cvs commit: sticky tag `someTag' for file `***' is not a branch

 

http://cvsgui.sourceforge.net/newfaq.htm#sticky_nocommit

I cannot commit my changes. CVS tells me:

cvs commit: sticky tag `someTag' for file `blah.txt' is not a branch

What now ?

You have previously updated or checked out the file or module in question using a so called"sticky tag". This happens when you use any of the options found either on the "Sticky options" tab of the Update dialog or the "Checkout options" tab of the Checkout dialog. The only kind of sticky tag that allows you to commit changes based on it is a branch tag (hence the message). Otherwise you will first have to undo the sticky tag. There are several different scenarios for this:

• The revision you based your modifications on is on the tip of the trunk. This is the easiest case. All you have to do is run the Update command with the "Reset any sticky date/tag/'-k' options" option (akacvs update -A) turned on. After this you will be able to commit again.
• The revision you based your modifications on is outdated (i.e. someone else has already committed a newer revision). In this case you have to chose whether you first want to merge in the newer changes (and maybe resolve conflicts produced by this) before committing your own changes on top of these or whether you want your changes to live on on a branch of their own, effectively forking the development.
  In the former case you could simply follow the instructions from the first scenario. The merging will happen when you remove the sticky tag.
  In the latter case instead of resetting the sticky tag you will first have to create the new branch and then update to that new branch before you could commit.
• The revision you based your modifications on is already on a branch. The steps for this scenario are very similar to the ones above. The only difference is that instead of removing the sticky tags altogether you update to a different one, namely that of the branch your base revision resides on.