo and delete the ,v file.  CVS is
fine with that.  The next time you do a "cvs update" in your
sandbox, it'll print a message and delete the working file from
your sandbox -- so make sure that's not your only copy of the
file!

Be aware that doing this will throw away the file's revision
history, old tags, commit logs, etc.

> I heard that
> doing stuff directly in the CVSROOT directory is most inadvisable and
> could break stuff if I am no careful.

This is almost always very true, but you've stumbled on a rare
exception.  Other things you might do directly in the repo (e.g.
moving files into or out of the Attic, messing with tags, and
such) could indeed break CVS if done without regard to the way
CVS does things.

Deleting ,v files outright doesn't break CVS; as I said, CVS
recovers just fine on the next update.  Even so, it's a practice
that's usually advised against in the strongest terms, because it
trashes all the history that's the main reason for using a
revision-control system in the first place!

In your case, though, you seem to be saying that the file should
never have been put into CVS at all; if that's correct, the
file's revision history is presumably unimportant enough to you
that you won't mind sacrificing it.  (If I'm wrong about that,
ask again and we can try to work something else out.)

--

|  | /\
|-_|/  >   Eric Siegerman, Toronto, Ont.        address@hidden
|  |  /
It must be said that they would have sounded better if the singer
wouldn't throw his fellow band members to the ground and toss the
drum kit around during songs.
        - Patrick Lenneau