Question

I downloaded some CVS code using the checkout command from sourceforge. Now, I want to create my own branch because my changes are completely unrelated to the official project and I wanted to work on it offline myself.

When I start to by entering this command:

cvs tag branchname_0

I receive an error:

error: cvs [server aborted]: "tag" requires write access to the repository

A colleague recommended that, instead of CVS, I should simply use Git to create that branch. Basically, I want to be able to make changes but not lose the capability of merging my own changes with that from the project’s developers.

Answer 1

A CVS branch is not necessary. You can checkout
and merge new commits from other developers using a cvs update command
without a new branch.

The main problem is that you have no write access to the Sourceforge
CVS repository and will never be able to commit your own changes
to that repository.

I have worked on Sourceforge projects where I did not have write permissions
to the CVS repository. I e-mailed my changes to a project
administrator with write permission and that person reviewed and checked in my changes.
After e-mailing several change sets, the project
administrators accept that my work is acceptable and
give me write permission to the CVS repository. I believe this
series of events occurs quite often.