Here is another change that should be done to the relevant Makefile's (just doc/web/Makefile at the moment, although bin/make-rpms should probably get this to): Test if CVSROOT is in the environment and fail, with an appropriate complaint if it isn't. Something like this: if [ -z "$CVSROOT" ]; then \ echo "you must set up CVS" >&2 \ exit 1 \ else \ ... \ fi