These release notes present information about the definition, delivery, and operation of Rational ClearCase LT configuration management software.
ClearCase LT software for Windows operating systems offers client/server solutions for configuration management software. ClearCase LT Server software must be installed on a host in the same network domain as the hosts on which you install ClearCase LT Client software. A client can access only one ClearCase LT server at a time. To ensure adequate performance for all ClearCase LT clients, we recommend that you install ClearCase LT Server on a dedicated host.
Before you install ClearCase LT software, read the Rational Suite Release Notes (distributed with your software) and See Supported Architectures in this document.
This chapter summarizes significant new and changed features in Rational ClearCase LT.
New features are documented in the ClearCase Product Family Documentation Supplement , which is installed as a PDF file in ccase-home-dir \bin\cpf_supplement.pdf.
ClearCase LT Version 2001A.04.00 introduces the following significant new and changed features:
ClearCase LT Version 2001A.04.00 includes support for the new release of ClearQuest.
For information on planning and setting up the UCM-ClearQuest integration, see Managing Software Projects with ClearCase . For information about setting up the integration with ClearQuest and upgrading your ClearQuest schema to the latest UCM package, see the ClearCase Product Family Documentation Supplement .
Following are features new in UCM:
By default, UCM listing commands do not list obsolete objects. A new option, - obsolete , includes obsolete objects in the listing. See the reference pages for lsactivity , lsbl , lscomp , lsproject , and lsstream in ClearCase Product Family Documentation Supplement .
Version 2001A.04.00 adds support for triggers on the following UCM operations.
Properties information for triggers used with UCM objects is now shown on the Firing Conditions tab of the property sheet for a trigger.
See the ClearCase Product Family Documentation Supplement for reference pages on the mktrtype , mktrigger , and rmtrigger commands, and a chapter that shows sample triggers.
Operations that write to the UCM project VOB now require a privileged identity. The following commands write to the project VOB:
See the corresponding reference pages in the ClearCase Product Family Documentation Supplement for details.
To reduce the amount of information that the Component Tree Browser displays for UCM streams and baselines, which makes the information easier to read, the Filtering Options dialog box was added. The filtering also reduces the amount of time necessary to load the component depicted on the tree. For streams, you can display no development streams, your own development stream only, or all development streams in the component. For baselines, you can display only the baselines of a given promotion level or higher, only labeled baselines, or obsolete baselines.
ClearCase LT Version 2001A.04.00 supports the use of a new environment variable on Windows NT and Windows 2000 platforms.
If the user environment variable CLEARCASE_GROUPS exists for any user, ClearCase considers the semicolon-separated list of groups specified in the value of this variable first when determining (or displaying) which groups a user belongs to. For example:
CLEARCASE_GROUPS=DOMAIN\ClearCase Users;DOMAIN\group1;DOMAIN\group5
The list can contain domain or local groups, and need not contain the group specified in CLEARCASE_PRIMARY_GROUP, which is already treated specially if it has been specified. If the user is a member of additional groups not specified in CLEARCASE_GROUPS, ClearCase considers those groups after it has considered the groups listed in CLEARCASE_GROUPS, up to a limit of 32 groups.
Any user who is a member of more than 32 groups (domain or local) should set CLEARCASE_GROUPS to specify which of these groups ClearCase should consider when checking the user's access rights. CLEARCASE_GROUPS is not supported on Windows 98 or Windows Me.
Beginning in Version 2001A.04.00, ClearCase LT does not run on Windows 95.
This release provides the integration of the SCC level of ClearCase functionality with Sun Microsystem's Forte for Java Release 2.0 toolkit on
Users of the Java IDE initiate ClearCase actions using the file-system shortcut menus and a set of command icons on the Forte for Java main window toolbar. The following functions are available:
ClearCase integrated help appears as a book in the Forte for Java online help, which you can access from the IDE Help menu. Context-sensitive help, invoked by pressing F1 , is also available for the ClearCase commands.
This release provides integration of the SCC level of ClearCase functionality with the IBM VisualAge for Java Release 3.5 on Windows NT, Windows 98, and Windows 2000.
Users can develop projects in the VisualAge for Java IDE, while performing ClearCase version management using the file-system shortcut menus and a set of command icons on the VisualAge for Java main window toolbar.
The integration provides access to the following ClearCase functionality:
When you add a resource to a project that is in source control, the green arrow or yellow plus sign does not update after the resource has been added as an element to ClearCase.
If you attempt to add projects with very long names, including long class names, to source control, an internal error message appears. The error routine cannot handle very long error messages that result from adding these types of projects to source control.
After a project is added to External Version Control, users must set the project properties to tell VisualAge for Java (on a refresh project), to refresh the project from the external version control repository. To do this, select the Project Tools > External Version Control > Properties from the shortcut menu for the project. Select the SCCI tab, and then the Refresh project from working directory option. This property only needs to be set once for the project.
For more information on VisualAge for Java, including new updates and limitations, read the IBM VisualAge for Java release notes.
This section lists new commands and describes changes to ClearCase commands.
Table 1 lists a new command for this release.
