Michael Rigby-Jones wrote:

> Thank you very much for taking to time to type that explanation, it's
> very helpfull.  As I understand it I can not delete a file revision as
> such, only a tag which points to that revision.  

This is not correct. You (that is, a repository admin) can delete a file
revision if needed. However, this is usually not necessary. If the case is
that a file has been accidentally "cvs removed", re-adding it will bring it
back.

> cvs log CalForm.frm
> 
>   RCS file: /Research/sfp/gui/CalForm.frm,v
>   Working file: CalForm.frm
>   head: 1.13
>   branch:
>   locks: strict
>   access list: 
>   symbolic names:
>           V1_6: 1.12
>           V1_5: 1.12
>           v1_4_rc1: 1.12
>           v1_3: 1.11
>   keyword substitution: kv
>   total revisions: 13;    selected revisions: 13
>   description:
>   ----------------------------
>   revision 1.13
>   date: 2007/05/03 10:18:30;  author: Joe.Blogs;  state: dead;  lines: +1 -1;
>     kopt: kv;  commitid: 1ec4639b6f426ee;  filename: CalForm.frm;
>   *** empty log message ***
>   ----------------------------
>   revision 1.12
>   date: 2005/09/12 13:57:31;  author: A.N.Other;  state: Exp;  lines: +118 -63
>   ;  kopt: kv;  commitid: 3b44325894a0000;
>   * Change name of module setup form to "SFP - Module Setup" was "XFP -..."

> Revision 1.13 in this case have "state: dead".  What does this mean? 

A "dead" revision means that this revision has been "cvs removed" (and the
removal committed).

> Can 1.13 be effectively removed, or rolled back to 1.12. or do we just
> have to live with this?  

This is a versioning system, and it would be a poor one if this couldn't be
remedied :)  

Two main courses of action: 

1- Use the "cvs admin" command to delete the dead revision. This is
possible for a repository admin, but I don't recommend it. (Check out "cvs
-H admin" for options.)

2- Check out the revision you want as HEAD; probably 1.12. This can be done
in a number of ways; one would be the cvs update command. Try "cvs -H up"
for a list of options; "cvs up -r 1.12 CalForm.frm" should work. This gets
you the file you want, but it has now a "sticky" tag of revision 1.12.
Rename the file, and issue another update command to get rid of the sticky
tag: "cvs up -A CalForm.frm". Now rename the file back to CalForm.frm, add
it (you can now use Tortoise again, since you now have a file to work with)
and commit it. When you now check the revision tree (again with Tortoise),
you'll see the revisions up to 1.12, followed by a dead revision 1.13,
followed by the HEAD revision of 1.14.

The advantage of method 2 is that you don't remove any information from the
repository and can do this as a non-admin. The "cvs admin -o" command
actually removes information from the repository files, which makes it so
dangerous (and that's also why it is an admin-only command).

Let me know if you need more help.

Gerhard

-- 
http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive
View/change your membership options at
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist