Because ClearCase updates directory version numbers when files inside are created, our config-spec generating script is failing (details omitted).
So, as an example, given a file such as "/proj/src/scripts/build.sh##/main/branch42/3", how can we determine the latest version of the scripts directory that contains that version of the build.sh file.
Note: we're looking for a unix command-line solution that can be scripted.
If you do a ls /proj/src/scripts##/main/branch42/*/build.sh/main/branch42/3 you should get a list of all versions of the scripts directory that contain version .../3 of build.sh. Then you should be able to pick out the latest of those.
The above is probably not a fool proof approach, so you might try something more like
cleartool find /proj/src/scripts --allversions --nonvisible -name build.sh -version 'brtype(branch42) && version(3)' -print
(I no longer have a clearcase environment to test in, so the above is from memory and is not an accurate command)
Another approach is to:
set a label on the right version of the build.sh script and its directory (you can move that label when needed)
have a second dynamic view always configured to select that label
element * SCRIPT_LABEL
element /proj/... .../branch42/LATEST
That way, you simply read the information you need from that second dynamic view.
Related
Background
In Clearcase, you can get the graphical version tree of a file by entering the following command in a linux terminal.
ct lsvtree -gra <filename>
This brings up an interface with numerous options to look at the diffs between two versions of a file.
Problem
From the graphical tree interface, I am trying to find if a string exists across any version of the file. This string was lost at some point, and I want to figure where that "somepoint" is.
Question
How can I run a text search across all versions of a file in clearcase?
As I mentioned before (2015), there is no equivalent to a git log -S or -G (pickaxe search) in ClearCase.
That pickaxe search is done (in Git) to point out past revision where a string has been added or removed.
But: you would need to script the equivalent feature for ClearCase.
Since cleartool lsvtree shows you all the version of a given file, you can, starting with the most recent version do a cleartool annotate to see when, and in which version, the line was added.
If that line include your string, then this version would be relevant.
If the most recent version does not include your string, then repeat the process with the previous version (do a cleartool annotate on that previous version, if it includes your string).
If you use dynamic views, you could take advantage of how it accesses element versions via version-extended naming. using "foo.c##/main/branch/1" as an example, you have "foo.c##" as the root of a directory structure, with "main" and "branch" being subdirectories, and "1" being a "file"
You can use this by doing the following:
cd to "foo.c##"
Perform your search.
For example:
cd foo.c##
grep -rl "target-string" *
to get the files without the string:
cd foo.c##
grep -rlv "target-string" *
You could also use lsvtree output to power a search in a script, but the above is is the simplest trick to do this. This works on Unix and Windows, but you may want to use something other than the standard Windows "findstr" if your target string contains multiple words, as findstr handles them strangely: findstr "foo bar oof" will print lines that contain "foo", "bar", or "oof", occasionally even when /L for "literal" is used.
If you're using snapshot or web views, this is a lot trickier and will need a script to iterate on the output of lsvtree.
I know the filename of a clearcase versioned file. How can i find the latest version of this file on a particular branch ? It should not pick any child branches. Also the parent branch names may not be know always.
Thanks.
If you are using a dynamic view, you can directly access the LATEST version of a given branch by using the extended path:
cat file##/main/branch/subbranch/LATEST
If you don't know the exact branch path (parent branches) this version is stored in, you can modify your dynamic view and add first the selection rule
element /path/to/file .../subbranch/LATEST
That will select the LATEST version of subbranch within the dynamic view.
Or you can do a cleartool find, in order to see the full extended path for that file:
cleartool find . -name "yourFile" -ver "version(.../subbranch/LATEST)
You will be able to cat (or type in Windows) directly the result (which will be the full extended path)
The diea behind the cat or the cleartool find is to be able to use the syntax .../subbranch/LATEST.
That syntax with the three dots means: '.../subbranch' whatever branches followed by /subbranch.
In my current working environment, I make use of eclipsed files extensively for testing purposes. When it comes time to formalize things, I have a script which generates a diff by comparing the file with a backup saved by my eclipse script.
I'd like to be able to work without the backup of the original file; is there any way I can retrieve the current version of the file that I can pass to diff? Even though the file is view-private, I see I can enter foo##/ and see a list of versions, but I'm not sure how to find which version is the latest. Everything I've tried using cleartool ls or describe with the file name tells me that it's not a VOB object (which is true, although cleartool ls does show it as eclipsed, so it must know, somehow, that there is an element there)
Thanks
Eclipsed file means dynamic view.