A new utility that allows you to place source files under ClearCase version control. You can run it in a UCM or base ClearCase view. |
Table 2 lists new options and arguments.
No commands are obsolete in this release.
This section lists the basic platform and software requirements for running ClearCase LT software. There are no special hardware requirements on Windows systems.
ClearCase LT software runs on the platforms listed in Table 3.
ClearCase LT clients access files in UNIX VOBs through the ClearCase File Server (CCFS) using standard TCP/IP based networking. Similarly, ClearCase LT UNIX clients can access files in Windows VOBs.
NOTE: ClearCase LT does not support dynamic views.
For more information about CCFS, see the Administering ClearCase manual.
ClearCase LT requires the following software on Windows NT, Windows Me, or Windows 2000:
ClearCase LT software requires the following software on Windows 98 systems:
The following table shows the minimum disk space required on each type of network-wide release host.
Table 4 shows the approximate disk space requirements for a new installation of ClearCase LT software. These figures are for ClearCase files only; include approximately 5 MB extra for temporary storage during the actual installation.
If a host will have view directories, the system needs enough disk space to contain all files loaded into the views and all view-private files added to the views. The amount of space required depends on the number and sizes of the files in the views.
The ClearCase LT server must have enough disk space to contain the files and databases used for storage of VOB- or view-storage directories. The amount of space required depends on the characteristics and use of the VOBs and views.
You can find up-to-date information on Microsoft Windows operating system issues at the Microsoft Web site www.microsoft.com.
ClearCase LT Version 2001A.04.00 incorporates all ClearCase patches since the release of ClearCase Release 4.1. Table 10 shows the specific ClearCase patches.
ClearCase LT supports the option of integration with Rational ClearQuest. You can integrate the software in two different ways:
Therefore, for this release of ClearCase LT, integration requires ClearQuest Version 2001A.04.00. If you have an older version of ClearQuest, you must upgrade to this version before configuring the integration.
ClearCase LT is a distributed client/server application; many operations initiated on client hosts are completed by server processes elsewhere in the network. Therefore, all ClearCase LT hosts running Windows NT must belong to a Windows NT Server domain, except as noted in Administering ClearCase . On all Windows 98 hosts, the Client for Microsoft Networks component in Network properties must be configured to log on to a Windows NT Server Domain.
To use ClearCase LT from a supported Windows host, you must log on to a domain account (not a local, per-system user account). For more information about Windows NT Server Domains, see Administering ClearCase .
This section contains information to familiarize you with installing, setting up, and using ClearCase LT software.
Refer to Installing Rational Suite for installation information. It provides instructions on installing ClearCase LT Server and ClearCase LT Client software, lists required products, and contains information about removing Rational software and troubleshooting.
Refer to Administering Licenses for Rational Software for licensing information necessary for installation and initial operation of ClearCase software.
If you have a floating evaluation license for ClearCase LT or for ClearCase LT and a Rational Suite Studio product, you must install a FLEXlm server to activate your evaluation license. You can activate your floating evaluation license from the Rational License Key Administrator window by clicking License > Enter a License . For more information on installing a FLEXlm server, refer to Administering Licenses for Rational Software .
This section discusses restrictions or defects that involve the installation of the ClearCase LT product. Take into account the information in this section before or during installation to be sure that ClearCase LT software or particular features are installed properly.
If some features of ClearCase LT software are to perform properly, Internet Explorer 4.0.1 (Service Pack 1) or a later version of Internet Explorer must be installed on your system.
Note: It is not necessary to run Internet Explorer as a browser on the system; it simply needs to be installed.
Internet Explorer is required for the ClearCase Explorer and Administrative Console (implemented as a set of snap-ins to the Microsoft Management Console), for use of the ClearCase Automation Library (CAL), and for use of the enhanced Diff Merge Tool with HTML files.
A Java virtual machine (VM) is required for the ClearCase LT Web interface. However, recent versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer no longer install the VM by default. For these versions, you must perform a custom installation of IE, selecting the Microsoft virtual machine component.
The ClearCase LT integration with Visual Age for Java enables you to use ClearCase LT source control functions, such as checking out, modifying, and checking in your files, without leaving the Visual Age for Java IDE or starting another application.
Before you can configure the VisualAge for Java for ClearCase LT integration, you must install both VisualAge for Java and ClearCase LT, in any order, and then run the VisualAge for Java Integration Configuration Wizard. This section describes all three procedures.
Note: If you already installed VisualAge for Java, make sure the IDE is closed. Then run the installation program again. Choose the Modify option, specify a custom install, and select the External Version Control option
If ClearCase LT is already installed and running on your system, skip this procedure. If ClearCase LT is not installed, run the ClearCase LT installation program as you normally would, with the addition of the following steps.
After both VisualAge for Java and ClearCase LT are installed, you must run the VisualAge for Java Integration Configuration Wizard. Select one of the methods listed here:
If you installed ClearCase LT using the procedure titled Installing ClearCase LT in this section:
In your Windows taskbar, click Start > Programs > Rational ClearCase Administration > Integrations > VisualAge for Java Integration Configuration .
If ClearCase LT was previously installed or if the VisualAge for Java Integration Configuration shortcut menu does not appear in the Integrations menu:
ClearCase access controls consider domain group membership information when determining a user's rights to access ClearCase data. Because of a bug in Windows NT, a user who logs on to a domain account may not be assigned the primary group specified by the Windows NT domain account management tools.
To work around this bug, we recommend that you set the user environment variable CLEARCASE_PRIMARY_GROUP to refer to the correct primary group. The value of this variable must be the name of an existing domain group that meets all of the following requirements:
This environment variable must be set on every ClearCase LT host. On Windows NT systems, you set the value of CLEARCASE_PRIMARY_GROUP using the System program in Control Panel. On Windows 98 or Windows Me systems, you must set value of CLEARCASE_PRIMARY_GROUP in the autoexec.bat file on each system running ClearCase LT.
For more information on CLEARCASE_PRIMARY_GROUP and ClearCase access controls, see Administering ClearCase .
The ClearCase Installation Directory text box in the ClearCase Installation Wizard does not support slashes (/).
By default, views for Web interface users are created under the host data directory for ClearCase ( ccase-home-dir \var). If ClearCase is deinstalled, the view directories are deleted, but the views remain registered. To avoid leaving entries for nonexistent views in the ClearCase registry, do one of the following:
The var directory is not removed by the deinstall process. You must explicitly choose to remove the directory.
A network installation of Rational Suite installs both ClearCase LT Client and the optional Rational Shipping Server feature. Because this is an invalid combination, the Shipping Server installation is disabled after installation. Only ClearCase LT Client can be run.
Similarly, a user can explicitly install this invalid combination, with the same result: the Shipping Server installation is disabled and only ClearCase LT Client can be run.
The Rational installation program has an option for a network installation on the Setup Configuration dialog box (see Rational Suite Release Notes ). This option is not recommended when installing ClearCase LT Client or ClearCase LT Server and it is not supported. We recommend performing a typical installation of ClearCase LT software.
When installing ClearCase in Windows NT on a dual-boot computer (Windows NT or Windows 98), the installation encounters an assertion failure.
At the beginning of the installation, an error message appears stating something like this:
Assertion failed!
Program: path-name
File: file-name
Line: line-number
Expression: "Function not implemented: " ...
For information on how your program can cause an assertion failure, see the Visual C++ documentation on asserts.
(Press Retry to debug the application - JIT must be enabled.)
The message box contains three buttons: Abort, Retry, and Ignore.
Workaround: Follow this procedure to complete the installation:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\
WinLogon\ParseAutoexec
To use the UCM integration with ClearQuest, take into account the following issues with the compatibility and version support of the following elements:
Consider the following points:
Table 6 shows the compatibility of different releases of ClearCase LT and ClearQuest, UCM Package Revision Number, and the ClearQuest database feature level.
To upgrade to Version 2001A.04.00 from 4.1 and continue to use your integration of UCM with ClearQuest, you must perform the first two steps. The last two steps are optional.
All ClearCase client computers that access a common set of VOBs and views must use a single common character encoding system. If all computers are not configured this way, ClearCase operations may fail or produce confusing or unreadable output.
For example, the Japanese SJIS and Japanese EUC encoding systems are available. They both represent Japanese characters but are incompatible. For this reason, you cannot mix SJIS and EUC in ClearCase clients.
The ClearCase LT installation may occasionally display the following error message:
Error 1069: ClearCase ALBD could not log in due to wrong password.
(Note that you may have to check the Event Viewer in order to see this error.)
If you see this error message, follow the steps below to correct the problem:
The ClearCase LT documentation available with this release comes in print and online formats. The books included with each license are Installing Rational ClearCase LT , Administering Licenses for Rational Software , and Introducing Rational ClearCase LT .
Note: The only manuals updated for this release are the ClearCase LT Release Notes (this document), Installing Rational ClearCase LT , and the ClearCase Product Family Documentation Supplement .
Other books can be purchased separately from the Rational Press Shop at www.rational.com/shop, including Introducing Rational ClearCase LT , Administering ClearCase LT , Managing Software Projects with ClearCase , and the ClearCase Reference Manual .
All ClearCase LT documentation is provided on line, including this document, ClearCase LT Release Notes (cc_relnotes.pdf). For more information about online documentation, click the Contents tab in ClearCase Help and refer to the Online Manuals entry.
This section presents restrictions, limitations on, or guidelines for the use of ClearCase LT software that are considered noteworthy. These are not considered defects because the behavior reported is not expected to change in a future release of the product.
This section describes guidelines for and restrictions on using Unified Change Management (UCM) in ClearCase LT.
You cannot change an integration stream's configuration to use an earlier baseline of any components that are marked as modifiable by the stream's project.
This may be a problem when creating a new project if the precise set of foundation baselines is not known in advance. After a modifiable baseline has been added to a project, it is not possible to roll back to an earlier baseline later on if building or testing indicates this is necessary.
To work around this limitation, initially specify your components to be nonmodifiable when creating a new project. After verifying that the project builds and tests correctly, update the project policies to allow modifications to any/all components.
