The first command  is:

sh bash ksh etc...: $ export CVSROOT=':pserver:cvs@oss.sgi.com:/cvs' csh tcsh....:  $ setenv CVSROOT  :pserver:cvs@oss.sgi.com:/cvs

You might want to put this in your login script.   Then do the command:

$ cvs login (the password is "cvs")

This needs to be done only ONCE, not everytime you access CVS.  Now checkout failsafe. The first time you will want to do something like:

$ cvs -z3 checkout failsafe

You will get three components of failsafe: FailSafe FailSafe-mgr FailSafe-books Each of these components have their own buildling mechanisms found in the respective sub-directories. After you have checked the code out, you can update using:

$ cvs -z3 update -d

to update your copy  to the latest version from the CVS server, and rebuild. CVS for new users contains links to more documentation.