Re: failed to remove tag - cannot remove file

[Jim Hyslop]

Andrew Goktepe wrote:
> Recently, a CVS update of one of our modules brought in a file that
> has been removed for more than a year, and now I am unable to get rid
> of it. When I try to commit the removal of the file, I get a "failed
> to remove tag" error message:
>
> $ cvs status PriceGuideListContainer.java
> =========================================================
> File: no file PriceGuideListContainer.java              Status: Locally Removed
>
>    Working revision:    -1.15
>    Repository revision: 1.15   
> /cvs/CVS_REPOSIT/<blah>/PriceGuideListContainer.java,v
>    Sticky Tag:          HEAD (revision: 1.15)

This sticky tag indicates that at some point you issued the command 'cvs 
update -rHEAD'. This is not the way to clear sticky tags - use 'cvs 
update -A' instead.


>    Sticky Date:         (none)
>    Sticky Options:      (none)
>
> $ cvs commit -m "" PriceGuideListContainer.java
> cvs commit: failed to remove tag `HEAD' from `PriceGuideListContainer.java'
> $
>
> We were running CVS 1.11 until I ran into this problem. I've since
> updated the server and client to 1.11.20, but I still cannot commit
> this file to get rid of it.
>
> Does this look like corruption?

Depends - what happens with a fresh checkout, i.e.:

mkdir tmp
cd tmp
cvs -dwhatever co module

If the file does not get checked out, then it's not likely corruption. 
Even if it does get checked out, that doesn't mean the file is corrupted.

Since your status command shows a sticky tag of HEAD, try issuing the 
command 'cvs update -A'. You may have to manually edit the CVS/Entries 
file to remove the line referring to PriceGuideListContainer.java, and 
delete the local file.

If these steps don't resolve the issue, then show us the output of 'cvs 
rlog -h -rHEAD /module/path/PriceGuideListContainer.java'

--
Jim