If, in a UCM view, you check out or check in an element that is not a UCM component, you should not have to select an activity, because that operation is not captured in a change set.
However, in a view that is in a ClearQuest-enabled project, both the Check Out dialog box and the Check In dialog box force you to select an activity even though one is not really required.
Workaround : Select the activity; it will be ignored.
The UCM process in a ClearCase LT system is enhanced for users who have installed the Rational ClearQuest product by a very tight integration between UCM activities and the change request management provided by ClearQuest software. Use the following guidelines with the UCM/ClearQuest integration.
If the Do ClearQuest action after delivery policy is enabled on a UCM project, delivery of a ClearQuest-enabled UCM activity may result in an attempt to transition the activity to a Complete state type.
If the activity record has a field that must be filled in before it can transition to the Complete state, the program displays an error. An example is the Defect record type in the default UnifiedChangeManagement schema, whose Resolution field must be non-empty before it can be resolved.
Workaround : Modify the UCU_CQActAfterDeliver global script to include code similar to that below. This automatically fills in the Resolution field when the activity is delivered.
REM Add complete resolution code
REM Defect record type requires Resolution field to be non-empty
'Get the entity
Set entity = Session.GetEntity(entity_type,entity_id)
REM If record type is "Defect" ...
If(entity.GetEntityDefName = "Defect") Then
REM If Resolution field is empty...
If(entity.GetFieldValue("Resolution").GetValue = "") Then
REM Fill in required field
session.EditEntity entity, "modify"
Call entity.SetFieldValue("Resolution", "Fixed")
msg = entity.Validate
REM Remember to do some action if validate fails
entity.Commit
End If
End If
See the ClearQuest API documentation for information on editing entities.
If you are applying the UCM package to a custom ClearQuest schema (as opposed to using the out-of-the-box Unified Change Management schema), be aware that this package depends on the existence of a state with the name Submitted . If your custom schema does not include a state with this name, you can apply the package to your schema by using one of the following methods:
Using the UCM-ClearQuest integration, you can customize the Check Before Deliver ClearQuest Visual Basic policy script. However, if the script as customized contains an error that causes the Visual Basic interpreter to display an error exception, the Deliver dialog box reports this error like this:
An error occurred during the deliver.
Unexpected error in deliver.
It does not report the actual error exception text which would enable the user to diagnose the problem script.
Workaround : To see the error exception text, use the cleartool deliver command.
Using the UCM/ClearQuest integration, if you upgrade a ClearQuest user database to a new schema revision, in order to see the change on a client machine which was connected to that user database, you must do the following on the client machine:
When using the UCM-ClearQuest integration, the list of records displayed in the list on the Add To Source , Check Out and Check In dialog boxes is generated by running the UCMCustomQuery1 query, which can be customized. (Note that in order to see the effect of your changes, you must use the File > Save menu item to save the query edits.)
However, if you copied the Public Queries UCMCustomQuery1 query into your Personal Queries folder and edited it there, the changes are not immediately seen. To see your changes, you must stop the integration server process:
After stopping the process on your computer, open the dialog box again. Further edits to /PersonalQueries/UCMCustomQuery1 show up without your having to shut down the process again.
If ClearQuest software is incorrectly configured (for example, connected to the wrong database), ClearCase operations such as checking an element out will fail, because the ClearQuest record corresponding to the UCM activity cannot be located. On Windows 98 systems, this failure can cause the dialog box to be "stuck" so that clicking Cancel does not remove it. To work around the failure, do one of the following:
In general, you cannot import UCM-enabled records from a ClearQuest database; ClearCase LT software cannot guarantee that UCM information referencing an arbitrary ClearQuest database is correct. However, this restriction does not prevent data recovery in the event of a data loss. You may successfully import records into a ClearQuest database if all the following conditions are true:
If you are working with a UCM project that is linked to a ClearQuest user database and attempt to delete the project record, you get a run-time error. You cannot delete the record or undo the CommitAction hook. The workaround is to use the squid_patch utility to force the ucm_vob_object field of the orphaned project to 0.
In the UCM-ClearQuest integration, if you change the name of the ClearQuest record type after activities have been linked to ClearQuest records of that record type, the integration displays an error message when you try to set one of those activities in a view. To change the name of a record type, do so before any activities are linked to records of that record type.
The ClearQuest integration for UCM does not prevent you from opening a ClearQuest form, then going to the form's UnifiedChangeManagement page, then using the context menu in the change set to open a ClearCase dialog box, and then selecting Activity Properties , which opens a second ClearQuest form.
However, if you follow the above steps, the second ClearQuest form does not function correctly. In particular:
Therefore, we recommend that you not use the above procedure to open a second ClearQuest form.
This section provides guidelines for using base ClearCase (non-UCM) and ClearQuest together.
The base ClearCase-ClearQuest integration creates a ClearCase tab on your ClearQuest screen. On this tab, if you right-click CC Change Set Objects and then select View Details , the program displays data about a VOB element. If the version-extended pathname is too long to fit in the dialog box, it cannot be viewed in its entirety, because the form does not support horizontal scrolling by default. You may want to modify the form using the following procedure:
If you wanted only the horizontal scrollbase on the name, do the following instead:
The following restrictions apply to using the ClearCase LT Web Interface.
