How to make check-outs be unreserved by default using ClearCase command line tools.

Question

Is there a way to make cleartool checkouts unreserved by default? Perhaps a ~/.cleartool file or some environment variable? I understand the default can be set on the VOB (or all VOBs), but that option is beyond my control.

The ClearCase version I'm using is:

$ ct -version ClearCase version 7.0.1 (Wed May 30 17:04:58 EDT 2007)
7.0.1.0-RATL-RCC-IFIX01 (Wed Sep 19 16:08:10 EDT 2007) @(#) MVFS version
7.0.1.0-IFIX01 (Thu Sep  6 20:09:08 2007) built at $Date: 2009-12-08.14:59:16 (UTC) $ cleartool 
7.0.1.0-IFIX01 (Thu Aug  9 20:20:45 EDT 2007) db_server                   
7.0.1.0-IFIX01 (Fri Sep 14 20:23:09 EDT 2007) VOB database schema version:    54

You may ask "why in world would the default ever be set to -reserved?" A fair question. However, the matter is beyond my control.

Update: I neglected to mention the environment is Linux.

Answer 1

In the ClearCase Explorer, menu:

Tool / Options / button ClearCase Options / Tab "Operations"

Unchecked "reserved" in the "Check out" section.

However, this is for one user, not a global setting for all users...

On Windows, this is stored in the registry at:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Atria\ClearCase\CurrentVersion\Checkout

key:

Reserved 0

So if you can add that as a post-install setting, you could generalize that behavior to all users using your custom setup.

See also this IBM technote.

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The OP unhillbilly comments rightly about the command cleartool unres (unreserve), which:

changes the checkout status of a checked-out version of an element to unreserved.
A temporary unreserve checkout of version event record is written to the VOB database.