Double Paddle

Revoke Read Access to ClearCase VOB

2012-01-05T11:17:00.001-08:00

Say a VOB (VOB tag: VOB1) only allows a group of developers (group id: GRPa) to have read-write access. All other users do not have any access.

1. Make sure that GRPa is either listed as ownership group or additional group. This privilege defines who can modify the code.

> cleartool desc -l vob:VOB1
...
VOB ownership:
owner AD\ccadmin
group AD\clearcase
Additional groups:
group AD\GRPa
...

To add GRPa to the addiontinal group, run command
> clearcase protectvob -add_group GRPa

2. Make sure that the VOB root directory has 770 and owned by GRPa group. This privilege defines who can see the code under VOB root.

> cleartool desc -l VOB1
...
Element Protection:
User : ccadmin : rwx
Group: GRPa : rwx
Other: : ---
...

to change the protection of the VOB root directory, run command

> cleartool protect -chmod 770 VOB1

If another group (group id: GRPb) needs only read access to VOB1, then a third group (id GRPc) needs to be created to include both GRPa and GRPb. The group GRPc need to be the group of VOB root element. To change it, run command

> cleartool protect -chgrp GRPc VOB1

How to run cleartool mkattr from ant script

2012-01-05T08:10:00.000-08:00

Managing escape charactor is never a simple task, especially when it involves xml, cleartool, ant exec, and trying to publish a piece of html code on a blog. Here is an example of how to set an attribute to a ClearCase baseline.

<!-- set baseline with the new build label-->
<exec dir="${clearcase.bin}" executable="cleartool" failonerror="true" >
   <arg line="mkattr"/>
   <arg line="BuildNO"/>
   <arg line="&apos;\&quot;${build.label}\&quot;&apos;"/>
   <arg line="${cc.baseline.new}"/>
</exec>

Delete DLL failed due to "required by other applications" Error

2011-10-27T06:47:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, when we try to delete a DLL, it fails due to "required by other applications" error.

Normally, we can delete a DLL from GAC by gacutil.exe tool shipped with .NET 1.1, or use the newer interface, the Assembly Cache Viewer, integrated into Windows Explorer, located at %windir%\assembly.

For the assembly initially is installed using msi package, try to use the setup msi to uninstall the DLL.

For msi installed assembly, as the last resort, back up following registry key HKLM\Software\Classes\Installer\Assemblies\Global\. Delete the corresponding entry for the pinned DLL. (for per-machine installations, use HKCU\SOFTWARE\Classes\Installer\Assemblies\Global). Then go back to the GAC to delete the DLL.

How to find out SMTP server

2011-09-30T12:59:00.000-07:00

In command prompt, type nslookup and hit enter

> set type=MX

Type the domain name and hit enter, for example

> AD

The results will be a list of host names that are set up for SMTP

Server: xxx.xxx.com

Address: xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx

or, under nslookup prompt, type

> set q=mx

> mailhost

ClearCase Deliver with "unable to compute base" Error

2010-08-24T12:35:00.000-07:00

Problem Symptoms:

1. Rebase and deliver operation could not finish on one particular file. Error message:
>>> Operation started: 8/17/2010 3:29:45 PM
Error from VOB database: "\MidTier".
Element "xxxx\InquiriesRequestVOFactory.java", unable to compute base (to \main\Mainline_i\CBFE17.5_THS\djogo_CBFE17.5_THS\29 from \main\Mainline_i\CBFE17.5_THS\36).
Skipping "xxxx\InquiriesRequestVOFactory.java".

Other related errors.
1. The version tree of the file could not be retrieved from GUI with the following error message. But cleartool lsvtree command ran without error.
"failed to retrieve version history of the element"

2. db_server_log error message.
% more db_server_log
2010-08-16T09:17:10-04:00 db_server(15416): Ok:
2010-08-17T12:47:07-04:00 db_server(11335): Error: Database identifier 724419 not found in "../db__obj.c" line 740.
2010-08-17T12:55:13-04:00 db_server(11335): Error: Database identifier 724419 not found in "../db__obj.c" line 740.
2010-08-17T12:57:38-04:00 db_server(11336): Error: Database identifier 724419 not found in "../db__obj.c" line 740.
2010-08-17T13:02:54-04:00 db_server(12862): Error: Database identifier 724419 not found in "../db__obj.c" line 740.
2010-08-17T13:06:08-04:00 db_server(12862): Error: Database identifier 724419 not found in "../db__obj.c" line 740.
2010-08-17T13:06:49-04:00 db_server(12862): Error: Database identifier 724419 not found in "../db__obj.c" line 740.

3. could not merge the file.
>cleartool merge -to InquiriesRequestVOFactory.java -version \main\Mainline_i\CBFE17.5_THS\36
cleartool: Error: Error from VOB database: "\MidTier".

But the file could be merge with only drawing merge arrows.
>cleartool merge -to InquiriesRequestVOFactory.java -ndata -version \main\Mainline_i\CBFE17.5_THS\36
Recorded merge of "InquiriesRequestVOFactory.java".

Workaround.
By drawing an merge arrow as above, we can skip the element for deliver/rebase. but it doesnot resolve the problem.

Diagnose.
1. run command dbcheck.
/etc/utils/dbcheck -r1 -a -k -p32767 vob_db
...
Processing data file: vob_db.d02(3), total of 1302988 records
Problems at record 1298822:
* key field OBJ_DBID(23) error: has a missing key
...
1 error was encountered in 1 record/node

Solution.
1. Stop ClearCase (or untag and unregister the VOB, stop ClearCase and then start ClearCase)
2. Backup (very import!). Copy the db directory
3. Copy the keybuild utility to the VOB db directory
4. run: keybuild vob_db under the VOB db directory
5. Exit out of the db directory after keybuild completes
6. Start ClearCase
7. Reformat the VOB. Run the following command:
cleartool reformatvob

If these steps are completed successfully and without errors, your VOB should now be healthy. If they did not complete or you received errors, restore the VOB from backup.

For my VOB with 7.4GB in size and 5 years in history, it took about 3 hours to finish the procedure.

Report Server rsInternalError Error

2010-06-10T06:20:00.000-07:00

When accessing all the TFS reports from report server, the following message showed up in browser.
An internal error occurred on the report server. See the error log for more details. (rsInternalError)

Further investigation found more information in the Reporting Service log file and dump log file.

ERROR , SQLDUMPER_UNKNOWN_APP.EXE, AdjustTokenPrivileges () failed (00000514)

w3wp!processing!5!06/07/2010-08:48:03:: a ASSERT: Assertion failed! Call stack:
Microsoft.ReportingServices.ReportProcessing.Persistence.IntermediateFormatReader.Assert(Boolean condition)
Microsoft.ReportingServices.ReportProcessing.Persistence.IntermediateFormatReader.Initialize(Stream stream)
Microsoft.ReportingServices.ReportProcessing.Persistence.IntermediateFormatReader..ctor(Stream stream)
Microsoft.ReportingServices.ReportProcessing.ReportProcessing.DeserializeReport(GetReportChunk getChunkCallback, ReportItem parent, Hashtable& definitionObjects)

These reports used to work, and there was no known changes to the system. I do notice that the size of chunkData table in the reportserver database became 0 around the same time the problem started.

To solve the problem, we need to restore the reports. From SQL Server Management Studio, run

use reportserver
go

SELECT
itemID, Path, Name, CAST(CAST(Content AS varbinary(max)) AS xml) ReportXML
FROM
dbo.Catalog
where content is not null

The ReportXML column is the report definition. Save it to a name.rdl file, and upload the file to the report site to overwrite the report.

This can not be the best solution, as I have 900+ reports to recover. But it is the only working one I found so far.

Hoxfix KB957196 Install procedure for database-tier mirrored TFS sites

2010-06-02T06:12:00.000-07:00

This procedure also applies to the installation of TFS upgrades SP1 on database-tier mirrored sites.

1. before start, notify the users and make sure nobody is using TFS.
2. backup Report Server encryption key. Ship the key to site2. The key will not be used in the procedure. It will be used if the primary site needs to recover.
3. open SQL Server Management Studio, connect to site1 and site2.
4. in Management Studio, full database + transaction backup for site1. Ship the backups to site2.
6. in Management Studio, stop mirroring from site1.
7. install hotfix for 750-smart-bld1.
8. backup full database + transaction log. TFSIntegration database is modified during hotfix install.
9. ship the backup set to site2.
10. in Management Studio, restore database (and transaction log) to open status for site2.
11. in Management Studio, set up mirroring from site1.
13. full backup again for site1.

Mostly Recently Updated Table for SQL Server

2010-05-31T12:56:00.000-07:00

I found a useful query for finding out the most recently accessed/updated table in a SQL Server database (I forgot the original resource). I used the script to find out a table back sceen of Team Foundation Server (TFS), so I could modify the content to configure a particular URL.

use TfsIntegration
go
select
t.name
,last_user_update
,user_updates
,user_seeks
,user_scans
,user_lookups
,last_user_seek
,last_user_scan
,last_user_lookup
from
sys.dm_db_index_usage_stats i JOIN
sys.tables t ON (t.object_id = i.object_id)
where
database_id = db_id()

SQL Server database hang in "in recovery" status

2010-05-31T08:50:00.000-07:00

Problem. After a failed setting mirror operation (initiated from SQL Server Management Studio from GUI), SQL Server Database stay in "in recovery" status for prolonged period of time (overnight). The database is about 7GB in size. From the primary site, the database showed normal. From the secondary site, the database showed "in recovery".

There is little that can be done for the secondary database. One option is to stop the SQL services, rename the data files (.mdf & .ldf), start the SQL database again, drop the existing database, rename the data files back, and attached the data files with same database name. After that, we can try to restore database backup and set up mirror.