If you are using the Web interface in a UCM environment, the following restrictions apply:
The ClearCase Web interface supports noninteractive triggers. Interactive triggers, such as those that attempt to read input or create a window, will fail.
If a trigger attempts to read input using clearprompt , the ClearCase Web interface displays this error:
If a trigger attempts to read directly from standard input, it fails because standard input does not specify a valid file descriptor.
In addition, any trigger failure in the Web interface context displays this error message:
Interactive triggers are not supported in the Web interface.
If the trigger was interactive, it may have failed for that reason.
Trigger script writers can detect whether a trigger is running in the Web interface context by checking for the environment variable ATRIA_WEB_GUI. It is set to 1 if you are running in the Web interface context.
If you use the Web interface to download (rather than check out) a file to your Web view and then modify the file, your changes to the file are silently overwritten if you download the file again from within the same view. The program assumes that only changes made to checked-out files are meant to be saved.
The Web interface does not support graphical (tree view) comparison of XML file elements; the Web Compare tool displays a text-based comparison for elements of type . xml . When comparing HTML files, the program displays the differences in the Compare screen as text, but includes hyperlinks to display the individual files appropriately formatted using your default browser.
In addition, because the Compare tool in the Web interface handles only text files, it does not support comparison of Rational Rose or Microsoft Word files.
Windows NT 4.0 sends very large amounts of information to a Web server. This behavior causes the ClearCase Web interface to fail when attempting to check in very large files (on the order of several megabytes). This problem appears to be fixed in Windows 2000.
The Java program used in the Web interface attempts to connect to the Web server to transfer files. Web browsers only allow Java programs to open connections to the server from which the programs were downloaded.
To enforce this rule, the Web browser on the Web interface client must be able to resolve the Web server's host name to an IP address. If you use a host name in a URL that cannot be resolved by the client host, the Java program cannot connect to the server. In this case, Web-interface file-transfer operations such as checkout, checkin, and download fail.
If the Web server is being accessed through a firewall by a proxy server, the proxy server being used must support DNS lookup outside the firewall.
When the ClearCase Web server running on Windows logs in a client, it sets the primary group to the designated primary group in the client user's domain account. With this setting, sites that use domain mapping to allow user accounts in multiple domains to share VOBs cannot access those VOBs through the ClearCase Web Interface.
Workaround: Specify a configuration variable in the ccweb.conf file, and add a value to the registry that overrides the group setting and enables domain mapping.
To enable a single Web server to support one primary group override, add the -primary_group variable with a groupname value to the ccweb.conf file. The allowable values for groupname are the same as for the CLEARCASE_PRIMARY_GROUP environment variable. The ccweb.conf file must be located in . ccase-home-dir \var\config . If you need more than one primary group override, configure additional Web servers.
Typically, when domain mapping is used to allow users from multiple domains to access the same VOB, each user must create the DomainMappingEnabled value (set to 1) in the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Atria\ClearCase\CurrentVersion registry key.
To enable domain mapping for a Web server, create the DomainMappingEnabled value in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINES\Software\Atria\ClearCase\CurrentVersion key on the Web server machine. The value must be of type DWORD and set to 1.
If you log in directly to the machine instead of logging in through the Web interface, user values for DomainMappingEnabled override the machine value.
If you access the ClearCase Web interface using a Netscape browser on a Windows system and also use a version of the Exceed X Windows Server earlier than 6.0, do not let the Netscape window lose its focus to an Exceed window. Doing so causes the Netscape window to restart any Java applets it is currently running, which interferes with file transfer operations, for example, download, checkout, or checkin.
Neither Internet Explorer nor Version 6.0 of the Exceed X Server has this problem.
If you intend to use Internet Information Server (IIS) to serve Web pages within a view and VOB, you must configure IIS to log on as a Windows NT domain user that has access to that view and VOB data. Use this procedure:
IIS and ClearCase should now work together on the same computer.
Note: Make sure that whenever you restart your computer, you always start views and mount VOBs before you start the IIS service.
ClearCase LT contains support for Visual Studio 97 and Visual Studio 6.0 (including Visual InterDev), tools that use the Microsoft Common Source Code Control Interface (SCC) integration. It also contains support for Microsoft Word, Microsoft FrontPage, Microsoft Office 2000, and Sybase PowerBuilder. This section contains guidelines on using ClearCase with integrated products.
ClearCase LT is integrated to work with FrontPage 98, FrontPage 2000, Visual InterDev, Microsoft's Save to Web Office 2000 functionality (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), and Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 (IE5) Web Folders.
When using ClearCase LT with these programs and tools, follow the guidelines below:
The integration between ClearCase LT and Visual InterDev may cause corruption and data loss. The problem occurs when user A checks out a file and then user B checks out the same file; user B is permitted to check in before user A. When user A attempts to check in the file, user A receives an error message and the file is corrupted.
There are three ways to deal with multiple-checkout problems in Visual InterDev:
Change the registry key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Atria\ClearCase\CurrentVersion\SSAPI\Performance\
SystemFiles from the default value to the string value *.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Atria\ClearCase\CurrentVersion\SSAPI\
FailCOIfAlreadyCO
If the value is set to 1, a checkout fails if the object is already checked out.
