To make life easier in the future with regards to updating the CVS tree create the file $HOME/.cvsrc and insert the following lines. This configures useful defaults for the three most commonly used CVS commands. Do this now before proceeding any further.

diff -u -b -B
checkout -P
update -d -P

         

Also, if you are on a slow net link (like a dialup), you will want to add a line containing cvs -z5 in this file. This turns on a useful compression level for all CVS commands.