On a closer look from primary, it seems that the mirror is broken. However, from the output of some database operation in the secondary database, it seems that the mirror has not be broken yet. Further more, there is no entry in the event log to indicate the progress of the recovery operation.

Let's try this approach. From the primary site, to break the mirror run the following command.
ALTER DATABASE TfsVersionControl SET PARTNER OFF
After the command finished successfully, the database on the secondary site changed to (Restoring…) status immediately. The following operations are straight forward -- copy the full database backup and log, and restore with norecovery option, set mirror for the database.
This is the preferred approach, since only the problem db is touched, no need to re-set the mirror for all other databases.

There are occasional complains from the internet about this prolonged (or hanged) SQL Server database "in recovery" status. It may worth to take a look whether the database actually started the "recovery", or still in a previous status due to unknown reasons.

Script to Monitor ClearCase license

2010-05-31T08:16:00.000-07:00

Here are the scripts mentioned in my previous post regarding monitoring ClearCase license usage.

re: http://doublepaddle.blogspot.com/2008/02/monitoring-clearcase-license-usage.html Apperently I am not good at following up my previous posts -- Sorry for the delay.

The collection script is as simple as this.

#!/usr/bin/sh
date >> /home/ccadmin/logs/license.log
/opt/rational/clearcase/bin/clearlicensegrep "Current active users" >> /home/ccadmin/logs/license.log

The script is scheduled in cron jobs for every 10 mintues. This script can be easily converted to a Windows batch file and added to scheduler.

Then a perl script is used to load the data and generate the report in excel format. The script can be added as part of the Windows scheduler, or run at the time when you want to view the report. The nice chart in the previous post is also part of the excel report.

#!/usr/bin/perl
#Auther: Li Qin
#Date: 2008.02.05
#Function: generate ClearCase license usage report in excel format

use Spreadsheet::WriteExcel;
use Win32::OLE qw(in with);
use Win32::OLE::Const 'Microsoft Excel';

$Win32::OLE::Warn = 3; # die on errors...

$file = "C:\\Li\\SCM\\ClearCase\\report-licns.xls";
$workbook = Spreadsheet::WriteExcel->new("$file");
$sheet = $workbook->addworksheet("data");

my $format1 = $workbook->add_format();
$format1->set_bold();
$format1->set_size(15);
$format1->set_color('blue');
$format1->set_align('center');

my $format2 = $workbook->add_format();
$format2->set_bold();
$format2->set_size(11);
$format2->set_color('Black');
$format2->set_align('center');

my $format3 = $workbook->add_format();
$format3->set_size(11);
$format3->set_color('Black');
$format3->set_align('center');

$sheet->activate();
$sheet->merge_range('C2:G2', "ClearCase Usage Report", $format1);

$sheet->set_column(3, 2, 40);
$sheet->set_column(3, 3, 20);
$sheet->set_column(3, 4, 20);
$sheet->write(3, 2, "Date", $format2 );
$sheet->write(3, 3, "Usage", $format2 );
$sheet->write(3, 4, "Max", $format2 );

open(FILE,"license.log") || die "couldn't open file a.out";
$row = 4;
my @user1, @user2;
$max = 35;
while ($date= ) {
chomp $date;

$line1 = ;
chomp $line1;
while ( !($line1 =~ m/Current/) ) {
$user1[$row-4] = 0;

$sheet->write($row+1, 2, $date, $format3);
$sheet->write($row+1, 3, $user1[$row-4], $format3);
if ( $date =~ m/Fri Feb 1 17/ ) {
$max = 40;
}
$sheet->write($row+1, 4, $max, $format3);
$row = $row +1;
$date = $line1;
$line1 = ;
chomp $line1;
}
$pos = rindex $line1, ":";
$user1[$row-4] = substr($line1,$pos+1);
$user1[$row-4]=$user1[$row-4]+0;

$sheet->write($row+1, 2, $date, $format3);
if ( $date =~ m/Fri Feb 1 17/ ) {
$max = 40;
}
$sheet->write($row+1, 3, $user1[$row-4], $format3);
$sheet->write($row+1, 4, $max, $format3);
$row = $row +1;
}
close(FILE);
$workbook->close;

# #create chart
my $Excel = Win32::OLE->GetActiveObject('Excel.Application') || Win32::OLE->new('Excel.Application', 'Quit');

# open Excel file
my $Book = $Excel->Workbooks->Open("$file");
# select worksheet of data

$count = 6;
my $sheet = $Book->Worksheets("data");
my $value = $sheet->Cells($count,4)->{'Value'};
my $len = length($value);

while ( $len >0 ) {
$count = $count +1;
my $value = $sheet->Cells($count,4)->{'Value'};
$len = length($value);
#printf "At ($count, 4) the value is %s. length is %d\n", $value, $len;
}
print "last row is $count.";

$lastRow = $count-1;
my $Range = $sheet->Range("C6:E$lastRow");

my $Chart2 = $Excel->Charts->Add($sheet);
$Chart2->{ChartType} = xlLine;
$Chart2->SetSourceData({Source => $Range, PlotBy => xlColumns});

$Chart2->{HasTitle} = 1;
$Chart2->ChartTitle->{Text} = "ClearCase License Usage\n";
$Chart2->Axes(xlValue)->{HasTitle} = 1;
$Chart2->Axes(xlValue)->AxisTitle->{Text} = "License Usage";
$Chart2->Axes(xlCategory)->{HasTitle} = 1;
$Chart2->Axes(xlCategory)->AxisTitle->{Text} = "Date/Time";

$Chart2->{HasLegend} = 'False';
$Chart2->{Name} = "Chart";
$Chart2->{HasLegend} = 1;
$Chart2->Legend->{Position} = xlBottom;
$Chart2->SeriesCollection(1)->{Name} = "Usage";
$Chart2->SeriesCollection(2)->{Name} = "Max";

# save and clean up
$Book->Save;
$Book->Close;
# End of create charts

We have upgraded our monitoring using SQL Server Reporting Service, a nice-to-have.

Change check-in email notification to TFS Web Access

2010-05-17T10:51:00.000-07:00

There are some very useful articles to change TFS email notifications to link to Team System Web Access:

Changing TFS emails to link to Team System Web
Changing TFS emails to link to Team System Web Part 2

The configurable links include:
- Work Item notification mails
- Build notification mails
- Check-in notification mails
- Mails sent by Team Explorer

However, for check-in notification mails, if your TFS web access is not installed as the default website, and contains a virtual directory as part of the URL, the tfsadminutil tool cannot process the URL correctly, at least not until TFS 2008 SP1. For example, if your TFS web access URL is http://myTFSserver:8080/tswa, tfsadminutil tool will set up the links as http://myTFSserver:8080/ instead.

Here we provide a workaround until tfsadminutil tool has that improved. The workaround requires direct modification of the TFS database. Please note that it is NOT recommended by Microsoft.

Prerequisite: TFS 2008 + SP1 + TFS web access + Hotfix KB957196

Step 1. run the command on the TFS server:
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Team Foundation Server\Tools> tfsadminutil configureconnections /TSWAUri:http://myTFSserver:8080/tswa

Step 2. connect to TFS database through SQL Server Management Studio. Run the following query.
use TfsIntegration
go
select * from tbl_service_interface

output:
....
8 WorkItemEditor http://myTFSserver:8080/wi.aspx
8 ChangesetDetail http://myTFSserver:8080/cs.aspx
8 Difference http://myTFSserver:8080/diff.aspx
8 ViewItem http://myTFSserver:8080/view.aspx
....

Step 3. Modify the URLs in the table for the above items.
Update tbl_service_interface
Set url='http://myTFSserver:8080/tswa/wi.aspx'
Where name='WorkItemEditor'

Update tbl_service_interface
Set url='http://myTFSserver:8080/tswa/cs.aspx'
Where name='ChangesetDetail'

Update tbl_service_interface
Set url='http://myTFSserver:8080/tswa/diff.aspx'
Where name='Difference'

Update tbl_service_interface
Set url='http://myTFSserver:8080/tswa/view.aspx'
Where name='ViewItem'

Step 4. After the TFS process is recycled, your check-in email subscription will generate emails linking to TFS web access.

No Views Show up in ClearCase Explorer

2010-02-04T08:26:00.000-08:00

One developer got problem accessing his view. ClearCase used to work fine on his desktop. Since two days ago, after refreshing the ClearCase Explorer view shortcuts, he found that there were no views showing up on the view panel. He had no problem using ClearCase Project Explorer, except for view related operations, such as list the view property.

When trying to start the view manually, it showed the following error.

H:\>cleartool startview patelsus_VER6.1.5_int
view_contact call failed: RPC: Unable to receive; errno = [WINSOCK] Connection reset by peer
cleartool: Error: Error trying to contact view_server for view Tot75xrdtw1027q:C:\CCShare\patelsus_VER6.1.5_int.vws: No such file or directory
cleartool: Error: Couldn't set view tag patelsus_VER6.1.5_int: No such file or directory

There were errors in the system's event log too, complaining view server died on start up, etc.

After rule out other causes, run winmsd from Start -> Run, under the network -> protocal, the first entry should be "MSAFD Tcpip [TCP/IP]" and the second should be "MSAFD Tcpip [UDP/IP]". However, the protocal showed: "SSH Capture over [MSAFD Tcpip [TCP/IP]]" and "SSH Capture over [MSAFD Tcpip [UDP/IP]]".

It turned out that the developer installed SSH Tectia, which conflicts with ClearCase client. After uninstallation, the problem is resolved.

Install SQL Server Bussiness Intellegent Development Studio

2009-12-09T08:10:00.000-08:00

If you have SQL Server Management Studio Express, SQL Server Bussiness Intellegent Development Studio (BIDS) is not installed by default. But you can get BIDS as part of Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition Toolkit. Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition Toolkit can be freely downloaded from Microsoft.

Problem:

When installing Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition Toolkit, the installation failed with the following error message in the log file.