To use the ClearCase integration with Visual Studio, users must do one of the following:
ClearCase uses the Microsoft Common Source Code Control (SCC) interface to integrate with the Microsoft Visual C++ available through Microsoft Visual Studio. ClearCase has support for Visual C++ versions 5.0 and 6.0. However, you cannot enable the ClearCase SCC support for both versions at the same time. You can switch between SCC-support versions 5.0 and 6.0, but only one version is enabled at a time.
By default, the ClearCase SCC interface support for Visual C++ 6.0 is enabled, unless you have previously installed ClearCase support for Visual C++ 5.0. The ClearCase SCC interface for Visual C++ 6.0 also supports Visual Basic 6.0, Visual J++ 1.1, and Visual InterDev 6.0.
Using ClearCase with Visual Studio components requires no special configuration on the part of the user. For more information, see Developing Software with ClearCase .
If you install Windows 2000 on a machine that currently runs Windows NT with the ClearCase integration for Visual Studio, and you reinstall ClearCase LT, the Visual C++ 6.0 Addin toolbar for the ClearCase integration contains five Version Tree buttons. All five buttons start the Version Tree Browser. To correct the problem, remove the ClearCase toolbar and then re-add it, as follows:
The Visual Basic IDE by design disables or unloads all add-ins while debugging a project. Therefore, the ClearCase toolbar, which is an add-in, is disabled; no ClearCase operations can be performed from the Visual Basic IDE while the debugger is running. ClearCase operations can be performed while debugging outside the Visual Basic IDE by using the ClearCase Explorer.
In ClearCase LT Version 2001A.04.00, a new add-in was created for Visual Basic 5.0. The add-in does not work with versions earlier than Visual Basic 5.0. If you use an earlier version, the following message window appears:
ClearCase tools could not be loaded
Remove it from the list of available addins?
Because the purpose of this add-in is to provide Visual Basic users quick toolbar access to advanced ClearCase features, you can remove it from the add-ins list without affecting basic ClearCase functions such as checkin and checkout.
By default, ClearCase does not create a new version of a file that is identical to its immediate predecessor. When you attempt to check in a .frm file that is identical to the checked-in version, the integration does not check it in. However, if the .frm file has an associated .frx file, the integration checks in the .frx file as a read-only file. To avoid this problem, set the option to allow identical checkins.
In Visual Basic when you attempt to add a project to ClearCase LT by clicking Tools > ClearCase > Add Files to ClearCase , the operation fails if the VOB in which the Visual Basic project resides has a trigger that requires users to enter a comment when checking in files. The Visual Basic IDE does not supply the comment that you enter in the Add to Source Control dialog box to the trigger.
To work around this problem, use ClearCase Explorer to add the project to source control. After you add the project to source control, checkin and checkout operations complete successfully from within the Visual Basic IDE.
In a Visual Basic version 6.0 project that is part of a Visual Basic Group, when you check out a .frm file (with a .frx file), ClearCase does not check out the associated .frx file automatically. This behavior may cause synchronization problems. When working with a Visual Basic 6.0 project that is part of a Visual Basic Group, be sure to check out both the .frm and .frx files.
When you open a Visual Basic 6.0 project that is checked in, the integration displays the following error message:
Failed to update project location information in the host application
The integration displays this message because the Visual Basic project file is not checked out and the project location information cannot be updated. To avoid this message, check out the project file and then open the project.
When using Visual Basic 6.0, a problem can occur if a project's source files reside in a dynamic view that is mapped to drive M. Visual Basic cannot reopen the project from the list of recent projects at the bottom of the File menu.
To work around this problem, you can delete the file, MSSCCPRJ.SCC, then add the project back to source control.
ClearCase LT Version 2001A.04.00 includes integrations with Word 97 and Word 2000. To use either of these integrations, do the following:
A user-defined ClearCase/Word integration is encoded in a VisualBasic script file with the extension .dot, located in the Word startup directory. To determine the Word startup folder, follow these steps:
To remove a previous integration, remove its associated .dot file from the Word startup directory, or rename the file using a different extension.
The Microsoft Word integration supports a tracing mechanism that can be used to help diagnose certain problems. Enable it by creating the DWORD registry key.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Atria\ClearCase\CurrentVersion\Word\Tracing Enabled
Note: To leave the key in the registry when not in use, set the value to 0 .
The tracing is in the form of pop-up message boxes that open immediately before commands like Check Out or Check In are issued. This can be useful in determining the pathname of the document or the name of the command that is about to be issued.
Note that the registry key is checked when Word starts, so changing it during a Word session has no effect unless you stop Word and restart it.
If the ClearCase menu is somehow deleted and the attached template is then saved, that document, and any document subsequently opened using that template, loses access to the ClearCase menu. This happens because menus and toolbars are modified in documents in Microsoft Word, not in the application.The ClearCase integration adds the ClearCase menu to the ClearCase Word template file.
