cleartool

ClearCase user-level commands (command-line interface)

APPLICABILITY

ClearCase (command)

SYNOPSIS

• Single-command mode:

  cleartool subcommand [ options/args ]

• Interactive mode:

  c:> cleartool [ -e ]

cleartool> subcommand [ options/args ]
.
.
.

cleartool> quit

• Display version information for the kernel and cleartool:

  cleartool -ver·sion

• Display version information for the kernel, cleartool, and the ClearCase DLLs that cleartool uses:

  cleartool -VerAll

DESCRIPTION

cleartool is the primary command-line interface to ClearCase version-control and configuration management software. It has a rich set of subcommands that create, modify, and manage the information in ClearCase VOBs and views.

cleartool SUBCOMMANDS

Each individual cleartool subcommand is described in its own reference page.

GETTING HELP

cleartool provides several online help facilities for its subcommands:

• Syntax summary - To display a syntax summary for an individual subcommand, use the help subcommand or the -help option:

  cleartool help	(syntax of all subcommands)
  cleartool help mklabel	(syntax of one subcommand)
  cleartool mklabel -help	(syntax of one subcommand)

• Reference pages - cleartool has its own interface to the Windows Help Viewer. Enter cleartool man command-name to display the reference page for a command.

  Reference pages are also accessible from the online help system's main contents (click Start `Programs`ClearCase`ClearCase Help, or click Help`Contents in any browser).

  See the man reference page for more information.

USAGE OVERVIEW

You can use cleartool in either single-command mode or interactive mode. A single cleartool command can be invoked from the command interpreter using this syntax:

cleartool subcommand [ options-and-args ]

If you want to enter a series of subcommands, enter the cleartool command with no arguments. This places you at the interactive mode prompt:

cleartool>

You can then issue any number of subcommands (simply called "commands" from now on), ending with quit to return to the command interpreter. You can continue cleartool commands onto additional lines with the caret (^).

You can also use the -e option with cleartool. This places you in interactive mode, but if an error message occurs on one of the commands, you exit interactive mode. This is useful when running scripts.

Use cleartool -version to display this information"

• The version of the kernel (output of mvfsversion command)
• The version of cleartool that you are using
• Any ClearCase patches installed on your machine

The cleartool -VerAll command displays this information plus version information for the ClearCase DLLs that cleartool uses.

Command Options

Command options may appear in any order, but all options must precede any nonoption arguments (typically, names of files, versions, branches, and so on). If an option is followed by an additional argument, such as -branch \main\bugfix, there must be white space between the option string and the argument. If the argument itself includes space characters, it must be enclosed in quotes.

Command Abbreviations and Aliases

Many subcommand names and option words can be abbreviated. A subcommand's syntax summary indicates all valid abbreviations. For example:

-pre·decessor

This means that you can abbreviate the option to the minimal -pre, or to any intermediate spelling: -pred, -prede, and so on.

For option words, the minimal abbreviation is always three characters or fewer.

A few cleartool commands have a built-in command alias. For example, checkin's alias is ci; checkout's alias is co. These commands are equivalent:

cleartool checkin test.c

cleartool ci test.c

ARGUMENTS IN cleartool COMMANDS

Arguments in cleartool commands specify objects-either file-system objects (which may or may not be in a VOB) or non-file-system VOB objects. File-system objects are elements, versions, VOB symbolic links, derived objects, view-private directories, and view-private files. File-system objects also include files, and directories that have been loaded into a snapshot view. Examples of arguments that specify file-system objects:

cleartool ls .
cleartool mkelem new_doc
cleartool checkin -nc ..\src\main.h

Non-file-system VOB objects include types (attribute, branch, element, hyperlink, label, replica, trigger), pools, hyperlinks, replicas, and VOBs. Examples of arguments that specify non-file-system VOB objects:

cleartool lock brtype:v2_release
cleartool describe vob:\smg_tmp
cleartool mkhltype tested_by

The sections File-System Objects and Non-File-System VOB Objects give more details about specifying objects.

NOTE: If a nonoption argument begins with a hyphen (-), you may need to precede it with a double-hyphen argument to prevent it from being interpreted as an option.

Slashes and Backslashes

Slashes (/) and backslashes (\) can be used interchangeably in pathnames in cleartool commands. For example, the following command is legal on a Windows host:

z:\myvob> cleartool ls /srcvob/util.c

File-System Objects

To specify a file-system object as an argument, you can use either a full or relative pathname. In many cases, you can also use a ClearCase-defined variant: a view-extended pathname (full or relative) or a version-extended pathname (full or relative).

A full pathname begins with an optional drive letter and a backslash (\). For example:

NOTE: In general, you perform ClearCase operations in a view context, on a drive assigned with the Windows net use command or by clicking Tools`Map Network Drive in Windows Explorer. It is rare to work directly on M:, the default dynamic-views drive. However, it is common to use view-extended pathnames that include the M:\view-tag prefix.

