Re: single-bit errors

[Larry Jones]

Dennis Jones writes:
> 
> We have noticed that some of our files in CVS are getting off-by-one bit =
> errors.  For example, in a text file, an 'L' is converted into a 'K' and =
> a space into a '1' (two bits were modified here).  This is not too bad =
> in text files because a differencing tool will usually detect the =
> problem, but binary files could be a more significant problem.
> 
> Our developers are geographically separated, so we use pserver mode =
> where the server is accessible on the internet.  Are there any built-in =
> CVS features or extra transmission verification methods we could use to =
> minimize the possibility of errors in CVS?

CVS pserver runs across TCP/IP which is supposed to be reliable (it has
checksums and other mechanisms to detect packet corruption).  It's far
more likely that your corruption is being caused by some kind of a
hardware problem on your server:  What kind of a system is it?  If it's
a PC, does it have parity or ECC memory?  What kind of disk is the
repository on?  Normal IDE/ATA drives and controllers don't have any
integrity checking at all.  If it's SCSI, make sure that you haven't
disabled parity checking on the SCSI bus.  And I suppose you should make
sure that you haven't disabled the TCP/IP checksum checking, too.

-Larry Jones

I never get to do anything fun. -- Calvin