Machine : xxxxxx

Product : MSXML 6 Service Pack 2 (KB954459)

Product Version : 6.20.1099.0

Install : Failed Log File : c:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Setup Bootstrap\LOG\Files\SQLSetup0005_TOT75XRDTW1027R_MSXML6_1.log

Error Number : 1603

The detailed error message in the log indicates

Action start 10:34:08: SkipInstallCA.

This package is not supported on this operating system.

Action ended 10:34:08: SkipInstallCA. Return value 3.

Solution.

First uninstall the existing version of msxml. If fail to uninstall, use Windows Installer CleanUp Utility to clean up msxml6.

After that, re-run SQLEXPR_TOOLKIT.EXE to install BDIS. Everything should be fine.

TFS: Unable to connect to this Team Foundation Server

2009-10-07T07:01:00.000-07:00

When using Visual Studio 2008 to connect to TFS server from a client machine, I got the following error.

Microsoft Visual Studio

TF31002: Unable to connect to this Team Foundation Server: mytfsserver.

Team Foundation Server Url: http://mytfsserver:8080.
Possible reasons for failure include:
- The Team Foundation Server name, port number or protocol is incorrect.

- The Team Foundation Server is offline.

- Password is expired or incorrect.

For further information, contact the Team Foundation Server administrator.

Further investigation shows that the same user can connect to the server from other machine, and other user can connect to the server from the same client machine. All the users and the server reside in the same domain. It must be the setting for that user on that client machine.

Because Team Explorer uses IE controls behind the scene, I opened the IE options and found that the LAN setting has configured to use proxy. After unchecked the setting, VS2008 has no problem connecting to the TFS server.

MSI: Uninstall left some files not removed

2009-06-29T12:46:00.000-07:00

I created a MSI package and tested the installation and uninstallation. Everything looked good except for one file. The abc.exe file could not be removed by the uninstallation process. The INSTALLDIR started clean. And file was not used at the time of uninstallation.

I created the extensive log using /L*v option with msiexec command. After studying the log file and comparing the ComponentId in the msi, I found out that the file was marked "PreviouslyPinned".

MSI (s) (50:C0) [15:22:31:932]: Executing op: ComponentUnregister(ComponentId={4CA897DC-C1DD-1A1D-CA93-FF18DA884529},,BinaryType=0,PreviouslyPinned=1)1: {2E9A386D-9B96-4E7C-9AE9-B614A86EEFA5} 2: {4CA897DC-C1DD-1A1D-CA93-FF18DA884529}

Sure enough, I found an entry of the file in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\SharedDLLs.

After deleting the entry, the uninstallation of the MSI worked properly. The MSI package was correct, the problem resided on the testing environment.

Configure Cygwin sshd for Build Automation

2009-06-05T07:13:00.000-07:00

Our build is initiated from a UNIX build server, then invokes the Windows build portion.

1. create a local build user on the Windows build server. Use the same id as in the UNIX server. Password can be different.

2. install cygwin on the Windows build server.

3. set up sshd service.

There is a very nice article about how to set up sshd using cygwin, including which cygwin packages to install, how to install and configure ssh service, how to generate user pulib/private keys, and how to add the user to the password file.

In summary, use the following command.

ssh-host-config

ssh-user-config

You should be able to find a "CYGWIN sshd" service in Windows machine. Make sure the service is started.

4. in the ssh client (UNIX build server), login as build id, generate rsa (or dsa) public/private keys. entry cartridge return (empty) for passphrase.

# ssh-keygen -t dsa

public key is save to ~/.ssh/id_dsa.pub

private key is saved to ~/.ssh/id_dsa

5. sftp the public key(id_dsa.pub) to ~/.ssh directory on the ssh SERVER (Windows build server).

6. create an authorization file in the ~/.ssh directory on SERVER, add the public key in.

server> cat /id_dsa.pub >> /.ssh/authorized_keys

7. To verify that you can connect to the target system, log in through from the client. An entry will be created in the ~/.ssh/known_hosts file in the server.

$ ssh id@target

Now you can integrate the Windows build with UNIX build process.

...

scp /home/cbfebuild/${FILENAME} ccadmin@winbuild:/cygdrive/e/CBFE_Build/${FILENAME}

ssh -n -o NumberOfPasswordPrompts=0 ccadmin@winbuild "rm -rf /cygdrive/e/CBFE_Build/${RELEASE}"

ssh ccadmin@winbuild "cd /cygdrive/e/CBFE_Build/${RELEASE}; /usr/bin/unzip -u /cygdrive/e/CBFE_Build/${FILENAME}"

ssh ccadmin@winbuild "cd /cygdrive/e;/cygdrive/c/Program\ Files/InstallShield/2009/System/IsCmdBld.exe -p CBFE_Build/IS_Projects/${RELEASE}/CBFE_Common/CBFE_Common.ism -z BUILD_VERSION=${BUILD_LABEL}"

....

Run InstallShield ISCmdBld.exe under cygwin, ssh

2009-06-04T12:30:00.000-07:00

After installed and configured cygwin (sshd) in the Windows build server, I tested the ssh connection without any issue. The next step is to launch the InstallShield command line builder ISCmdBld.exe through ssh from my UNIX build box.

ssh myUserid@myWindowsBuildServer "cd /cygdrive/e;/cygdrive/c/Program\ Files/InstallShield/2009/System/IsCmdBld.exe -p CBFE_Build/IS_Projects/myProject.ism -z BUILD_VERSION=${BUILD_LABEL}"

Nothing happened. The command prompt returned immediately. After more testing, I found out that if I logged in to the Windows build server using myUserid, or other id, I had no problem running ISCmdBld.exe in a cygwin session. However, logging in through ssh from other boxes (UNIX or Windows) did not work. It was not X server. And it was not the ACL on the executables. Even power user group is not sufficient.

Finaly, by adding the user to the Administrator group on the Windows box, the problem solved.

TAS is Gone?

2009-04-15T11:01:00.000-07:00

TotalNet Advanced Server (TAS) has been IBM's preferred ClearCase interop solution for many years. Yet, we recieved a piece of notification from LSI saying that TAS would be end of support in 60 days. And that was more than one month ago.

Many commercial and free software implement file systems sharing from UNIX to Windows. All use one of the two protocols: NFS and SMB. For ClearCase interop, we can either set up a SMB server on the UNIX side, or install NFS clients on every Windows box. For NFS, there are many commercial software, such as Netapp, EMC, Humming Bird Maestro, etc. For SBM, there is TAS. Of course we have Samba, but it is free. Who wants a free software?

We use Solaris VOB server in our ClearCase environment. From Solaris 10, Samba is bundled with the OS. Maybe we will use Solaris's native CIFS (Common Internet File System) solution some day.

Execution < guid > cannot be found (rsExecutionNotFound)

2009-03-10T13:38:00.000-07:00

This happened when running our .Net SCM Reporting web application that accesses SQL reports using Report Viewer. After leaving the web application idle for some time, I got the error message "Execution <> cannot be found". guid can be either empty or a string like 'j4j3vfblcanzv3qzcqhvml55'. This happened on either the local web server/SQL report server, or other clients.

Tried to set AsyncRendering="False" in the ReportViewer control as sugguested in some web sources. It did not work.

The following solution from John Gallardo's blog makes the problem less often. It modifies the SessionTimeout and SessionAccessTimeout system properties. It sets timeout to be an hour and a half. The setting should be used with caution as temporary session snapshots will not be aged out as often.

' sessionTimeout.rss
Public Sub Main()
Dim props() as [Property]
props = new [Property] () { new [Property](), new [Property]() }
props(0).Name = "SessionTimeout"
props(0).Value = timeout
props(1).Name = "SessionAccessTimeout"
props(1).Value = timeout
rs.SetSystemProperties(props)
End Sub

E:\_qinl>rs -i sessionTimeout.rss -s http://localhost/reportserver -v timeout="6000"
The command completed successfully

False Dependency

2009-02-11T12:18:00.000-08:00

Got the same problem. Resolved by moving the offending change set to a new activity, and deleting the now-empty activity.

Q: When I try to deliver an activity from a stream, sometimes UCM complains of a dependency on another activity in the stream. But when I look more deeply, I cannot find a change-set dependency between the activities! Why?

When you deliver an activity from one stream to another, a hidden delivery baseline is created on your behalf in the source stream. UCM requires that all subsequent deliveries from this stream contain this baseline (and all its activities). The problem described above usually occurs when you deliver something from one development stream to another, and then later try to deliver another activity somewhere (without including the first delivery's activities). There are workarounds for this. Appendix A of Software Configuration Management Strategies and IBM Rational ClearCase contains a script that can undo an activity. Or, you can resort to moving the offending change-set to a new activity and deleting the now-empty activity that was causing the dependency.

From IBM Developerworks http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/rational/library/jul05/reader/bellagio.html

Rebase Cannot be Cancelled

2008-10-24T09:52:00.000-07:00

A developer got some problem with a rebase operation. After messing around, she ended up manually checked in all the versions in the rebase change set, only to find out later that the rebase could not be cancelled nor resumed. Okay, it was time to call ClearCase admin for help.

$ cleartool rebase -status -stream RP_WT_VER5.10@/vobs/Horizon_PVOB
cleartool: Error: The ClearCase version used to start the rebase operation in progress does not match the current version.
cleartool: Error: Unable to restore operation.
cleartool: Error: Unable to restore from pvar.

The activity contains an empty change set. But it cannot be removed.
$ cleartool rmact rebase.RP_WT_VER5.10.20081022.172717@/vobs/Horizon_PVOB
Remove activity "activity:rebase.RP_WT_VER5.10.20081022.172717@/vobs/Horizon_PVOB"? [no] y
cleartool: Error: Activity "activity:rebase.RP_WT_VER5.10.20081022.172717@/vobs/Horizon_PVOB" is set in view "".
cleartool: Error: Unable to remove activity rebase.RP_WT_VER5.10.20081022.172717@/vobs/Horizon_PVOB.

