First, I have to admit I screwed up a little with CVS. I had a release tag releaseX, which was done some time back (i.e., not HEAD). Then I decided I need a maintenance branch at that point. Instead of creating a branch tag (branchX) in addition to releaseX, I deleted the release tag and created a branch tag (erroneously) named releaseX. I then proceeded to work on that maintenance branch, and created releaseX1, releaseX2 etc.
My problem: when I check out releaseX, I get the branch head, i.e. the latest code from that branch. What I need now is the code at the branch point, i.e. the former releaseX code.
Is there any way to do this?
Reverting to earlier repository version from backup is not an option.
Edit: I know I can work around it by doing a date-based checkout. I would like to know if it's possible to still do a tag-based one.
Update (Re @Philip Derbeko): I know that CVS does not correlate between files. But CVS does have the information where the branch occured. In ViewVC, I can even see it:
File X - Revision 1.y - Branch: MAIN - Branch point for: releaseX
The next file revision is:
File X - Revision 1.y.2.1 - Branch: releaseX - CVS Tags: releaseX1
The metadata is apparently there. Hence my question: Is it possible to check out the branch point, not the branch HEAD?
Best Answer
Since you did not set a tag when branching, the only way I see, is to use the date approach. But you can still set that tag now. Lets assume you want to call that initial release "ReleaseX0", because unfortunately the name "ReleaseX" is already occupied for the branch. Depending on whether you want to set the tag on the branch or on the MAIN branch you can use either of these checkout commands:
Then set the tag:
From now on you can checkout this release in the same way as you checkout the other releases.
As you pointed out in your comment to my initial response, renaming the branch from releaseX to releaseX_branch like this does not work:
To rename a branch
cvs admin -N < old >:< new >needs to be used. But renaming a branch is a bad idea anyway. (I am sorry for bringing it up in the first place ;-).), Renaming will mess up the working copies of other users. So it is probably best to stick with the original name.