Nees help, some files checkout as empty

[Dave Allaby]

Hello there CVS folks.

 

We have a rather glitchy problem that I’m having trouble understanding and could use some aid.

 

Often we will perform a cvs co using a module alias which checks out several modules together.  We have one module which only checks out as a very minimal subset.  Every now and then, when we update this module, some of the files become empty.  They were not empty before updating, and they are not empty in the repository.  Once we discover they are empty, we can remove them and update again, and they come out correct.

 

Additionally, this same module has Entries.Static files in it.  The Entries.Static explanation is  a bit vague to me.

 

It says:

 

 If the CVS/Entries.Static file exists, it means that the entire directory has not been fetched from the repository.

 

Which is ok I’m guessing, because we do not extract the entire tree.

 

But, it also says:

 

The Entries.Static file is present during checkouts and updates and removed immediately when the operation is complete. If you see Entries.Static, it means that CVS was interrupted, and its presence prevents CVS from creating any new files in the working copy.

 

This Entries.Static file persists beyond the checkout process, and there was no interruption of the checkout process.  And these erroneously checked out files of zero length, live in the same directories where these Entries.Static files are found.

 

So my questions:

 

1.       Should these Static file markers exist in a sandbox after the checkout process has finished?

2.       Could the existence of these files be causing empty copies to be extracted upon subsequent extractions? 

3.       If changes were committed to a file in one of these directories AND the Entries.Static file exists, would that cause empty file updates?

4.       Do you have any suggestions, explanations for what conditions need to exist so that a zero length file stored in the repository is extracted as zero length?

 

I surely would appreciate any suggestions you may have!

 

Thanks in advance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dave Allaby

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