C:\Li\tmp>cleartool setact -view RP_WT_VER5.10_DDV -none
cleartool: Error: View "RP_WT_VER5.10_DDV" is set activity to activity"rebase.RP_WT_VER5.10.20081022.172717" which is currently involved in anactive deliver or rebase operation. The set activity of this view may not bechanged until the operation has completed.
cleartool: Error: Unable to unset activity in view RP_WT_VER5.10_DDV.

$ cleartool dump stream:RP_WT_VER5.10@/vobs/Horizon_PVOB

RP_WT_VER5.10
oid=31df728b.324a44c0.a5b2.70:02:42:d0:06:dc dbid=74825 (0x12449)
mtype=activity name="RP_WT_VER5.10" type=85
usid=UNIX:UID-9150 gsid=UNIX:GID-8025
...
work items:
user=106 view=ff390327.2f8d4680.83d0.ac:04:d8:db:0a:08
user=106 view=65e7f7b0.fb494922.88bf.18:08:1c:40:01:26
user=106 view=cddce13f.ac9d41cf.acb4.0d:cd:f0:f5:e1:93
user=106 view=5ef30ee5.538b462b.9fa1.b7:6a:4f:41:5c:eb
user=106 view=8ebe7608.b1214e8f.9039.07:18:5c:ba:26:3e
user=106 view=e1e56bc4.5942465f.81a5.f5:80:cd:d0:74:51
user=106 view=5d0175d3.1c984f7e.940c.8a:49:cc:18:c4:21
Process variables:
name=SUM_CSPEC_ID value=0:5
name=UCM_STREAM_RECBLS value=oid:c328a47b.c0694013.b050.70:ec:52:d0:57:7a@vobuuid:fc0b3963.655011dc.84f7.00:01:83:31:69:b5oid:9c091eb4.c51b4791.a11a.a2:7e:5b:5b:ba:b8@vobuuid:fc0b3963.655011dc.84f7.00:01:83:31:69:b5oid:3546cb0f.09254d4f.bf59.0d:b7:cb:41:78:39@vobuuid:fc0b3963.655011dc.84f7.00:01:83:31:69:b5oid:42fc12cb.d1cf4666.9670.48:f1:02:dd:15:5b@vobuuid:fc0b3963.655011dc.84f7.00:01:83:31:69:b5
name=UCM_REBASE value=ver=3
owner=dantchev
start=1224710837
act=oid:e1d5538e.b9224182.913d.d7:93:21:a0:b0:4c@vobuuid:fc0b3963.655011dc.84f7.00:01:83:31:69:b5
view=ff390327.2f8d4680.83d0.ac:04:d8:db:0a:08
state=reprocess_merging
csid=kind:UCM.Stream
...

$ /opt/rational/clearcase/etc/utils/ucmutil
ucmutil> setpvar -pvar UCM_REBASE -none stream:RP_WT_VER5.10@/vobs/Horizon_PVOB
You are about to modify internal data. Any mistake will damage the objects.
Do you want to continue? [no] y
Set UCM_REBASE = "" [cleared]

The rebase operation is cancelled and the stream is back to normal.
C:\Li\tmp>cleartool rebase -status -stream RP_WT_VER5.10@\Horizon_PVOB
No rebase in progress for stream "RP_WT_VER5.10".

But the activity is still at a intermediate status. It cannot be unset nor deleted.
% cleartool rmact rebase.RP_WT_VER5.10.20081022.17271
Remove activity "activity:rebase.RP_WT_VER5.10.20081022.172717@/vobs/Horizon_PVOB"? [no] y
cleartool: Error: Activity "activity:rebase.RP_WT_VER5.10.20081022.172717@/vobs/Horizon_PVOB" is set in view "".
cleartool: Error: Unable to remove activity rebase.RP_WT_VER5.10.20081022.172717@/vobs/Horizon_PVOB.

C:\Li\tmp>cleartool setact -view RP_WT_VER5.10_DDV -none
cleartool: Error: View "RP_WT_VER5.10_DDV" is set activity to activity
"rebase.RP_WT_VER5.10.20081022.172717" which is currently involved in an
active deliver or rebase operation. The set activity of this view may not be
changed until the operation has completed.
cleartool: Error: Unable to unset activity in view RP_WT_VER5.10_DDV.

One more variable to go.
% cleartool dump activity:rebase.RP_WT_VER5.10.20081022.172717@/vobs/Horizon_PVOB

rebase.RP_WT_VER5.10.20081022.172717
oid=e1d5538e.b9224182.913d.d7:93:21:a0:b0:4c dbid=88924 (0x15b5c)
mtype=activity name="rebase.RP_WT_VER5.10.20081022.172717" type=73
usid=UNIX:UID-9150 gsid=UNIX:GID-8025
master replica dbid=3
title="rebase RP_WT_VER5.10 on 10/22/2008 05:27:17 PM."
process definition uuid=fc0b3a7f.655011dc.84f7.00:01:83:31:69:b5
state dbid=64
role dbid=52
user dbids: 105
view=""
planned effort=0.00
actual start=10/22/08 17:22:21
priority=50
dtsm=1224710541
mod count=0
flags=0x4, Setwork
parent dbid=74832
work items:
user=105 view=ff390327.2f8d4680.83d0.ac:04:d8:db:0a:08
Process variables:
name=UCM_INTEGRATION_ACTIVITY value=ver=1
state=1

ucmutil> setpvar -pvar UCM_INTEGRATION_ACTIVITY -none activity:rebase.RP_WT_VER5.10.20081022.172717@/vobs/Horizon_PVOB
You are about to modify internal data. Any mistake will damage the objects.
Do you want to continue? [no] y
Set UCM_INTEGRATION_ACTIVITY = "" [cleared]

C:\Li\tmp>cleartool setact -view RP_WT_VER5.10_DDV -none
Cleared current activity from view RP_WT_VER5.10_DDV.

% cleartool rmact rebase.RP_WT_VER5.10.20081022.172717
Remove activity "activity:rebase.RP_WT_VER5.10.20081022.172717@/vobs/Horizon_PVOB"? [no] y
Removed activity "rebase.RP_WT_VER5.10.20081022.172717@/vobs/Horizon_PVOB".

Everything is back to normal.

Baseline vs. Label

2008-09-10T06:57:00.000-07:00

When comparing elements or versions in UCM, many people use baseline the same way as label in Base ClearCase. For example, to find out all elements changed between two version, use the command:

cleartool find -all -element '{lbtype_sub($LABEL1) && lbtype_sub($LABEL2)}' -version '{(lbtype($LABEL1) && ! lbtype($LABEL2)) || (lbtype($LABEL2) && !lbtype($LABEL1))}' -print

Full baseline name can be used to substitute the LABEL1 and LABEL2 variable in the command in UCM.

However, baselines are different from labels. A full baseline labels every elements in the stream, no matter they are visible or not; while label only applies to visible elements selected by the view. This implies that you cannot use two baseline names to find out which elements have been deleted (renamed) between two baselines. The following command will fail to give out the removed files.

cleartool find . -element 'lbtype_sub($BASELINE1) && !lbtype_sub($BASELINE2)' -print

If you have labeled every elements selected by the two baselines respectively, you can get deleted files by command:

cleartool find . -element 'lbtype_sub($LABEL1) && !lbtype_sub($LABEL2)' -print

Strangled Deliver

2008-07-31T06:24:00.000-07:00

A Developer started a deliver after he had moved around some files. The deliver got stuck at deliver_complete. The following is the error message (when I resumed the operation at the command line).

cleartool: Warning: 4 elements were skipped because they are not visible. You should determine why they are not visible before you complete this deliver or rebase operation. If these elements should be visible, cancel this operation, fix the problem, and re-run the operation.

cleartool: Error: Unable to access "C:\view_stg\CBFE14.8_SwipeDevice_Integration\FrontEnd\CBFE-FE\JavaSource\com\cibc\bankframe\fe@@\main\Mainline_i\NL72_CBFE14.8_SwipeDevice\1\messaging": No such file or directory.

cleartool: Error: Unable to checkin "C:\view_stg\CBFE14.8_SwipeDevice_Integration\FrontEnd\CBFE-FE\JavaSource\com\cibc\bankframe\fe@@\main\Mainline_i\NL72_CBFE14.8_SwipeDevice\1\messaging".

cleartool: Error: Unable to checkin versions in activity "deliver.WenAndy_CBFE14.8_SD.20080729.164552".

cleartool: Error: Unable to perform checkin.

cleartool: Error: Unable to complete integration.

Unable to complete deliver.

After failed to cancel or complete the activity, I tried to bring back the problematic folder to the target view with no succeed. I tried to remove the target view hoping to clear all its reference. That did not help. I decided to remove the deliver activity.

c:\> cleartool describe -long activity:deliver.streamxxxxx
...
change set versions:
...

Remove all the change set in the activity:
c:\> cleartool rmver -xhlink xxxx

Remove the activity:
c:\> cleartool rmact deliver.streamxxxxx

After that the deliver activity was no longer seen from CC project explorer. But the following command showed that the deliver activity was still recorded somewhere.

M:\qinl_CBFE14.8_int>cleartool deliver -stream WenAndy_CBFE14.8_SD@\CBFEProjects -status
cleartool: Warning: Unable to construct object "oid:191965f1.df304728.b92a.74:92:09:52:a9:39@vobuuid:4597339c.992b11dc.8f55.00:01:83:31:69:b5".
cleartool: Error: Unable to find view by uuid:25b3dbb0.f3be43ca.b8b5.54:36:84:ad:6b:98, last known at "unknown:unknown".
cleartool: Error: Unable to get view handle.
cleartool: Warning: Unable to construct object "25b3dbb0.f3be43ca.b8b5.54:36:84:ad:6b:98".
Deliver operation in progress on stream "stream:WenAndy_CBFE14.8_SD@\CBFEProjects"
Started by "WenAndy" on "2008-07-29T16:45:52-04"
The integration activity has not been created.
The target view has not been specified.
Activities will be delivered to the default target stream "stream:CBFE14.8_SwipeDevice@\CBFEProjects" in project "project:CBFE14.8@\CBFEProjects".

