6.6 Creating a Development Stream for Testing Baselines

When you make a new baseline, we recommend that you lock the integration stream so that you can build and test a static set of files. Otherwise, developers can inadvertently cause confusion by delivering changes while you are building and testing. Locking the integration stream for a short period of time is acceptable; locking the integration stream for several days can result in a backlog of completed but undelivered activities. To avoid locking out developers for a long period of time, you may want to create a development stream and use it for extensive testing of baselines. If your project uses feature-specific development streams, you may want to create a testing stream for each feature-specific development stream so that you can test the baselines created in those streams.

To create a development stream:

1. In ClearCase Project Explorer, right-click the integration stream, and select Create Child Stream from the shortcut menu.

The Create a Development Stream dialog box appears.

2. By default, ClearCase uses the set of recommended baselines when creating a development stream. Because the new baseline has not been tested extensively, you probably have not yet promoted it to the level associated with recommended baselines. To create the development stream with baselines other than the recommended baselines, click Advanced Options.

The Change Baseline dialog box appears.

3. In the Change Baseline dialog box, select the component that contains the baseline you want to test. Click Change.

A second Change Baseline dialog box appears, listing all baselines for the component.

4. Select the baseline that you want to test, and click OK. If you need to test the baseline of another component, select it in the first Change Baseline dialog box and repeat the process. When you are finished, click OK in the first Change Baseline dialog box.

5. In the Create a Development Stream dialog box, be sure that the Prompt me to create a View for this stream check box is selected. Click OK.

The View Creation Wizard appears.

6. Complete the steps of the View Creation Wizard to create a view for the development stream.

Now the development stream is configured so that you can build and test the new baselines, and developers can deliver changes to the integration stream without being concerned about interfering with the building and testing process. For information on testing baselines, see Testing the Baseline.