I've recently found myself having to constantly search for the CVS checkout command for drupal modules. Rather than memorizing it, I figured it was easier to create a script that does checkouts for me. Better yet, I found others who have already done that part for me. Here are some really slick .bashrc or .bash_profile scripts for dealing with CVS, SVN, and Drupal:

Checking Out a Module

The following checks out the specified HEAD version of a contrib module. Running this will 1) check out the module specified from CVS into a folder of the same name within the current folder, and 2) list all the available revisions you can update your new module to (recommended since you currently just checked out HEAD).

# Get a new drupal module
getmod()
{
MODULE="${1}";
cvs -z6 -d:pserver:anonymous:anonymous@cvs.drupal.org:/cvs/drupal-contrib co -d ./$MODULE contributions/modules/$MODULE;
cd $MODULE;
getrevs $MODULE.module
}


Example: getmod cck
Note: This function requires you define another function that is covered below (getrevs())

List a Module's Available Revisions

This function is great because it prevents you from having to a) guess the latest stable release or b) checking the latest release version on the project page.

# List the revisions of the supplied file
getrevs()
{
cvs log "${1}" | egrep 'DRUPAL-.*:' | sort -t - -k 2n -k 3n -k 4n -k 5n
}


Example: getrevs views.module

NOTE: Sometimes this doesn't work and nothing is displayed. I tried it out once with cck and for whatever reason the releases weren't listed.

Update Your Module to the Latest Stable Release

Not a whole lot of time saving here, but based on the previous revision list, choose one and update your (currently) HEAD version with something a bit more stable.

# Do a cvs update using the specified revision
updatemod()
{
cvs up -dP -r "${1}"
}


Example: updatemod DRUPAL-1--1-0

Kudos to Matt Petrowsky from gotdrupal.com for these.