I am encountering a problem with Clearcase. I do apologise in advance if I am unclear, or redundant since I am quite new to this VCS, coming from a Git background mainly, I might not know how to search correctly regarding my problems.
We have a new version (non-relevant to CC, business-wise) of the application every few months, and we create a new VOB and stream for each version each time. We have a generic stream in which we deliver the last baselines from a finished version, add a new baseline, then export the contents of the generic stream to a new VOB and Stream.
My problem is, being hasty I actually delivered into the the generic stream, not the last baseline, but a previous one. And on top of that, I added a brand new baseline to the generic stream.
I need to be able to deliver into my generic stream, the very last baseline from our previous business version of the application.
(I am mostly manipulating Clearcase project explorer, since I don't really know the cleartool command. I tried to use a few CLI solutions but could not manage to do so, but might be linked to how our Clearcase server is)
In order to do that, I tried to :
Delete the delivery activity. But there is an error when I try to do that : "Error : Cannot remove an activity with versions in its changeset". I tried to bypass this, helping myself with google, but could not manage to do so. I am afraid this is normal Clearcase behaviour, and cannot pursue this way.
Redeliver our last business version correctly, but it did not work because of my newly hastily created baseline in the generic stream.
I would take up on any clue, indication lead, since I cannot manage to find how to correctly advance upon this matter.
Thank you in advance.
It is simpler to:
deliver to the generic stream the right content (on top of the wrong one) and set a new baseline
rename the previous baseline into a "DO-NOT-USE" name
cleartool lock -obsolete the baseline, to make it invisible (rather than trying to delete it)
That way, you can resume your successive delivers/imports of each release, and forget about the wrong one.
If the baseline you created in that stream is the most recent baseline, and has not yet been used by another stream (either pulled in a rebase or delivered to another stream), you should be able to just remove it.
In any event, since your plan is to move forward by delivering a more recent baseline created in the same parent stream to this "generic" stream, you can just deliver the right baseline to this stream, make a new baseline, and optionally lock the previous baseline.
A couple of UCM gotchas you may want to be aware of:
If you deliver a baseline to another stream, the source baseline is permanently irremovable.
ALL deliver operations deliver baselines. If you don't create a baseline, the deliver operation creates a "deliverbl" baseline to deliver.
Removing streams is either non-trivial or impossible.
Removing projects where development work has been done is usually impossible.
For future reference, to remove an activity that is NOT in a baseline:
Describe the activity on the command line to get the list of versions. You may want to redirect the output into a file so you can copy and paste the version info into the next step more easily. To describe the activity, you need to use "cleartool describe activity:{id}#{project VOB tag}"
Remove all the versions in the change set using "cleartool rmver -xhlink {version ID}"
Remove the activity. Since the delivery is apparently completed, the activity should not be set.
Related
Is there a way to list all files modified since last deliver with clearcase ?
I'm using clearcase like this :
ct setview <myStreamName>
Then I work on files. But before deliver to integration stream, I want to check all modified file. Is there a way to list all file with pending changes and compare them with working revision ?
Edit :
<myStreamName> is a child stream with activities, created from integration stream.
Actually, that isn't quite right. The simplest way to see your pending changes is to run cleartool deliver -preview -long while set in your development view.
This will list all the undelivered activities and the versions on those activities, regardless of the component.
You can use diffbl, more or less, but you then have to delve into the mysteries of deliverbl baselines (created on every deliver operation listing the activities delivered in that deliver.) and use those baselines as a filter on the activities... This then gets more complicated because you can deliver the same activity multiple times if you delivered it, did more work on it, and then haven't delivered the additional work.
Just use deliver -preview -long...
setview will mask your current view, since you access your files directly through /vobs/yourVobs/.../yourfiles (as shown here).
If you are doing a deliver, that means you are using UCM and have set a baseline from your current view, on your current stream (that you are about to deliver to an integration stream).
If that is the case, do a diff between two baselines: (cleartool diffbl -ver baseline1#\apvob baseline2#\apvob)
the latest one of the integration stream.
the one you have set
For the first element, use a ct lsbl -comp C -stream S to get the latest baseline.
This assumes you are delivering one component.
I also mention deliver -preview in "ClearCase Inter project delivery": it needs an UCM view on the target UCM stream to operate.
See also "I need a list of all the component of a certain stream that still needs delivery to default".
The error message:
Error: Target stream "myStream" requires child development streams
to rebase to recommended baselines before performing deliver operation.
means the deliver policy "Require development stream to be based on the project's recommended baseline(s) prior to delivery)" is in place.
See "How to force rebase before each delivery?"
Try and change that policy, or, as enforced, rebase first.
Then do a deliver -preview.
This is regarding, IBM Rational Clearcase Explorer application. If we deliver some files, and take the step of "make baseline". After that, if we don't do the "Recommend Baseline" step, will it cause problem for others trying to deliver to the same stream?
After that, if we don't do the "Recommend Baseline" step, will it cause problem for others trying to deliver to the same stream?
deliver, no. Rebase maybe, as ClearCase will rebase by default the recommended baseline of the parent (source) UCM stream.
But for delivering (cleartool deliver), you can deliver the baseline you want.
Since the deliver stream's recommended baseline is selected by default, that could also trip a user not double-checking the exact name of the auto-selected baseline.
Not recommending a baseline will not prevent a subsequent deliver operation.
Please note that all deliver operations are merges, which can cause "merge creep" issues if you use deliver to push changes back into child streams. As a general rule, don't deliver to child streams.
If you get a deliver that says that some file's can't be checked out, it usually means someone else is delivering. Not knowing the checkout error message, I can't tell you that this is what is happening though.
