How do I shorten a clearcase view's load directory?

Question

In Clearcase I have a VOB with a path like this:

\Department\ProductGroup\Product1\Development

I have a view with a Config Spec like this:

element * CHECKEDOUT
element * .../mybranch/LATEST
element * /main/LATEST -mkbranch mybranch
load \Department\ProductGroup\Product1

All the source code for Product1 is in the Development directory. Nothing I care about exists outside this directory. All references in the code are relative to this directory.

I have created the above Clearcase view in the directory c:\dev

Presently the above setup creates a directory:

c:\dev\Department\ProductGroup\Product1\Development

All the parent directories to Development are empty. I'd rather have just the following directories.

c:\dev\Product1

Where c:\dev\Product1 mapped to the VOB path \Department\ProductGroup\Product1\Development. Is this possible?

Answer 1

1/ Why not only load \Department\ProductGroup\Product1\Development ?

load /Department/ProductGroup/Product1/Development

Note: you can use '/', easier than '\' and Windows config spec does interpret it correctly.

1bis/ If you want to keep a general rule, you could use some "cleaning rules"

Consider this config spec
(test it in a dynamic view first, to check quickly -- that is without endless update reloading steps -- if the result does match what you need: files under Development and no files anywhere else)

element * CHECKEDOUT

# read/write selection rule for the directory and sub-directory
# where you need to work
element /Department/ProductGroup/Development/... .../mybranch/LATEST
element /Department/ProductGroup/Development/... /main/LATEST -mkbranch mybranch

# specific selection rule for the parent directories of Development
# those rules do not contain a mkbranch directive
element /Department/ProductGroup  .../mybranch/LATEST
element /Department/ProductGroup /main/LATEST
element /Department  .../mybranch/LATEST
element /Department /main/LATEST

# cleaning rule right there: anything outside /Department/ProductGroup/Development
# will not be selected, hence not loaded
element /Department/* -none

load \Department

That way, you always keep the same load rule load \Department, and your selection rules do the cleaning for you.

2/ Regarding your path issue, you can use Symlink but the easiest way is to use a subst

subst X: c:\dev\Department\ProductGroup\Product1\Development

And you could go on using your snapshot view within X:\

BUT that would not work because ClearCase needs:

• view.dat (the hidden file indicating a directory tree is in fact a snapshot view)

• a vob (which is Department in your case. ProductGroup\Product1\Development is a path within the Vob Department)

  X:>ct lsview -l -full -pro -cview cleartool: Error: Cannot get view info for current view: not a ClearCase object. X:>ct ls cleartool: Error: Pathname is not within a VOB: "."

For those same reasons, a hardlink with Junction on windows will not work:

c:\dev>junction Product1 Department\ProductGroup\Product1
Junction v1.05 - Windows junction creator and reparse point viewer
Copyright (C) 2000-2007 Mark Russinovich
Systems Internals - http://www.sysinternals.com

Created: C:\dev\Product1
Targetted at: C:\dev\Department\ProductGroup\Product1

C:\cc\xxx>ct ls
cleartool: Error: Pathname is not within a VOB: "."

So what you can do is:

subst X: c:\dev

That combined with the specific load rules from 1/ or the cleaning rules from 1bis/ will give you:

• a slightly shorter path
• no extra empty sub-directories

---

2bis/ "Devious" solution:

From the ClearCase explorer, move Development from Department\ProductGroup\Product1 to Department! That move will be recording within 'mybranch' version tree, and will not be visible for anyone else working in /main/LATEST.

Then with the subst from above, you will work within 'mybranch' in Department\Development.

X:\Department\Development

When you want to go public, make the inverse move.