Baselines to be delivered:
baseline:deliverbl.WenAndy_CBFE14.8_SD.20080729.164552@\CBFEProjectscomponent:FrontEnd@\CBFEProjects
Activities included in this operation:
activity:Merge_Two_Projects_To_One@\CBFEProjects

C:\Li\tmp>cleartool dump stream:WenAndy_CBFE14.8_SD@\CBFEProjects

WenAndy_CBFE14.8_SD
oid=a5be5398.d6754080.8af6.d2:06:5d:22:7f:fd dbid=874 (0x80eb66)
mtype=activity name="WenAndy_CBFE14.8_SD" type=85
usid=NT:S-1-5-21-1481920619-292190258-1324514410-329804 gsid=NT:S-1-5-21-148192
0619-292190258-1324514410-201237
master replica dbid=3
title=""
process definition uuid=f90e2e65.3f9b11dc.905f.00:01:83:f9:3b:ad
state dbid=64
role dbid=52
user dbids: 106
config spec:
ucm
identity UCM.Stream oid:a5be5398.d6754080.8af6.d2:06:5d:22:7f:fd@vobuuid:f6ae2d0
d.3f9b11dc.905f.00:01:83:f9:3b:ad 1

# ONLY EDIT THIS CONFIG SPEC IN THE INDICATED "CUSTOM" AREAS
#
# This config spec was automatically generated by the UCM stream
# "WenAndy_CBFE14.8_SD" at 2008-07-30T16:57:24-04.
#
....
end ucm

#UCMCustomElemBegin - DO NOT REMOVE - ADD CUSTOM ELEMENT RULES AFTER THIS LINE
#UCMCustomElemEnd - DO NOT REMOVE - END CUSTOM ELEMENT RULES

# Non-included component backstop rule: no checkouts
element * /main/0 -ucm -nocheckout

#UCMCustomLoadBegin - DO NOT REMOVE - ADD CUSTOM LOAD RULES AFTER THIS LINE

view=""
planned effort=0.00
priority=50
dtsm=1193942176
mod count=0
flags=0x16, Children, Setwork, Isolated
parent dbid=616
child activities:
878 internal071101.144125
879 internal071101.144125.1
916 internal071114.094245
work items:
user=106 view=1d3877c5.88ab11dc.9a89.00:01:83:f9:3b:ad
user=106 view=e91938ef.c3d44a19.8149.45:2b:c5:1c:02:d1
Process variables:
name=SUM_CSPEC_ID value=0:1
name=UCM_DELIVER_INTEGRATION_VIEW value=bf4d6c88.394f4ea3.8a7b.33:90:71:d7:85:8b
name=UCM_DELIVER value=ver=3
owner=wenandy
start=1217451758
act=oid:bc09e55c.0a994ca8.8e3e.fe:09:77:c1:f1:03@vobuuid:f6ae2d0d.3f9b11dc.905f.
00:01:83:f9:3b:ad
view=bf4d6c88.394f4ea3.8a7b.33:90:71:d7:85:8b
state=merging
target_stream=oid:18ab7ae8.08f3476f.954b.ed:a5:cd:12:49:fd@vobuuid:f6ae2d0d.3f9b
11dc.905f.00:01:83:f9:3b:ad
bls=oid:14d26418.01234f34.971b.c5:86:a4:97:12:66@vobuuid:f6ae2d0d.3f9b11dc.905f.
00:01:83:f9:3b:ad
bls_created=oid:14d26418.01234f34.971b.c5:86:a4:97:12:66@vobuuid:f6ae2d0d.3f9b11
dc.905f.00:01:83:f9:3b:ad
optype=1
orig_replica=oid:f6ae2d11.3f9b11dc.905f.00:01:83:f9:3b:ad@vobuuid:f6ae2d0d.3f9b1
1dc.905f.00:01:83:f9:3b:ad

hyperlinks from object:
arrow=876
type=31
hlink vob=f6ae2d0d.3f9b11dc.905f.00:01:83:f9:3b:ad
hlink obj=d0c38394.85eb4f1e.a797.ff:64:cb:3d:1f:fb
from vob=f6ae2d0d.3f9b11dc.905f.00:01:83:f9:3b:ad
from obj=a5be5398.d6754080.8af6.d2:06:5d:22:7f:fd
to vob=f6ae2d0d.3f9b11dc.905f.00:01:83:f9:3b:ad
to obj=5d3c6ee9.27424740.a08a.77:87:09:90:62:b0
arrow=877
type=38
hlink vob=f6ae2d0d.3f9b11dc.905f.00:01:83:f9:3b:ad
hlink obj=1db21860.ef93482b.abd7.d2:8b:3d:9d:d2:ee
from vob=f6ae2d0d.3f9b11dc.905f.00:01:83:f9:3b:ad
from obj=a5be5398.d6754080.8af6.d2:06:5d:22:7f:fd
to vob=f6ae2d0d.3f9b11dc.905f.00:01:83:f9:3b:ad
to obj=4943b18d.833011dc.87f8.00:01:83:f9:3b:ad

With admin's privilege, run /opt/rational/clearcase/etc/utils/ucmutil to clean the UCM_DELIVER attribute of the source stream.

ucmutil> setpvar -pvar UCM_DELIVER -none stream:xxxx@/vobs/CBFEProjects
You are about to modify internal data. Any mistake will damage the objects.
Do you want to continue? [no] y
Set UCM_DELIVER = "" [cleared]

C:\Li\tmp>cleartool deliver -stream WenAndy_CBFE14.8_SD@\CBFEProjects -status
No deliver operation in progress on stream "WenAndy_CBFE14.8_SD".

Done.

hosts file ignore in Windows

2008-07-31T06:16:00.000-07:00

Got a new Windows XP box at office. After I added a host-ip mapping in the c:\winnt\system32\drivers\etc\hosts file, I still could not ping to the host. It seemed that the hosts file was ignored.

Ping request could not find host dse-750-test1. Please check the name and tryagain.

I did some research in the internet. The most common solution is to ensure the following registry value is correct, as it may be altered by some software.

Key: HKLM\system\currentcontrolset\services\tcpip\paramters
Value: DataBasePath
Type:REG_EXPAND_SZ
Data:%SystemRoot%\system32\drivers\etc

Some also mention the ipconfig /flushdns command, and to restart the DNS client service.

Others use filemon and regmon tool to trace. They found the following error message:

OPEN C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts ACCESS DENIED NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE

After added the user to the security tab (with READ ONLY access), it solved the problem.

However, none of them seems to work in my case.

Finally, I found the solution: rename the hosts file and create a new one; then restart the DNS Client Service. It worked. Modifying the hosts file and restart the service did not work, even a reboot did not.

tar copy Failed on NFS

2008-04-15T11:25:00.000-07:00

To move VOB data from one server to another, we usually create a tar ball, ftp to the other server, and untar the file. This time, we wanted to try a "better" way.

We share the file system from the target and mount it from the source server. cd to the VOB storage directories, do the tar copy as a one line command as root.

tar cvf - . | (cd /mnt/ccstore/vobs; tar xvfP -)

Everything looked fine until ClearCase started. In the log file, it complained some file could not be found. It turned out that those zero-sized files were not copied over. We had to fix it by using the old way, tar cvf-> ftp -> tar xvf. Later experiment showed that the tar copy works well between local folders, not NFS.

ClearCase Server Migration

2008-04-14T13:28:00.000-07:00

We moved our ClearCase to new server over the weekend, and copied the VOB to a new disk array. The VIP (scm0) of the server did not change. However, the server name changed from cbfe-dev-cm01 to clearcase1. We always use the VIP to access ClearCase. All the VOBs should be defined using the VIP.

After ClearCase was started, the cleartool desc command failed.

qinl@clearcase2% cleartool desc vob:/vobs/HealthCheck
versioned object base "/vobs/HealthCheck"
created 2005-08-11T11:04:35-04:00 by ClearCase Admin (ccadmin.clearcase_cbfe@cbfe-dev-cm01)
"Created by make_vob.pl script"
VOB family feature level: 4
VOB storage host:pathname "scm0:/ccstore/vobs/HealthCheck.vob"
VOB storage global pathname "/ccstore/vobs/HealthCheck.vob"
database schema version: 54
modification by remote privileged user: allowed
cleartool: Error: Problem starting vob_server for vob scm0:/ccstore/vobs/HealthCheck.vob
cleartool: Error: See albd or vob error logs on host scm0
Attributes:
FeatureLevel = 4
Hyperlinks:
AdminVOB -> vob:/vobs/CBFEProjects

$ tail albd_log
2008-03-28T10:50:31-04:00 albd_server(3711): Ok: Server vob_server(3938) exited
with status 1
2008-03-28T10:50:31-04:00 albd_server(3711): Error: Server vob_server (pid=3938)
on "/ccstore/vobs/HealthCheck.vob" died on startup; marking it as "down".

$ cat /var/adm/atria/vob_log
2008-03-28T11:26:06-04:00 vob_server(5831): Error: The vob_object registry for "/ccstore/vobs/HealthCheck.vob" specifies incorrect hostname for server; expected hostname: cbfe-dev-cm01 actual hostname: scm0. Use cleartool unregister/register -vob to correct.

$ cat /ccstore/vobs/HealthCheck.vob/.hostname
clearcase1

The information in the vob_log is good enough for a solution.

