Chapter 1 ClearCase Build Concepts

Rational ClearCase supports makefile based building of software systems and provides a software build environment closely resembling that of the make program. make was developed for UNIX systems, and has been ported to other operating systems. You can use files controlled by ClearCase to build software, and use native make programs, third-party build utilities, your company's own build programs, or the ClearCase build tools clearmake, omake, and clearaudit.

The ClearCase build tools, clearmake and omake, provide compatibility with other make variants, along with powerful enhancements:

• Build auditing, with automatic detection of source dependencies, including header file dependencies

• Automatic creation of permanent bill-of-materials documentation of the build process and its results

• Sophisticated build-avoidance algorithms to guarantee correct results when building in a parallel development environment

• Sharing of binaries among views, saving both time and disk storage

• Parallel building, applying the resources of multiple processors to builds of large software systems, is available within clearmake

The clearaudit build tool provides build auditing and creation of bill-of-materials documentation.

clearmake, omake, and clearaudit are intended for use in dynamic views. You can use them in a snapshot view, but the features that distinguish them from ordinary make programs (build avoidance, build auditing, derived object sharing, and so on) are not enabled in snapshot views and, therefore, these features are not available when using clearmake within Rational ClearCase LT.

Both clearmake and omake incorporate the major ClearCase build-related features described in the following sections. The omake program's strength lies primarily in its support for users who require compatibility with other PC based build programs. For details specific to omake, see the OMAKE Guide. In all other build-related documentation, the primary emphasis is on clearmake behavior.