> https://web.cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewvc/groff/groff/manual/
If you open that URL you will find a directory: https://web.cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewvc/groff/groff/manual/html_node/ Yes, that directory exists. alongside this one: https://web.cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewvc/groff/groff/manual/groff.html.node/ So does this one. I asked my CVS checkout what the status of the former is. $ cvs status | grep html_node || echo NO RESULT cvs status: Examining . NO RESULT Which, given a fresh checkout, does not return NO RESULT; since the directory html_node exists in CVS. So the question remains, how did you checkout, and what did you do in your directory. I would _guess_ that you've removed it locally, but never done the cvs step of removing it. E.g., in a fresh checkout, I do $ rm -rf manual/html_node $ cvs status|grep html_node||echo NO RESULT cvs2 status: Examining . cvs2 status: Examining manual cvs2 status: Examining manual/groff.html.node NO RESULT $ cvsu X manual/html_node And I will bet that if you do "cvs update -PAd" .. you will once again have that directory. To remove it, you need to do "cvs remove manual/html_node" -- or similar.