$ cleartool unreg -vob xxx
$ cleartool reg -vob -host scm0 -hpath /ccstore/vobs/HealthCheck.vob /ccstore/vobs/HealthCheck.vob

$ cat /ccstore/vobs/HealthCheck.vob/.hostname
scm0

Everthing was fine after re-registery the VOB.

CCRC deliver_complete Trigger

2008-03-14T13:29:00.000-07:00

All the other triggers work well in our CCRC environment except one. Our deliver_complete trigger did not create the baseline and recommend it as expected.

# create the baseline
$cmd = "cleartool mkbl -c \"$dlvracts\" $basename";
`$cmd`;

# recommend the baseline
$cmd = "cleartool chstream -recommended $bl $stream";
`$cmd`;

The workaround is to create a dynamic view on RWP server and use the -view option in the mkbl command.

$cmd = "cleartool mkbl -c \"$dlvracts\" -view myViewTag $basename";

I hope IBM will fix this in the next release. Otherwise, we have to create a view for each stream for the deliver.

The print statement in the trigger script does not work well in CCRC environment. When debugging, it is better to write to a local file on the RWP server. And make sure that the file is accessible by the web account.

Analyze of VOB Size Report

2008-03-11T10:47:00.000-07:00

From the chart in my previous blog, we can see that the size of one of the VOBs, FrontEnd, has increased sharply (by 250MB) over Feb 13. There are several reason could led to this. The most possible one is new code is being introduced into source control. A simple command can do this:

cleartool setview ccadmin_view
cd /vobs/FrontEnd
cleartool find -all -elem '{created_since(13-Feb-2008)}' -print

...

/vobs/FrontEnd/.@@/main/artemenk_CBFE15Pre/3/Framework/main/
artemenk_CBFE15Pre/8/wsee/main/artemenk_CBFE15Pre/1/api.jar@@

/vobs/FrontEnd/.@@/main/artemenk_CBFE15Pre/3/Framework/main/
artemenk_CBFE15Pre/8/wsee/main/artemenk_CBFE15Pre/1/com.bea.core.annogen_1.1.0.0.jar@@

/vobs/FrontEnd/.@@/main/artemenk_CBFE15Pre/3/Framework/main/
artemenk_CBFE15Pre/8/wsee/main/artemenk_CBFE15Pre/1/com.bea.core.antlr_2.7.7.jar@@

/vobs/FrontEnd/.@@/main/artemenk_CBFE15Pre/3/Framework/main/
artemenk_CBFE15Pre/8/wsee/main/artemenk_CBFE15Pre/1/com.bea.core.common.security.api_4.1.0.0.jar@@
...

After browsing through the result, we can conclude that a new directory with some large libraries have been newly added to ClearCase. And the increase of the VOB size is normal.

Monitoring VOB size

2008-03-04T11:23:00.000-08:00

Another important item to monitor is the VOB size. VOB size can impact in a couple of ways.

For an individual VOB, its size should be increasing at a stable pace. If there is a dramatic increase, it often indicates problems.

For the total size of all VOBs, if its size grows too close to the size of the file system, new disks/hardwares should be configured to support the increase. On the other hand, as the total size of VOBs increase, the backup time for ClearCase also increases. Make sure that the backup window is large enough, and the backup device has enough capacity.

Monitoring ClearCase License Usage

2008-02-05T08:15:00.001-08:00

One of the SCM daily tasks is to monitor the ClearCase license usage. I wrote a simple script to gather the data periodically and generate an excel chart as the report.

The recent reports showed that the license usage hit our max licenses on peak hours. It means that some developers would get a "no license" error when trying ClearCase operations. The reason is that the development team started a new project and many new hires started to join the team. Based on this, we purchased new licenses to accommodate more concurrent ClearCase access.

what has changed for a rebase?

2008-01-24T13:00:00.000-08:00

Some new developers came to ask the question: "I did a rebase. But I could not see any rebase activities. Did the rebase successful? If so, what's changed after the rebase?"

These are valid questions. In fact, they are very good questions. Normally after a rebase, you will notice that there is a new activity with a title like "rebase ...". These activities contain the change set for the rebase operation. However, sometimes, the rebase operation does not generate the "rebase..." activity. That's when people come up with the questions.

A rebase operation changes the foundation baseline of the stream from the previous recommend baseline of the parent stream to the current one. If you do not change any file in the delta of the two baselines, i.e, you do not touch the same files as the recommended baseline, you will not get a rebase activity. However, your view will reflect the new version of the elements. When you check out the files in the future, they will be branched out from the new versions. If you have changed the files in the delta, ClearCase will do the merge for you, and you will see the rebase activity. From the version tree, a merge arrow will be drawn from the recommended version to your version.

Dynamic View == Always up-to-date?

2008-01-23T12:00:00.000-08:00

You may think that a dynamic view of a stream will always reflect the LATEST version of elements in the stream. Well, you may be wrong.

If you find out that you are still looking at an older version in a view, while there are newer versions of the element in the stream, don't be surprise. This can happen. One possible reason is that the stream has more than one views. When you use one of the views to rebase the stream from its parent stream, the config spec (yes, a UCM view still has a config spec) has changed, while the other views still refer to the old foundation baseline.

....
element "[39730511c62311d9847000018376dd1b=\MidTier]/..." CBFE14.5_2008_01_14 -mkbranch CBFE14.5_LinkRemoval
....

To synchronize the view with the stream, you can click the "synchronize with stream" button in the view property page, or run "cleartool setcs -stream" in command line.

The ClearCase Eraser -- Versions Recorded in UCM Baseline

2008-01-16T06:27:00.000-08:00

ClearCase UCM brings in more dependencies for the elements and ClearCase objects. It becomes harder to remove anything from ClearCase. Here in this blog shows how to remove a version that is "recorded in UCM baseline".

Before deleting the activity, we have to remove all the versions in the activity, -- if we do not want to move the versions to another activity.

$ cleartool lsact -l rebase.CBFE14.5_base.20071204.174114@/vobs/CBFEProjects
activity "rebase.CBFE14.5_base.20071204.174114"
04-Dec-07.17:39:26 by Qin (qinl.cbfedev@CBAD4-XCIDH3)
"Integration activity created by rebase on 12/4/2007 5:41:14 PM.
"
owner: qinl
group: cbfedev
stream: CBFE14.5_base.old@/vobs/CBFEProjects
title: rebase CBFE14.5_base on 12/4/2007 5:41:14 PM.
change set versions:
/vobs/MidTier/BaseUtil/src/com/cibc/evo/logging/CbfeDefaultLogger.java@@/main/Mainline_i/CBFE14.5_base/2
/vobs/MidTier/BaseUtil/src/.classpath@@/main/Mainline_i/CBFE14.5_i/CBFE14.5_base/2
/vobs/MidTier/BaseUtil/src/.project@@/main/Mainline_i/CBFE14.5_i/CBFE14.5_base/2

$ cleartool rmver -xbranch -xlabel -xattr -xhlink /vobs/MidTier/BaseUtil/src/com/cibc/evo/logging/CbfeDefaultLogger.java@@/main/Mainline_i/CBFE14.5_base/2
cleartool: Error: Cannot remove versions which are recorded in UCM baseline.
cleartool: Error: No versions of "/vobs/MidTier/BaseUtil/src/com/cibc/evo/logging/CbfeDefaultLogger.java" to remove.

$ cleartool lsbl -stream CBFE14.5_base.old@/vobs/CBFEProjects
04-Dec-07.13:23:05 CBFE14.5_2007_12_4.8538 HZ18 "CBFE14.5_2007_12_4"
stream: CBFE14.5_base.old@/vobs/CBFEProjects
component: MidTier@/vobs/CBFEProjects

$ cleartool rmbl CBFE14.5_2007_12_4.8538@/vobs/CBFEProjects
Remove baseline "CBFE14.5_2007_12_4.8538@/vobs/CBFEProjects"? [no] y
cleartool: Error: Cannot remove baseline that has been delivered.
cleartool: Error: Unable to remove baseline "CBFE14.5_2007_12_4.8538@/vobs/CBFEProjects".

$ cleartool desc -l baseline:CBFE14.5_2007_12_4.8538@/vobs/CBFEProjects
baseline "CBFE14.5_2007_12_4.8538"
created 04-Dec-07.13:23:05 by Zhao (HZ18.cbfedev@CBAD3-XCIDVQ)
"DOMDAM_base_class@\CBFEProjects"
owner: hz18
group: cbfedev
component: MidTier@/vobs/CBFEProjects
label status: Incrementally Labeled
change sets:
deliver.CBFE14.5_base_hz18.20071204.132426@/vobs/CBFEProjects
promotion level: INITIAL
depends on:
Attributes:
PromotionLevel = "INITIAL"
Hyperlinks:
BaselineLbtype@13505@/vobs/CBFEProjects -> lbtype:CBFE14.5_2007_12_4.8538@/vobs/MidTier
Integrate@13511@/vobs/CBFEProjects -> anyactivity:timeline071202.075859@/vobs/CBFEProjects

$ cleartool rmhlink Integrate@13511@/vobs/CBFEProjects
cleartool: Warning: Hyperlinks of type "hltype:Integrate@/vobs/CBFEProjects" are used to implement UCM and should not be directly manipulated unless directed by customer support.
cleartool: Warning: Hyperlinks of type "hltype:Integrate@/vobs/CBFEProjects" are used to implement UCM and should not be directly manipulated unless directed by customer support.
Removed hyperlink "Integrate@13511@/vobs/CBFEProjects".

$ cleartool rmbl CBFE14.5_2007_12_4.8538@/vobs/CBFEProjects
Remove baseline "CBFE14.5_2007_12_4.8538@/vobs/CBFEProjects"? [no] y
cleartool: Warning: Searching PVOBs for baselines that depend upon baseline "CBFE14.5_2007_12_4.8538". This may take a few minutes...

