messing with CVS_LOCAL_BRANCH_NUM

[John Polstra]

In article <20030803072341.GC298 at numachi.com>,
Brian Reichert  <reichert at numachi.com> wrote:
> On Sat, Aug 02, 2003 at 03:22:06PM -0700, John Polstra wrote:
> > Yes: look for a different approach, or at least backup your local
> > repository frequently.  There are known bugs in CVSup which can cause
> > it to throw away your local branch under certain circumstances.  I
> > won't have time to fix those issues any time soon.  So my advice is,
> > don't use the CVS_LOCAL_BRANCH_NUM feature.
> 
> Darn. :/
[...]
> So, can the 'certain circumstances' be described, so that I might
> avoid them?  Or is that just due to inherent wierdness in the whole
> CVSup process?

The main situation in which it will occur is when somebody has
directly manipulated or replaced an RCS file in the master CVS
repository.  CVSup notices that the client and server have entirely
different RCS files, so it does a full replace instead of trying to
send just deltas.  Ideally this situation should never arise, but in
the real world it happens all the time.

That's actually the only scenario I know of where the problem should
crop up.  But on the other hand, I've had some suspicious-sounding
reports of CVS_LOCAL_BRANCH_NUM lossage that can't be explained by
this alone.  Bottom line is, if you value your local branch then you
should back it up before every update.

John
-- 
  John Polstra
  John D. Polstra & Co., Inc.                        Seattle, Washington USA
  "Two buttocks cannot avoid friction."                     -- Malawi saying