A relative pathname does not begin with a backslash. For example:

NOTE: Pathnames relative to another drive (for example, c:\lib\util.o when c:\ is not the current drive) are not supported.

For both full and relative pathnames:

• The standard Windows pathname of an element implicitly references the version selected by the current view.
• A view-extended pathname references the version of the element selected by the specified view.
• A version-extended pathname directly references a particular version in an element's version tree.

For more information, see the version_selector and pathnames_ccase reference pages.

NOTE: Although the ClearCase MVFS uses case-insensitive lookup by default, cleartool itself is case-sensitive.

Non-File-System VOB Objects

In cleartool commands, you specify non-file-system VOB objects (VOBs, types, pools, hyperlinks, and replicas) with object selectors.

Object selectors identify non-file-system VOB objects with a single string:

[prefix:]name[@vob-selector]

where

prefix

Identifies the kind of object. The prefix is optional if the context of the command implies the kind of object. For example,

cleartool mkbrtype brtype:v3_bugfix

is equivalent to

cleartool mkbrtype v3_bugfix

If a context does not imply any particular kind of object, cleartool assumes that a name argument with no prefix is a pathname. For example, the command cleartool describe ddft describes a filesystem object named ddft but cleartool describe pool:ddft describes the ddft pool.

If the name of a file-system object looks like a prefix:name argument, you must use the -pname option to identify it. (In the mkhlink command, the options -fpname and -tpname serve the same function.) For example, to describe a file named lbtype:L, enter this command:

cleartool describe -pname lbtype:L

name

The name of the object. See the section Object Names for the rules about composing names.

vob-selector

VOB specifier. The default is the current working directory, unless the reference page specifies otherwise. Specify vob-selector in the form [vob:]pname-in-vob (for some commands, the vob: prefix is required; this is noted in the reference page)

Object Names

In object-creation commands, you must compose the object name according to these rules:

• It must contain only letters, digits, and the special characters underscore (_), period (.), and hyphen (-). A hyphen cannot be used as the first character of a name.
• It must not be a valid integer or real number. (Be careful with names that begin with "0x", "0X", or "0", the standard prefixes for hexadecimal and octal integers.)
• It must not be one of the special names " . ", " .. ", or " ... ".

PROCESSING OF VOB SYMBOLIC LINKS

In general, cleartool commands do not traverse VOB symbolic links; rather, they operate on the link objects themselves. For example:

• You cannot check out a VOB symbolic link, even if it points to an element.
• A describe command lists information on a VOB symbolic link object, not on the object to which it points.
• A mklabel -recurse command walks the entire subtree of a directory element, but it does not traverse any VOB symbolic links it encounters.

COMMAND-LINE PROCESSING

Single-Command Mode

In single-command mode, the cleartool command you enter is processed first by the Windows command interpreter and C run-time library, then by cleartool:

1. The standard command interpreter, cmd.exe, expands environment variables, but does no special processing for file-name patterns, quotes, or other special characters (including the asterisk (*) and question mark (?) characters, which are expanded by individual commands).
2. The C run-time library does interpret quotes, stripping each pair and passing its contents through to cleartool as a single argument. (To pass a quote character through to cleartool, escape it with the backslash (\).)
3. cleartool processes the resulting argument list directly, without any further interpretation.

Some third-party shells perform additional command-line processing before passing the argument list through to cleartool. All descriptions and examples of cleartool command usage assume the standard cmd.exe interpreter.

Interactive Mode

In interactive mode, cleartool itself interprets the command line; it recognizes various special characters and constructs:

In interactive mode, cleartool does not expand environment variables.

OBJECT LOCKING

ClearCase provides for temporary access control through explicit locking of individual objects with the lock command. When an object is locked, it cannot be modified by anyone (except those explicitly excluded from the lock), even a member of the ClearCase group, the VOB owner, and the user who created the lock.

cleartool command descriptions list the locks that can prevent a command from being executed, even if you have the necessary permissions. For example, the chtype command lists three locks that would prevent you from changing an element type:

VOB, element type, pool (non-directory elements only)

This means that chtype would fail if the VOB containing the element were locked, if the element's type were locked (such as the text_file type), or if the storage pool containing the (nondirectory) element were locked.

EXIT STATUS

If you exit cleartool by entering a quit command in interactive mode, the exit status is 0. The exit status from single-command mode depends on whether the command succeeded (zero exit status) or generated an error message (nonzero exit status).

Note that for the diff command, success means finding no differences.

SEE ALSO

comments, fmt_ccase, pathnames_ccase, permissions, profile_ccase, view, version_selector, wildcards_ccase