cvs delete and 'attic' folder

When you delete a file in cvs, the file actually does not get deleted but it goes to the 'Attic' folder in the cvs repository. 'Attic' is an internal folder on the server side that is created in your repository under the directory where the file was deleted. However when you do a check out this folder is not checked out and is meant only to hold deleted files in that particular folder. What this means is that once you have added a file then cvs remembers it 'permanently' even though you have deleted. In case you really want to delete the file then you can delete it from inside the 'Attic' folder and it will then be gone for good. One needs to be very careful when doing this kind of deletion directly on the cvs server and should be done only if absolutely needed.

Keep in mind that only files can be deleted in cvs and not folders. If you want to delete a folder then this is done indirectly by deleting all the files in that folder. On the client side you have to checkout or update with the option 'prune' empty directories.