Whenever you need to edit a file for conflicts, make sure that you scan the entire file so that you catch all of them; if you forget to address a particular conflict, cvs won't allow you to commit until it's resolved! It's also obviously very important to remove the special markers that cvs added to the conflicting file. Another tip -- if you make a mistake while fixing the conflict and then ("D'oh!") accidentally save your changes, you can find an original copy of your version in the file ".#filename.version".