If you delete the ClearCase menu, you can restore it by using the following procedure:
We recommend that you not initiate an Add to Source Control operation from the ClearCase menu that appears when you right-click in the SaveAs dialog box in Microsoft Word. This may cause your Word application to terminate abruptly and could possibly cause data loss.
Using the ClearCase integration with PowerBuilder requires some configuration steps. In addition, there are some differences between the integration with PowerBuilder 6. x and PowerBuilder 7. x .
Before using the ClearCase integration with PowerBuilder 7.0 to 7.02, apply the latest PowerBuilder patch available for the file PBSCC70.DLL. You can download this patch from the Sybase FTP site at ftp://psaftp.sybase.com/pub/private/pbpatch/pb701.weekly/202861.zip. This patch is not needed for PowerBuilder versions later than 7.02.
Use the following procedure to add a Help button to the ClearCase PowerBuilder integration. After the integration is configured, PowerBuilder displays an icon for ClearCase Help on its toolbar.
If you select an object from the public directory and click Source > Register , the integration opens a dialog box where you enter the name of the .PBL library. If the library you specify does not exist in the archive directory, the integration creates a new one and adds it to source control in the archive directory. If you attempt to check out the same object from the public directory by clicking Source > Check Out specifying a different name, the integration fails with an "error5" message. To work around this problem, be sure to enter the exact name of the target .PBL when you check out an object.
The current ClearCase integration with PowerBuilder reflects the following enhancements in PowerBuilder Version 7.x over Version 6.x:
This section describes issues with the Diff Merge tool.
The Diff Merge tool may not display multibyte characters correctly.
Files that are compared or merged with the ClearCase Diff Merge tool on Windows 2000 cannot contain more than approximately 3,000 lines. Some font sizes may increase that limit to approximately 4,000.
The marker for unaltered text in a Diff or Merge contributor pane has been changed. It was previously labeled No Change in the Options dialog box. It is now labeled Unchanged . Because the text shown in the list box is the actual registry key under which the font characteristics (for example, color, bolding, italic) are stored, the registry has also changed slightly.
As a result, any lines marked Unchanged revert to the application's default for that type of marker. Any modifications that the user may have made (for this marker only), revert to the default. Modifications for all other marker definitions are retained.
There are useful registry settings in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Atria\ClearCase\CurrentVersion\Diff Merge that cannot be set through the GUI. To change these settings, exit all Diff Merge sessions before changing the registry. If you do not, the values entered manually are overwritten when Diff Merge exits.
Tab size is a numeric value that determines the number of characters a tab character occupies. The default value for this key is 8 . If you set Tab size to 0 or less, it is overridden with 8 and is saved on exit.
Colorbar scaling factor sets the width of the color density bar in the Diff Merge tool as a percentage of the width of the vertical scroll bar. For example, if this value is 100 , the two bars are the same width. If the value is 50, the color bar is half the width of the scroll bar. The default value for this key is 75. If you set Colorbar scaling factor to a negative value, a value of 0 is used. A Colorbar scaling factor of 0 hides the colorbar.
This section notes restrictions and special issues involved in using the XML Diff Merge Tool.
Use of the XML Diff Merge tool is subject to the following restrictions as a result of its use of Version 1.0 of the XML expat parser:
In addition, the following restrictions also apply:
If two or more contributors insert elements and these insertions are adjacent, the desired ordering in the merge output can be ambiguous. For example, it may not be possible for the tool to determine whether an insertion from contributor A should appear before a corresponding insertion from contributor B.
If the element ordering is ambiguous at a given merge point, the one chosen by the tool may not be the one desired. Review all changes in the merge output to confirm desired ordering.
In some cases, the XML Diff Merge tool cannot evaluate a changed element correctly, and instead reports changes to a single element as the deletion of one element and the addition of an identically named element. Because of this limitation, we strongly recommend that you verify comparisons and merges done using the XML tool with the text version of the Diff Merge tool. A button in the XML Diff Merge toolbar enables you to quickly perform a textual Diff Merge.
When merging two XML files, when you select one of two alternative elements from the contributor panes, you effectively delete the unselected element. As a result, all children of the deleted element are deleted as well, and cannot be selected on succeeding merges.
The xml element type is based on the text_file_delta type manager. It expects xml elements to be text files. A text file is assumed to have lines no longer than 8,000 characters each, and no character may be a binary \000 (null) character.
ClearCase reports an error while creating an xml element or while checking in a new version of an existing element if the xml data does not look like a text file. If your xml data has more than 8,000 characters between line-terminating characters, its lines are too long for the text_file_delta type manager. If your xml data is encoded with multibyte characters it appears to have binary \000 characters when viewed as a stream of bytes.
To overcome these restrictions, use the file element type to store such xml data. The file element type can store any type of file and does not have the same restrictions as the xml element type. To compare and merge xml data that is stored as file element types, you need to invoke the XML Diff Merge tool directly. See See Invoking XML Diff Merge Directly.
If you cannot create a new version of an element of type xml, perform the following steps:
To run XML Diff Merge directly:
To merge two or more versions using a common ancestor:
xmldiffmrg -xmerge -out file.xml.merge -base file.xml file1.xml file2.xml
The file names may be version-extended pathnames. You must use the -xcompare and -xmerge options instead of -compare and -merge , respectively.