The simplest solution would to make a second dynamic view based on the same config spec.
Considering how cheap and quick those views are, this isn't an issue.
On that second dynamic view, you can do a
cleartool descr -fmt "%Xn" /path/to/element
In order to get the extended pathname of the file (see fmt_ccase for more on the %Xn syntax).
So I'm writing a script at work where I have to go through all the projects in a ClearCase vob, look for a file and parse some info from said file.
Naturally, I wouldn't want to load every single project so I'm using cleartool to retrieve the unloaded files.
First, I'm using the find command to locate the files. This was my first attempt:
root>cleartool find C:/viewpath -name file.txt -version "lbtype(Version-label)" -print -nr
Viewpath is the path to the project where I'm currently looking for the file. The file I'm looking for is file.txt on the version specified by Version-label.
This gave me no result whatsoever, even though I knew file.txt existed on that version.
I figured out it was looking through an old version of the directory, the latest on the main-branch, which was before file.txt was added to the directory. I tried this instead:
root>cleartool find C:/viewpath##/Version-label -name file.txt -version "lbtype(Version-label)" -print -nr
And got this result, which was what I was looking for
C:/viewpath\file.txt##\main\branch\41
So now that I knew where I could find the file I tried to get it.
root>cleartool get -to savepath C:/viewpath\file.txt##\main\branch\41
Which gave me this result
cleartool: Error: "C:/viewpath\file.txt##\main\branch\41" does not exist, or is not a ClearCase version, or is a checked out version which was removed.
Also tried
root>cleartool get -to savepath C:/viewpath\file.txt##/Version-label
With the same result
I can get files added to the directory when it was still on the main-branch, so it is still searching through the directory on the main-branch, where file.txt is nowhere to be found.
How do I tell it to look through a version of the directory from after it was branched from main?
I would really recommend for you to try those same commands in a dynamic view.
As illustrated here, a dynamic view gives you access to extended path (the file##/branch/version syntax), which means command like get will work.
You have in this question an example of search (cleartool find) using extended paths.
As explained in "In ClearCase, how can I view old version of a file in a static view, from the command line?", you can browse (as in 'change directory to') the various extended paths of a file in a dynamic view.
I have a Folder in ClearCase that contains a large list of Reports.
I have checked all the Reports out because I need to make a sweeping change.
I have changed a set of the Reports and now want to deploy this set.
I probably should have checked the Report files out one at a time and then deployed each as I finished.
But, since I did not do that, is there a way to inspect the ClearCase folder that contains the List of checked out Reports to see which ones have changed and which ones have not?
You could ask cleartool for a diff with the previous version:
cleartool lsco -r -cvi -fmt "diff -options \"-hea\" -pred \"%n\"\n" | cleartool | grep ">>>"
That would give you the list of currently checked-out modified files.
Note: remove the '-r' option if you only want the check-out files of the current directory (and not its sub-directories)
In ClearCase (or Explorer if you have integration enabled), right-click the base of the tree, and choose "Find Modified Files". This will return a list of ALL files that have been modified, and that are part of the repo (i.e. it will not return list of private files).
If you want to know all files - checked out, modified, and private - the only way I know of is to use cleartool from within the view:
cleartool ls -r
If you want more (or less) info about the files, check the docs for the -fmt option (which doesn't work with ls, but does work with describe), and you can create a command that will give you exactly what you want (it'll take some experimenting until you get the hang of it).
NOTE: "Find Modified Files" is only available within the gui from the base of the view tree; Elsewhere your only option is "Find Checked Out Files" (confusing, to say the least).
You can set up a second view with an identical config spec as the view with the checked out files. Once you have the second view set up you can compare the same directory in each view with a difference tool (like WinDiff). This will list all the files that have been changed.
It's not native to ClearCase but it should give the results you are looking for.
I also found a solution. I selected my ClearCase folder and clicked on "Find Checkouts". This showed my huge list of Report files that were checked out. I then selected them all and selected "Check In". I left the "Check in if identical to previous version" option unchecked. I then selected "OK" to check in. All the modifeid files checked in and the un-modified files remained checked out. This gave me my delta of modified files vs un-modified files.