Creating a ClearCase View

To gain access to the project's files and directories, you need a ClearCase view into the VOB (Versioned Object Base). The VOB appears to you as a file system, e.g. /vob/lightning. But you will only be able to see into the VOB after defining and setting a ClearCase view. Here is where you learn how to do that.

On receiving a Defect ID, you can begin work:

• Each task should have its own view, so that you can complete and check-in all work for that task without holding it up pending completion of other tasks, even if related. (An added benefit of organizing work this way is that Project Managers can much more easily withdraw checked-in materials that are incorrect without nullifying other work.) It works well to establish a scheme for naming all your views so they are easily identified as your work on a specific problem. One way to do this is to name your views with your login name and the problem ID, such as "wilder_ROCei21028" to indicate Dwain Wilder's view for working on ROCei21028.
  

  To create a new view:

   cleartool mkview -tag wilder_ROCei21028 /usr2/viewstore/wilder_ROCei21028
  
  
  
      

• Before the view is useful, you must create a branch off the product's main branch. This branch will represent the new versions of existing or new files which contain your changes. Your view's config spec will direct ClearCase to automatically create new versions on this branch whenever you check-out or create a new file or directory. It helps a lot if you name your branch with the name of the view which uses it. That will make it easy to remember what work is represented in the branch.

  To use a new branch, you must set the view, move to the product vob, then create the branch type:

   cleartool setview wilder_ROCei21028
   cleartool cd /vob/lightning
   cleartool mkbrtype wilder_ROCei21028
  
  

• Edit the view's configuration specification (config spec)

  Your view will have a default (but useless) config spec. You must edit the config spec to get the correct view into the Versioned Object Base (VOB) in order to do your work properly. Mostly this means seeing the latest label on the main product branch of your product vob (/vob/fx, /vob/lightning, etc), the correct label for the 3rd party software (/vob/pkgs), and the correct label for the utilities (/vob/utilities), and documentation (/vob/docs), and lastly, your changes which will be located on the branch of the type you just created.

  After each product build, the BuildMeister will announce a recommended view. In almost every case, that will be a very good basis for you to use so you will see the latest software built into the product. The announcement will be sent to all group members via e-mail, so all you have to do is copy and paste, after starting the config spec editor:

   cleartool edcs
  
  Now copy the recommended view spec from your mail and place it in the edit window. Then replace all the <BRANCH> occurences with your new branch type, "wilder_ROCei21028".
  

  By the way, if you don't like the default editor that ClearCase brings up to edit the view, you can change to your favorite by setting WINEDITOR:
  
    setenv WINEDITOR /usr/sbin/edlin_for_wimps
  
  

  Lastly, there's the little matter of setting the umask. This is best done in your .cshrc file, but if you haven't attended to it there, you will need to do so now. Otherwise, files and directories will not be created with group write privileges, and the merger will not be able to merge your work back to the main branch. To set the environmental variable umask, in your shell type the following:
  
    umask 002

Now you are ready to begin creating and changing files and directories in the vob.

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