[cvsnt] Re: Absolute module reference invalid error

Webmaster33 webmaster33 at gmail.com
Wed May 24 22:30:23 BST 2006


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> >I know your guide, I followed it.
> >However it doesn't tell anything about RCS to CVS conversion.
> 
> Of course not, this is really an oddball thing. First time in 5 years
> for me with CVSNT it has surfaced...

Migration from an old system to a new system, while keeping
our data should be not an unusual thing. Every VCS should 
have conversion scripts which makes migration to their
product easy.
Miss of such tool, is a big mistake from CVSNT developers.


> This CVSROOT is not needed, however you may type cvs --ver instead.
> It will be a lot more verbose but the first lines should show the
> version.

Concurrent Versions System (CVSNT) 2.0.51d (client/server)
Copyright (c) 1989-2001 Brian Berliner, david d `zoo' zuhn,
CVSNT version (Aug 19 2004) Copyright (c) 1999-2004 


> You *cannot* specify a repository and a module as an absolute path!!!
> After localhost: there should be a registered repository name as it is
> configured in the CVSNT control panel and described in my tutorial.

The problem is, that nobody describes, what a module is...
At least I did not find module definition.

 
> >Location: E:/Work/test_cvsnt
> >Name: E:\Work\test_cvsnt
> No, it is not! You should set the Name to:
> Name:  /test
> Notice no absolute path and *no* backslashes!

Ok, did set it.
Name:  /test_cvs


> This does not compare to what you stated above....
> Location: E:/Work/test_cvsnt is <> E:/temp/test_cvs

You are right. I fixed this mistype.
Now the control panel settings is following:
Location: E:/temp/test_cvs
Name:  /test_cvs


Now I tried the following:
cvs -d :local:E:\temp\test_cvs checkout -- /test_cvs (in directory E:\temp\test_cvs\workdir)
cvs checkout: cwd=E:\temp\test_cvs\workdir ,current=E:\temp\test_cvs\workdir
cvs [checkout aborted]: Absolute module reference invalid: `/test_cvs'
***** CVS exited normally with code 1 *****

Still "Absolute module reference invalid" error.


> Inside the repository top folder E:/Work/test_cvsnt you have a folder
> CVSROOT. Additionally for each project you want to store you will have
> another *folder* containing all of the project files (the RCS versions
> of course). It is this folder name you have to supply as the myproject
> entry.

You suggest this syntax:
cvs -d :sspi:localhost:/test_cvs checkout myproject 

Now I created a directory in 
E:\temp\test_cvs\CVSROOT\
and moved dir Z into it.
So now the structure is:
E:\temp\test_cvs\CVSROOT\
E:\temp\test_cvs\CVSROOT\myproject
E:\temp\test_cvs\CVSROOT\myproject\Z
E:\temp\test_cvs\CVSROOT\myproject\Z\Work
etc.

However the result is still error:
cvs -d :sspi:localhost:/test_cvs checkout myproject 
cvs checkout: cwd=E:\temp\test_cvs\CVSROOT ,current=E:\temp\test_cvs\CVSROOT
cvs server: cannot find module `myproject' - ignored
cvs [checkout aborted]: cannot expand modules
***** CVS exited normally with code 1 *****

Still something wrong.


> CVSNT will gram the repository name from your command (the part after
> localhost: and look up the real path to the repository, in this case
> it will get E:/Work/test_cvsnt. Then it will add the module name you
> supplied to get to a repository physical path (that normally is
> unknown by the users) as E:/Work/test_cvsnt/myproject
> Then it will send you the files in this folder.

Based on your description above, finally I was able to
start a checkout successfully:
cvs -d :sspi:localhost:/test_cvs checkout CVSROOT


Now I have a pipe sign on the CVSROOT and subdirectories.
How can I remove that?
I tried to update, commit, but nothing happened.

cvs commit -m "not modified" (in directory E:\temp\test_cvs\CVSROOT\)
cvs commit: Examining .
***** CVS exited normally with code 0 *****

However the files which was checked out into the same 
directory structure, into the repository, are still there.
I would like to commit them, and restore original state,
so I can checkout them to a clean directory.