Removed baseline "CBFE14.5_2007_12_4.8538@/vobs/CBFEProjects".

$ cleartool rmver -xbranch -xlabel -xattr -xhlink /vobs/MidTier/BaseUtil/src/com/cibc/evo/logging/CbfeDefaultLogger.java@@/main/Mainline_i/CBFE14.5_base/2
Removing these versions of "/vobs/MidTier/BaseUtil/src/com/cibc/evo/logging/CbfeDefaultLogger.java":
/main/Mainline_i/CBFE14.5_base/2 (has: hyperlinks)
Remove versions? [no] y
Removed versions of "/vobs/MidTier/BaseUtil/src/com/cibc/evo/logging/CbfeDefaultLogger.java".

$ cleartool rmact rebase.CBFE14.5_base.20071204.174114@/vobs/CBFEProjects
Remove activity "activity:rebase.CBFE14.5_base.20071204.174114@/vobs/CBFEProjects"? [no] y
Removed activity "rebase.CBFE14.5_base.20071204.174114@/vobs/CBFEProjects".

The ClearCase Eraser -- Delivered Baseline

2008-01-14T11:41:00.000-08:00

Needless to say that, to remove a stream from ClearCase, the stream must be "clean", no views, no activities, no baselines, etc. In my previous blog, I have demonstrated how to remove an activity that has change set. Today, I am going to show you how to remove a baseline that has been delivered.

Try to remove a stream with baseline on it. Got errors.
$ cleartool rmstream CBFE14.5_base_hz18@/vobs/CBFEProjects
Remove stream "CBFE14.5_base_hz18@/vobs/CBFEProjects"? [no] y
cleartool: Error: Cannot remove stream that has baselines.
cleartool: Error: Unable to remove stream "CBFE14.5_base_hz18@/vobs/CBFEProjects".

Check which baselines are on the stream.
$ cleartool lsbl -stream CBFE14.5_base_hz18@/vobs/CBFEProjects
2007-12-04T13:22:38-05 deliverbl.CBFE14.5_base_hz18.20071204.132426 HZ18 "deliverbl.CBFE14.5_base_hz18.20071204.132426"
stream: CBFE14.5_base_hz18@/vobs/CBFEProjects
component: MidTier@/vobs/CBFEProjects

Try to remove the baseline. Got errors.
$ cleartool rmbl deliverbl.CBFE14.5_base_hz18.20071204.132426@/vobs/CBFEProjects
Remove baseline "deliverbl.CBFE14.5_base_hz18.20071204.132426@/vobs/CBFEProjects"? [no] y
cleartool: Error: Cannot remove baseline that has been delivered.
cleartool: Error: Unable to remove baseline "deliverbl.CBFE14.5_base_hz18.20071204.132426@/vobs/CBFEProjects".

$ cleartool desc -l baseline:deliverbl.CBFE14.5_base_hz18.20071204.132426@/vobs/CBFEProjects
baseline "deliverbl.CBFE14.5_base_hz18.20071204.132426"
created 2007-12-04T13:22:38-05 by Zhao (HZ18.cbfedev@CBAD3-XCIDVQ)
"Baseline created by deliver on 12/4/2007 1:24:26 PM.
"
owner: hz18
group: cbfedev
stream: CBFE14.5_base_hz18@/vobs/CBFEProjects
component: MidTier@/vobs/CBFEProjects
label status: Not Labeled
change sets:
promotion level: INITIAL
depends on:
Attributes:
PromotionLevel = "INITIAL"
Hyperlinks:
Integrate@13500@/vobs/CBFEProjects -> anyactivity:timeline071204.132453@/vobs/CBFEProjects

The hyperlink looks suspecious.
$ cleartool rmhlink Integrate@13500@/vobs/CBFEProjects
cleartool: Warning: Hyperlinks of type "hltype:Integrate@/vobs/CBFEProjects" are used to implement UCM and should not be directly manipulated unless directed by customer support.
cleartool: Warning: Hyperlinks of type "hltype:Integrate@/vobs/CBFEProjects" are used to implement UCM and should not be directly manipulated unless directed by customer support.
Removed hyperlink "Integrate@13500@/vobs/CBFEProjects".

Oops, there is a warning message. However when you see the warning, it is already too late. The hyperlink removed. Now you can try to remove the baseline.
$ cleartool rmbl deliverbl.CBFE14.5_base_hz18.20071204.132426@/vobs/CBFEProjects
Remove baseline "deliverbl.CBFE14.5_base_hz18.20071204.132426@/vobs/CBFEProjects"? [no] y
cleartool: Warning: Searching PVOBs for baselines that depend upon baseline "deliverbl.CBFE14.5_base_hz18.20071204.132426". This may take a few minutes...

Removed baseline "deliverbl.CBFE14.5_base_hz18.20071204.132426@/vobs/CBFEProjects".

Now the stream is "clean" to be removed.
$ cleartool rmstream CBFE14.5_base_hz18@/vobs/CBFEProjects
Remove stream "CBFE14.5_base_hz18@/vobs/CBFEProjects"? [no] y
Removed stream "CBFE14.5_base_hz18@/vobs/CBFEProjects".

How to run mktrigger in post_mkstream trigger

2008-01-09T13:40:00.000-08:00

As we know that mktrigger must be fired in a view context. However, sometimes we need to run mktrigger even though there is no view yet. For example, in my post_mkstream trigger, I want to attach a no_mkactivity trigger to the newly created stream.

cleartool mktrtype -ucm -postop mkstream -nc -execu "cleartool mktrigger no_mkactivity stream:\$CLEARCASE_STREAM" -execw "cleartool mktrigger no_mkactivity stream:%CLEARCASE_STREAM%" post_mkstream

However, when a developer joins the project to create his development stream my_dev_str, the post_mkstream trigger reports "unable to determine view for my_dev_str: no such file or direcotry". That's because he does not have any view yet. Even if he has a view, the view may not be started, or the current directory may not be under the view root.

Workaround.
Create a view that is available to everyone. Set to the view before call mktrigger in post_mkstream trigger.

cleartool mktrtype -ucm -postop mkstream -nc -execw "ccperl \\\\scm\\admin\\post_mkstream.pl" -execu "/ccstore/admin/post_mkstream_unix.pl" post_mkstream

A simplified version of the post_mkstream.pl script.

#!/usr/bin/perl

$stream = $ENV{"CLEARCASE_STREAM"};

$rst = `cleartool mount \\CBFEProjects`;
$rst = `cleartool startview ccadmin_view`;
chdir "m:\\ccadmin_view\\CBFEProjects";
$rst = `cleartool mktrigger no_mkactivity@\\CBFEProjects stream:$stream`;
$rst = `cleartool endview ccadmin_view`;
exit 0;

The ClearCase Eraser -- Activity

2008-01-08T07:46:00.000-08:00

In ClearCase, it is not recommended to delete anything from the source control. And UCM makes it extremely hard to remove an UCM object once it is been modified.

The following steps guide you through to remove an activity with change set.

First get the list of versions in the change set.
$ cleartool lsact -l DOMDAM_base_class
activity "DOMDAM_base_class"
04-Dec-07.11:00:59 by Cheung (dc81.Domain Users@CBAD1-XCILPE)
owner: hz18
group: unknown
stream: CBFE14.5_base_hz18@/vobs/CBFEProjects
title: CBFE14.5: DOMDAM base class
change set versions:
/vobs/MidTier/Srv/src/com/cccc/evo/dom@@/main/Mainline_i/CBFE14.5_base_hz18/2
/vobs/MidTier/Srv/src/com/cccc/evo/dom@@/main/Mainline_i/CBFE14.5_base_hz18/2/AbstractQuery.java/main/CBFE14.5_base_hz18/1
/vobs/MidTier/Srv/src/com/cccc/evo/dom@@/main/Mainline_i/CBFE14.5_base_hz18/1
/vobs/MidTier/Srv/src/com/cccc/evo/dom@@/main/Mainline_i/CBFE14.5_base_hz18/1/Query.java/main/CBFE14.5_base_hz18/1
/vobs/MidTier/Srv/src/com/cccc/evo/dal/cache/CacheManagerImpl.java@@/main/CBFE14.5_base_hz18/2
/vobs/MidTier/Srv/src/com/cccc/evo/dal/cache/CacheManagerImpl.java@@/main/CBFE14.5_base_hz18/1
/vobs/CBFE-lib/non-cccc@@/main/Mainline_i/CBFE14.5_base_hz18/1/xmlbeans-2.2.0/main/CBFE14.5_base_hz18/1
/vobs/CBFE-lib/non-cccc@@/main/Mainline_i/CBFE14.5_base_hz18/1

For each version in the change set, do the following command with the options to remove it with its reference.
$ cleartool rmver -xbranch -xlabel -xattr -xhlink /vobs/MidTier/BaseUtil/src/.project@@/main/Mainline_i/CBFE14.5_i/CBFE14.5_base_hz18/1

During the rever operation, some elements may be moved t lost+found if it is no longer being referenced.
cleartool: Warning: Object "xmlbeans-2.2.0" no longer referenced.
cleartool: Warning: Moving object to vob lost+found directory as "xmlbeans-2.2.0.e650a507ad794c789fed652fcf875fcb".

After all the version removed, run lsact again. There may be new items listed in the change set.
$ cleartool lsact -l DOMDAM_base_class
activity "DOMDAM_base_class"
04-Dec-07.11:00:59 by Cheung (dc81.Domain Users@CBAD1-XCILPE)
owner: hz18
group: unknown
stream: CBFE14.5_base_hz18@/vobs/CBFEProjects
title: CBFE14.5: DOMDAM base class
change set versions:
/vobs/CBFE-lib/lost+found/xmlbeans-2.2.0.e650a507ad794c789fed652fcf875fcb@@/main/CBFE14.5_base_hz18/1

repeat the rmver and lsact until the change set is empty.

