Probably the most important software in managing open source project is CVS (Concurrent Versions System). Rules covering project managament, and version numbering are simply a 'state-of-the-art'. However when we come to user space and overall software design cvs isn't actually that good. There's a number of patches floating around internet, but they doesn't seem to make their way into main CVS development...

One of major "user-space" CVS drawbacks is the need of specyfying CVSROOT nearly everytime CVS is invoked. This can be ommited by setting $CVSROOT variable, and omitting '-d' option. Everything is fine, as long as you need to access only one repository. When you need to access different repositories and (much worse) switch from one to another constantly, you are in for major trouble. You'll be forced to type in repository names many times (regardles if this is going to be $CVSROOT setting, or suplying argument to '-d' option).

This CVS bookmarks patch tries to solve this problem. It uses special file in home directory: .cvsbookmarks to hold bookmarks. Single bookmark is simply association between simple keyword (like: home, devel or so) and full repository name. You can supply bookmark name (or full repository name - backward compatybility) to '-d' option. File is in text format, so you can edit it with your favourite editor (Hey! No "emacs vs vi" wars here!).