I'm exploring an old ClearCase (UCM) repository (trying to migrate to git, but that's rather not important here). I found a case (or rather many cases) of a file, for which I cannot see history past some point. When I use cleartool lshist (or browse versions in a Rational GUI tool for CC), the history of the file appears to start (as version 0 or 1) in a separate development stream, and then later gets delivered into main stream (again as version 0 or 1 in this stream). But from independent sources, as well as from "baseline release streams", I know that a file was present in this path since much, much earlier (some year or two earlier).
What could be the reason why this happens?
How can I see the full history of the file, starting from the point in time when it was really first created (or some "other" file in the same exact path)?
It can depends on how the events have been scrubbed from the vob: see "About ClearCase event records in the VOB database".
I know I lost some events when raising the VOB family level during ClearCase upgrades.
It can also depends on how the branches and UCM streams have been managed: they could have been obsoleted, or in some case even deleted.
In case of "obsolete", check the filter of a cleartool lsvtree -graph window: you can ask to see all versions, including ones associated to obsolete streams.
I found "Suspend Change-set" in RTC to be very useful, and since we're working with ClearCase as well (dozens of users) I'm wondering if that feature is also available in ClearCase as well.
If not - could it be generated by script/trigger/hook ?
We use UCM, and I'd like to explain my question:
if I have to deliver and I want to skip delivering one activity, I can decide not to deliver it (if no dependencies...) , so my question is regarding working on my current stream: Is that possible to "suspend" an activity from my current stream ?
Thanks in advance
Simply put, not easily.
RTC is basically ClearCase rewritten from scratch, and the "suspend" mode (also called stashed or shelve) takes advantage of the notion of applying a changeset (to any state of a repository)
The UCM changeset are a list of versions of files. Each version is tied to its predecessor, and you cannot easily remove it (unless you do some negative or subtractive merges), and then re-apply them later.
That being said, Reuven just contacted me this morning, because he had files in checked out in a snapshot view on a Stream which he wants to rebase (similar issue to your deliver problem).
A possible way to do that is to create another view (dynamic one), which you can use for your rebase, and then go back to your snapshot view and update it: it will detect the updated config spec (following the rebase) and will not erase any of your currently checked out files.
On the checkin, those files will be merged with the updated version.
How Can I Revert to Earlier baseline? We have a UCM parallel development(multi-stream) project. Each developer have a snapshot view on Project's Integration stream.
Developers want to see earlier version of the application in their snapshot views so They can debug early version of application to find bugs.
When I want to change an existing snapshot views's foundition baselines, clearcase does not allow me. So How Can I do this?
Since you employ the term Baseline, I will assume you are using UCM.
On a stream, you can not revert backward a baseline.
One possibility is to make a parallel stream, with the desired baseline as foundation: this is the quickest way.
After changes on this new stream, you can make a new rebase to change the foundation baseline, but only if that new rebase is using a more recent baseline from the parent stream (not an older baseline)
For your specific need, I would recommand a non-UCM snapshot view with a simple rule
element * thePreviousBaseline
In order for the developer to have:
his/her current UCM view for development (always set on the LATEST of a branch associated to a stream)
a second snasphot view set to whatever baseline he/she needs.
That second snapshot view is completely not-related to the UCM project and takes advantage of the "full" nature of the baseline (do check that your baseline has been put as "full", not "incremental". If it is "incremental", simply change its type and upgrade it to full)
So, beside your current snapshot UCM view, you can create anywhere you want a non-snasphot view:
cleartool mkview -snap -tag mylogin_myComponentname_csl_snap -vws myPathToViewStorage myPathToRootView
cd myPathToRootView
cleartool edcs
[add the selection rule: element * myOlderBaseline]
[add the load rule at the end: 'load /myVob_Including_MyComponent]
[save, type 'yes']
That is fine for consultation/execution, but if you need to patch (that i is to write, check out and in some files), then I would recommend one UCM stream per baseline to be patched.
That way, the stream clearly represents the patch effort for a given baseline. There should not be too many of them, unless you put into production a new version of your application every five minutes... which is not advisable ;)
So to summarize:
the non-UCM snapshot view is unique and serve for a quick consultation/debug of one older baseline at a time.
for patches (source modification), you create a parallel stream properly named, with the correct foundation baseline, and then a UCM view on it. You can not only debug but also fix some bugs in an activity, the deliver that activity to the main Int stream if that bug need to be retro-fitted on an higher stream.
(note: all bugs do not always need to be delivered: they can be obsolete when compared with the current state of the development)
The way I have solved this problem is by making another Stream, a child Stream of the Integration Stream. The easiest way to create this Stream is to open ClearCase Project Explorer (not Rational ClearCase Explorer) and navigate to the Project and then the Stream in question. Right click on the Integration Stream and select "Create Child Stream..."
Click "Advanced Options" and select a baseline for each component. Do this by selecting the component and then selecting "Change..." and selecting the specific baseline you want to see. You probably want to select "Prompt me to create a View for this Stream." Select "OK".
Any developer can do this. You don't need to be a VOB owner or Project or Stream owner.
Well, it depends. Actually, the answer lies in setting up your config spec to point to the proper files. Your config spec tells your view which versions of elements to look at. But how you do write it depends on your project's approach to baselines. Did you apply a label to mark that baseline? If so, and if you only want to read and not checkout anything new, your config spec can be as simple as
element * <LABELNAME>
If you didn't use labels, you can also set up your config spec to show you files based on dates. It gets more complicated the more rules you need to add to constrain your element choices. If you have more specifics, I can try to elaborate on what rules you might need. Otherwise, I would read the manuals that come with ClearCase. If you view the Extended Help from ClearCase Explorer, and then do "Viewing Rational ClearCase Manuals On-Line" it should give you some links to the Command References. This is where I go whenever I need to modify my config spec in some new way.
Also, note that we only use dynamic views, so I don't know if snapshot views work differently.