Use the following guidelines when using the Administration Console.
To access the ClearCase LT Customer Web site from the Administration Console, you must first set up your Microsoft Internet Options. You can do this either when you first install and configure Microsoft Internet Explorer or manually using Control Panel > Internet Options . If these options (for example, firewall and proxy server settings) are not set up, the following message is displayed when you try to connect to the ClearCase LT Web site:
Internet Explorer cannot open the Internet site http://clearcase.rational.com. A connection with the server could not be established.
When you display a view private file in the ClearCase Administrator or Host Console, resizing its column headers or displaying the context menu causes the Refresh toolbar button to be hidden. If this happens, you can access the Refresh function by using the Action menu pull-down, or from the shortcut menu of the view private file's display.
The administrative VOB is used by one or more other VOBs as a central repository of global type objects . See the type_object reference page for a description of this feature.
ClearCase LT users may see errors when the administrative VOB is unavailable. Following are examples of situations when this may happen:
To disable the above checking for a particular ClearCase command (for example, to keep working while an administrative VOB is offline):
The font used for text and captions in the History Browser is 6 point type by default. This point size produces difficult-to-read output in the History Browser on a Japanese language system.
Workaround : To enlarge the font, click View > Options > Display > Fonts and select a larger font.
The behavior of the Keep checked out check box in the Add To Source Control dialog box has changed. If you selected this check box in previous releases, the view-private file that you added to source control remained checked out. This behavior is consistent with the cleartool mkelem command. As a result, you could lose the contents of this file before it was truly part of the VOB. This was most likely to happen if you canceled the checkout.
Now, the file is checked in and checked out. You can continue working on the file, but its contents at element creation time are preserved, even if you cancel the checkout.
On NTFS partitions, each ClearCase VOB or view storage directory has an access control list (ACL). Modifying the ACL in any way can render the VOB or view unusable.
Because the standard Windows NT file-copying tools (and some backup utilities) do not preserve file and directory ACLs, use the procedures in Administering ClearCase to copy, move, or restore a VOB or view storage directory.
If you do not assign a ClearCase LT server for your client and you try to run any ClearCase LT tool that contacts the server, the error message you get is the same as if you had no license. If you get an error that tells you that you do not have a license for the product, but you are certain that you have a valid license, make sure you have a server name entered for the client. Click Start > Settings > Control Panel and click the ClearCase icon. Verify that a valid ClearCase LT server host name is in the edit field.
Some ClearCase LT operations may not work correctly after you change your default registry server. Some symptoms include ClearCase LT shortcut menus that do not appear correctly or source control operations that fail in Microsoft Visual Studio. We recommend that you shut down and restart your computer after changing the registry server.
Noteworthy problems found in ClearCase LT software are listed in the file cc-issues.htm. You can find this file in the folder ccase-home-dir \install after you install the product.
Note that any problems relating to installation or setup of ClearCase LT software are noted in See Installation Issues.
This section presents late changes to documentation and describes errors or information missing from the documentation delivered with ClearCase LT software.
The following problems, relevant to ClearCase LT, exist in the ClearCase Reference Manual for ClearCase Release 4.2.
The reference pages for object-creation commands ( chpoo l , cptype , mkattype , mkbrtype , mkeltype , mkhltype , mklbtype , mkpool , and mktrtype ) do not mention explicitly that the name specified for an object must not be a valid integer or real number. Be careful with object names that begin with 0x, 0X, or 0, the standard prefixes for hexadecimal and octal integers.
-l is an undocumented option for the clearexport_ffile command, which labels the imported version with the specified label. Existing instances of the specified label are replaced.
The documentation for clearexport_ssafe does not mention that labels on directories in SourceSafe are not exported.
The following issues exist with online help:
If you start help by pressing F1 n an application window (context-sensitive help) and begin a series of jumps into the online documentation, you may see the error help topic not found , when in fact the topic exists. If you click OK in the error message box, the topic then appears.
Occasionally, a ClearCase help topic fails to appear: the title appears, but the body of the window is blank. When this happens, you can correct the problem as follows:
This section describes problems with running tutorials.
Before users run the tutorials, the administrator must set the correct view and VOB storage needed to run the Windows NT tutorials. Users can verify that this was done by entering the following cleartool lsstorage commands and checking the output:
If each command does not display a list of views or VOB storage locations, the tutorial will not run.
In the ClearCase LT printed and online documentation, the names of programs differ from the names that you see on the Start menu. For example, the ClearCase LT Doctor help file says:
To start ClearCase Doctor, click Start > Programs>Rational ClearCase LT > ClearCase Doctor . Note: if ClearCase LT was installed as part of a Rational Suite, the Rational ClearCase LT entry appears below the name of the suite.
The text should show the proper name of the program as Rational ClearCase LT Doctor .
If you have any problems with the software or documentation, please contact Rational Technical Support by telephone, fax, or electronic mail as described below.
For information regarding support hours, languages spoken, or other support information, click the Technical Support link on the Rational Web site at www.rational.com.