cleartool is the primary command-line interface to ClearCase and ClearCase LT version-control and configuration management software. It has a rich set of subcommands that create, modify, and manage the information in VOBs and views.
Each cleartool subcommand is described in its own reference page, but not all subcommands are available in ClearCase LT. See the Applicability section of individual reference pages to determine whether the command is available in ClearCase LT.
cleartool provides several online help facilities for its subcommands:
Reference pages are also accessible from the Windows help system's main contents. On UNIX systems, type hyperhelp main.hlp to view the main contents.
See the man and hyperhelp reference pages for more information.
You can use cleartool in either single-command mode or interactive mode. A single cleartool command can be invoked from a UNIX shell or the Windows command interpreter using this syntax:
If you want to enter a series of subcommands, enter the cleartool command with no arguments. This places you at the interactive mode prompt:
You can then issue any number of subcommands (referred to as “commands” from now on), ending with quit to return to the shell or command interpreter. You can continue cleartool commands onto additional lines as follows:
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.
If a nonoption argument begins with a hyphen (–) character, you may need to precede it with a double-hyphen argument, to prevent it from being interpreted as an option:
cleartool rmtype -lbtype -- -temporary_label-
Many subcommand names and option words can be abbreviated. A subcommand's syntax summary indicates all valid abbreviations. For example:
–pre·decessor
The position of the dot (· ) indicates that you can abbreviate the option to –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, the alias for checkin is ci; the alias for checkout is co. These commands are equivalent:
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, UNIX symbolic links, and directories that have been loaded into a snapshot view. Examples of arguments that specify file system objects:
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:
The sections “File System Objects” and “Non-File-System VOB Objects” 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 (\) can be used interchangeably in pathnames in cleartool commands. For example, the following command is valid on a Windows host:
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 these variants: a view-extended pathname (full or relative) or a version-extended pathname (full or relative).
On UNIX systems, a full pathname begins with a slash. For example:
| /usr/src/project | Full pathname |
| /usr/bin/cc | Full pathname |
| /view/jpb/usr/src/project/test.c | View-extended full pathname |
| /usr/src/project@@/main/3/test.c/main/bugfix/4 | Version-extended full pathname |
On Windows systems, a full pathname begins with an optional drive letter and a backslash. For example:
Note: In general, you perform ClearCase and ClearCase LT operations on Windows 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 drive M, the default dynamic-views drive. However, it is common to use view-extended pathnames that include the M:\view-tag prefix.
On UNIX systems, a relative pathname does not begin with a slash or an implied slash (for example, ~user). For example:
| test.c | Relative pathname |
| ../lib | Relative pathname |
| motif/libX.a | Relative pathname |
| ../../beta_vu/usr/src/project | View-extended relative pathname |
| test.c@@/main/4 | Version-extended relative pathname |
On Windows systems, a relative pathname does not begin with a backslash. For example:
| test.c | Relative pathname |
| ..\lib | Relative pathname |
| tcp\libw.lib | Relative pathname |
| test.c@@\main\4 | Version-extended relative pathname |
Note: On Windows systems, 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:
For more information, see the version_selector and pathnames_ccase reference pages.
Note: On Windows systems, although the ClearCase MVFS uses case-insensitive lookup by default, cleartool itself is case-sensitive.
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
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 file system 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:
In object-creation commands, you must compose the object name according to these rules:
Although Windows imposes a limit of 260 bytes on object names, cleartool on Windows supports object names of up to 1024 bytes in length. Consult your operating system documentation for more information about the maximum length of object names; keep in mind that in a multiplatform environment, object names should conform to the rules of the most restrictive platform.
In general, cleartool commands do not traverse VOB symbolic links; rather, they operate on the link objects themselves. For example:
In single-command mode, the cleartool command you enter is first processed by the UNIX shell. The shell expands file name patterns and environment variables, and it interprets quotes and other special characters. cleartool processes the resulting argument list directly, without any further interpretation.
In interactive mode, cleartool itself interprets the command line similarly, but not identically, to the UNIX shells:
In interactive mode, cleartool does not expand environment variables and does not perform command substitution.
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:
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.
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.
ClearCase and ClearCase LT provide 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).
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:
This means that chtype would fail if the VOB that contains 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.
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.
comments, fmt_ccase, pathnames_ccase, permissions, profile_ccase, version_selector, wildcards_ccase, Administrator's Guide
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