2.11 Temporary directories for the server

While running, the CVS server creates temporary directories. They are named

cvs-servpid

where pid is the process identification number of the server. They are located in the directory specified by the TMPDIR environment variable (see section D. All environment variables which affect CVS), the `-T' global option (see section A.4 Global options), or failing that `/tmp'.

In most cases the server will remove the temporary directory when it is done, whether it finishes normally or abnormally. However, there are a few cases in which the server does not or cannot remove the temporary directory, for example:

• If the server aborts due to an internal server error, it may preserve the directory to aid in debugging

• If the server is killed in a way that it has no way of cleaning up (most notably, `kill -KILL' on unix).

• If the system shuts down without an orderly shutdown, which tells the server to clean up.

In cases such as this, you will need to manually remove the `cvs-servpid' directories. As long as there is no server running with process identification number pid, it is safe to do so.