[cvsnt] `state' not in the expected place

[Tony Hoyle]

Trond Kvarenes wrote:

> When we commit changes from a particular computer (using vpn via a ISDN
> connection) to the CVS server things looks ok until someone tries to do
> any work on the file from any other computer. We are using the ntserver
> protocol.
> The error message we get is:
> cvs [server aborted]: unable to parse e:/CVS/development/MyFile.java,v;
> `state' not in the expected place.

That means that the revision history hasn't been written correctly.  It's
probably fixable with a text editor provided that's all that's wrong.

> I have read something about a bug if the commit for some reason don't get
> to finnish, the roleback might fail in some cases, but when the user
> commits the file, everything seams to go ok.
> I tried to move the file to the attic folder but the error was the same.

The commits are atomic at the file level.  There is no rollback - if a file
commit fails it just doesn't happen.

> Can anyone point out how to fix the "corrupted" files and how to avoid
> this problem. The clients are winCVS 1.3b8

I must admit to never having come across anything quite like what you're
seeing.  The obvious possible causes that spring to mind are:

a) Repository on a network share
b) Antivirus on the server (you're probably ok with this as long as the
'file protection' option is disabled).
c) Hard disk corruption

Assuming you can eliminate all 3...  can you email me a 'corrupted' file so
I can take a look at it?

Tony