ancient RCS [bug|feature]?

[Tom Mackey]

I've used RCS now for about 6 years, and for the last 4 years
we have managed a large software project (~250 files) under
RCS.  So far, so good.  We can go back all the way to the first
release of the system (not that we want to) and it is nice to
trace the evolution of certain modules through the rlog entries.

We thought we had it all nailed until last week.  One of the
files we track is our ongoing bug list.  Now either we have
more bugs than normal, or a larger system than normal, as it
gets revised quite frequently (at least twice a week).  Last
week one of the developers went to check out "bugs" and got
the message:

    RCS/bugs,v  -->  bugs
    co error, line 1201: Hashtable overflow
    co aborted

To make a long story short, there is an internal limit in the
hashtable set to 240.  The thing that bothers me is that RCS
lets you check in the 240th revision with no warning of the
impending doom, just slams the door shut AFTER you have done
the damage.

So how about it.... anyone else find this, how did you cope with
it (we obviously have to split the ,v files, but what's the most
nifty way), and have any other computer vendors enhanced RCS to
deal with this?  We use Silicon Graphics equipment.

So far, no critical files have been affected, but several of them
currently have 200 or so revisions.