Interesting, that the 
cvs [checkout aborted]: Absolute module reference invalid:
error appears when user wants to checkout something
badly, but the error is not descriptive, nor it is documented.
I did not even find the error message anywhere in the documentation.

CVSNT seems to be a very sensitive application, with 
no tolerance to the user faults.
IMHO, as developer, beta tester and GUI expert, CVSNT should
be improved a lot to be more user friendly.
Currently it follows the Unix style development, which does not
really matter with user friendly interfaces.


It seems, my CVSNT problems was not ended yet, I just started
to find the problems. 


Thanks for your patience and your help!


Thanks,
Webmaster33



*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********
On 2006.05.23. at 21:54 Bo Berglund wrote:

> On Tue, 23 May 2006 20:34:50 +0200, "Webmaster33"
> <webmaster33 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> >> This guide actually works and on it you can find download links to the
> >> latest version too:
> >>  http://web.telia.com/~u86216177/InstallCVSNT25.html
> >
> >I know your guide, I followed it.
> >However it doesn't tell anything about RCS to CVS conversion.
> 
> Of course not, this is really an oddball thing. First time in 5 years
> for me with CVSNT it has surfaced...
> 
>
> >> Well, with this you are not using your server at all....
> >> A more appropriate approach would be to use
> >>   cvs -d :sspi:localhost:/repo checkout mymodule
> >> where /repo is the configured repository served by the CVSNT server
> >> and mymodule is a module in that repository.
> >
> >Results are still bad:
> >cvs -d :sspi:localhost:/e:/temp/test_cvs checkout e:/temp/test_cvs
> >cvs [checkout aborted]: /e:/temp/test_cvs: no such repository
> 
> You *cannot* specify a repository and a module as an absolute path!!!
> After localhost: there should be a registered repository name as it is
> configured in the CVSNT control panel and described in my tutorial.
> 
> >> 5) Now go to the CVSNT control panel and define the top of the tree
> >> (the folder where you copied your project folder into) as a
> >> repository.
> >
> >I have this in the CVSNT control panel:
> >Location: E:/Work/test_cvsnt
> >Name: E:\Work\test_cvsnt
> >
> >Is this Ok?
> No, it is not!
> You should set the Name to:
> Name:  /test
> Notice no absolute path and *no* backslashes!
> >
> >The directory structure is following:
> >E:\temp\test_cvs\
> >E:\temp\test_cvs\CVSROOT
> >E:\temp\test_cvs\CVSROOT\Z\
> >E:\temp\test_cvs\CVSROOT\Z\Work\
> >More subdirectories are available in the project,
> >but are unnecessary to mention here.
> 
> This does not compare to what you stated above....
> Location: E:/Work/test_cvsnt is <> E:/temp/test_cvs
> 
> The *repository* structure starts from E:/Work/test_cvsnt and not from
> E:\temp!!!
> > 
> >> 6) Now finally using the cvs client you will be able to check out the
> >> project from this converted repository (provided that the RCS files
> >> are compatible with CVS as I believe they are).
> >> Of course using a sane command like
> >>   cvs -d :sspi:localhost:/repo myproject
> >
> >In this case I suppose the command should be the following:
> >cvs -d :sspi:localhost:e:/temp/test_cvs checkout e:/temp/test_cvs
> 
> No, no, no, no..... (sigh)
> cvs -d :sspi:localhost:/test myproject
> 
> Again you are trtying to enter an absolute path!!! Not allowed!
> 
> Inside the repository top folder E:/Work/test_cvsnt you have a folder
> CVSROOT. Additionally for each project you want to store you will have
> another *folder* containing all of the project files (the RCS versions
> of course). It is this folder name you have to supply as the myproject
> entry.
> CVSNT will gram the repository name from your command (the part after
> localhost: and look up the real path to the repository, in this case
> it will get E:/Work/test_cvsnt. Then it will add the module name you
> supplied to get to a repository physical path (that normally is
> unknown by the users) as E:/Work/test_cvsnt/myproject
> Then it will send you the files in this folder.
> 
> But giving a command like yours will totally confuse the system and
> the result is the error message you saw.
> 
> HTH
> 
> /Bo
> (Bo Berglund, developer in Sweden)





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