A bound on the total size of a cut cover

We discuss several results for cycle covers and the corresponding results for cut covers. Our main result is that every connected graph on n vertices and e edges has a cut cover of total size at most 2e-n+1 with equality precisely when every block of the graph is an odd cycle or a complete graph (other than K4 or K8). This corresponds to the result of Fan [J. Combin. Theory Ser. B 74 (1998) 353-367] that every graph without cut-edges has a cycle cover of total size at most e+n-1.