In batch mode vc related commands doesn't work as expected. In editor
mode it partially works, if we do a vc-<backend>-state before we do vc-state
it gives correct state and a 'vc-recompute-state' gives correct state in any
order.
I verified the latest Emacs CVS source and the behavior is still same. It
works fine with vc version shipped with Emacs v21.3.

*Problem *Illustration: <parimiv@sx86qa3.nyc:/u/parimiv/work/cos/xrsh>

$ cvs status myfile.sh|grep Status
File: myfile.sh           Status: Needs Patch
$ <parimiv@sx86qa3.nyc:/u/parimiv/work/cos/xrsh>

$ <parimiv@sx86qa3.nyc:/u/parimiv/tmp> cat get-vc-state.el
(require 'vc-cvs)
(require 'vc)
(message "%s" (emacs-version))
(if (> emacs-major-version 21)
    (message "%s" (vc-recompute-state "/tmp/myfile.sh"))
    (message "%s" (vc-state "/tmp/myfile.sh")))
(message "%s" (vc-cvs-state "/tmp/myfile.sh"))
(message "%s" (vc-state "/tmp/myfile.sh"))
$

$ <parimiv@sx86qa3.nyc:/u/parimiv/tmp> emacs-22.1 -batch -l get-vc-state.el
GNU Emacs 22.1.1 (i386-pc-solaris2.10, GTK+ Version 2.4.9)
 of 2007-09-27 on sx86qa3.nyc.deshaw.com
up-to-date
up-to-date
up-to-date
<parimiv@sx86qa3.nyc:/u/parimiv/tmp>$
<parimiv@sx86qa3.nyc:/u/parimiv/tmp> emacs-21.3
-batch -l get-vc-state.el
GNU Emacs 21.3.1 (i386-pc-solaris2.10, Motif Version 2.1.0)
 of 2005-05-14 on sx86qa1.nyc.deshaw.com
up-to-date
needs-patch
needs-patch
<parimiv@sx86qa3.nyc:/u/parimiv/tmp>$ <parimiv@sx86qa3.nyc:/u/parimiv/tmp>