CVS Error: failed to create lock directory… Permission denied

Question

I'm using using TortoiseCVS to access the CVS server. I get the following error:

In D:\source\foo: "C:\Program Files\CVSNT\cvs.exe" -q update -P -d
CVSROOT=:ssh:annan@foo-bar.co.uk:/home/cvsroot

cvs update: failed to create lock directory for `/home/cvsroot/foo' (/var/lock/cvs/foo/#cvs.lock): Permission denied
cvs update: failed to obtain dir lock in repository `/home/cvsroot/foo'
cvs [update aborted]: read lock failed - giving up

Error, CVS operation failed

I had this problem before and managed to fix it, however this time I've not been able to figure it out. I believe it's related to different people committing files with their own ownership.

After reading a few articles online I've tried changing /home/cvsroot and /home/cvsroot/foo to 777 permissions, and recursively changing the ownership of /home/cvsroot/ to cvs:cvs (of which I am a member).

Answer 1

The lock file is being created in /var/lock/cvs/foo/ you should check the permissions of that directory.

Answer 2

Make sure the checkout repository has the permission to checkin the files.

I have checkout the directory cvs -d @cvs:/files/cvs co vcommon

But this rep doesnt have permission to checkin the files in the package folder.

Problem solved by checking out below: cvs -d @cvs:/files/cvs/vcommon co package

Answer 3

I had an issue where my account had not been added to the "users" group. So even though permissions looked good, I still wasn't able to checkout any repositories. Once I was added to the users group, it fixed everything.