The activity can be removed now.
$ cleartool rmact -force "DOMDAM_base_class"
Removed activity "DOMDAM_base_class".

Follow up: new version, still blue screen

2008-01-04T12:23:00.000-08:00

Our Trend version upgraded to 8.550.1001. And most of developers upgraded ClearCase client to 7.0.0.1.

No reported issue yet. Just mark the url for reference.
http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=984&context=SSSH27&dc=DB520&dc=DB560&uid=swg21289223&loc=en_US&cs=UTF-8&lang=en&rss=ct984rational

Trend® Micro Scan Engine 8.550.1001

ClearCase version:
	7.0, 7.0.0.1, 7.0.1, 2003.06.00, 2003.06.01, 2003.06.10, 2003.06.12, 2003.06.13, 2003.06.14, 2003.06.15, 2003.06.16

To resolve the issue:

1. Change the following registry key by adding the new value below:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\TmPreFilter\Parameters
DWORD: DevObjStackCheck
Value: 1

2. Restart the machine.

RE:
http://doublepaddle.blogspot.com/2007/07/clearcase-check-out-from-dyn-view-leds.html

Follow up: "Permission denied" during merge

2008-01-04T07:07:00.000-08:00

Surprisingly soon, I encountered the same situation when delivery between two streams. Same condition, same error message. I canceled the delivery and tried another approach.

This time, instead of merging the Srv directory using ccadmin account on UNIX, I renamed the src.jtest folder to src.ctest foler first before I started the merge again. Everything worked fine, no complain about the permision, no error message. The only window popped up was to manually merge the Srv directory.I think this is a bug of ClearCase when merging a directory with renamed elements.

"Permission denied" during merge

2008-01-02T07:37:00.000-08:00

M:\qinl_CBFE14.2_i\MidTier>cleartool merge -to Srv -version \main\CBFE14.0_i\1 \main\CBFE14.2_i\LATEST
********************************
<<<>>> directory 2: M:\qinl_CBFE14.2_i\MidTier\Srv@@\main\CBFE14.0_i\1
>>> directory 3: M:\qinl_CBFE14.2_i\MidTier\Srv@@\main\CBFE14.2_i\0
>>> directory 4: Srv
********************************
-----------[ directory 1 ]-------------|---------[ added directory 2 ]---------
-| runEMMAServer\ --09-06T15:53 vs217
*** Automatic: Applying ADDITION from directory 2
-------[ renamed directory 1 ]---------|-------[ renamed to directory 2 ]------
src.jtest\ 2006-06-12 yw17 | src.ctest\ 2006-06-12 yw17
merge: Error: An unexpected error has occurred.
merge: Error: Unable to remove "c:\li\tmp\tmp15600": Permission denied.

When delivering, the GUI showed "unexpected error" and prevented the delivery from proceed. Try it command line, the error message provided more information, but not much meaningful. All the involved elements are belonging to the same group as the user IDs, which have 777 access to them.

The error message is reproducable using different user IDs (thus different views) and machines. But using the ccadmin account in a UNIX box, the merge can proceed.

Examining the Srv directory more closely, I found out that, in the source, the src.jtest folder was renamed to src.jtest folder, and a new src.jtest folder was added as a new element; while in the target, the src.jtest folder has not been renamed yet. I believe it is the evil twin that caused the issue.

May be I should try to rename the src.jtest to src.ctest in the target manually before the merge. However, I have worked around the issue using the ccadmin id. Maybe next time.

Base to UCM - creating component problem

2007-10-16T07:26:00.000-07:00

In one of the VOBs, I got problem creating components.

M:\qinl_base> cd MidTier
M:\qinl_base\MidTier>cleartool mkcomp -root HostInt MidTier_HostInt@\CBFEProjects
Processing subdirectory elements...
Done processing subdirectory elements.
Created component "MidTier_HostInt".

M:\qinl_base\MidTier>cleartool mkcomp -root Srv MidTier_Srv@\CBFEProjects
Processing subdirectory elements...
cleartool: Error: Element "M:\qinl_base\MidTier\HostInt\docs\schema\base24es\IFX.xsd@@" is a member of another component.
cleartool: Error: Unable to create component.

This is a known issue when converting Base ClearCase to UCM. If some of the elements have been moving between two future component directories, UCM gets confused and cannot convert the second component. There are no solutions to the issue. To workaround the problem, you can either:

1. rmelem the elements and lose the histories.

2. convert to component at the VOB level, instead of the top directory level.
cleartool mkcomp -root . MidTier@\CBFEProjects

3. find out all the directory versions that reference to the element in the second component. rmver all the versions, so the reference to the elements is no longer there.

4. instead of converting, create new CVOBs, do clearexport_ccase/clearimport. By doing export, the history versions of directories are lost. This can workaround the mkcomp issue. and it can be good or bad depends on whether you want to shrink the size of the VOB or want the whole history.

How to delete ^M at the end of line in UNIX

2007-10-16T07:20:00.001-07:00

Saw this in another post. It is useful and easy to do.

^M is DOS line break character which shows up in UNIX files when uploaded from a windows file system in ascii format.

To remove this, open your file in vi editor and type

:%s/(ctrl-v)(ctrl-m)//g

and press Enter key.

Important!! - press (Ctrl-v) (Ctrl-m) combination to enter ^M character, dont use “^” and M.

cleartool error: Not a vob object when recommending a baseline

2007-10-16T07:18:00.000-07:00

When creating a baseline for a stream, it reported the following error message and failed. The cause is that the recommend baseline is removed and the stream cannot find it.

M:\qinl_NewMainline_int>cleartool chstream -rec NewMainline_10_12_2007.1228 NewMainline_i@\CBFEProjects
cleartool: Error: Not a vob object: "291fb10e.71e711dc.8fad.00:01:83:f9:3b:ad".
cleartool: Error: Unable to get current recommended foundation for stream "NewMainline_i".
cleartool: Error: Unable to set the recommended baselines for stream "NewMainline_i".
cleartool: Error: Unable to change all streams.

Solution. un-recommend baseline in the stream, and recommend a good baseline.

M:\qinl_NewMainline_int>cleartool chstream -nrec NewMainline_i@\CBFEProjects
Changed stream "NewMainline_i@\CBFEProjects".

M:\qinl_NewMainline_int>cleartool chstream -rec NewMainline_10_12_2007.1228 NewMainline_i@\CBFEProjects
Changed stream "NewMainline_i@\CBFEProjects".

fetch cleartext error - No permission match

2007-10-16T07:05:00.000-07:00

After restore VOBs to another ClearCase server, some VOBs reported the following error message when trying to access (read) the contents.
...
fetch cleartext view=BUILD_CBFE13.3_d vob=/vobs/MidTier dbid=0x16f - No permission match
fetch cleartext view=BUILD_CBFE13.3_d vob=/vobs/MidTier dbid=0x173 - No permission match
fetch cleartext view=BUILD_CBFE13.3_d vob=/vobs/MidTier dbid=0xdf - No permissi match
...

A "cleartool desc" command found out that the original additional group cbfedev disappeared. To add the additional group, "cleartool protectvob -add_group" command ran without error. However the result showed that the additional group was not added to the VOB.

Solution.

$ cd /ccstorage/vobs/MidTier.vob
$ cd .identity
$ ls
gid group.500 uid
$ rm group.500
rm: group.500: override protection 410 (yes/no)? y
$ cleartool protectvob -add cbfedev /vobs/MidTier

Run "cleartool desc" again, the result showed that the group had been added to the VOB. And the fetch cleartext error was gone as well.

$ cleartool desc -l vob:/vobs/MidTier
...
VOB ownership:
owner cbfedev.cibc.com/ccadmin
group cbfedev.cibc.com/clearcase_cbfe
Additional groups:
group cbfedev.cibc.com/cbfedev
...

Fix Views after Upgrading ClearCase Client

2007-09-24T06:53:00.000-07:00

After upgrading ClearCase client from 2003.6 to 7, my local snapshot view report the following error when accessing it.

C:\ccase\views\qinl_rel14.0>cleartool update
cleartool: Error: Operation "view_get_prop(VIEW_PROP_WEBVIEW)" failed: view storage directory or control files unavailable --
additional information may be present in the view server host's view log.
cleartool: Warning: Unable to open snapshot view "C:\ccase\views\qinl_rel14.0".
cleartool: Error: 'C:\ccase\views\qinl_rel14.0' is not a valid snapshot view path.

The cause is the during ClearCase upgrade, the albd service account id and group id also changed. If the ClearCase administrators group name has changed or you have moved a view to a new domain that has a different SID for this group, then the -replace_server_process_group switch is required for fix_prot utility.

Kill the view_server process first. Then run,

C:\ccase\views\qinl_rel14.0>"C:\Program Files\Rational\ClearCase\etc\utils\fix_prot" -replace_server_process_group c:\ccase\view_stg\qinl_rel14.0.vws
Re-protect "c:\ccase\view_stg\qinl_rel14.0.vws"? [no] y
Reprotection complete.

Remove the view shortcut, and added back again. Everything is back to normal.

C:\ccase\views\qinl_rel14.0>cleartool lsview -l qinl_rel14.0
Tag: qinl_rel14.0
Global path: \\Cbad4-xcidh3\view_stg\qinl_rel14.0.vws
Server host: Cbad4-xcidh3
Region: windows
Active: NO
View tag uuid:9396be72.f06c41d3.9db4.a4:68:8d:06:15:e9
View on host: Cbad4-xcidh3
View server access path: C:\ccase\view_stg\qinl_rel14.0.vws
View uuid: 9396be72.f06c41d3.9db4.a4:68:8d:06:15:e9
View attributes: snapshot
View owner: AD\qinl

ClearCase credential manager cannot be started

2007-09-07T13:27:00.000-07:00

After successfully using CC for sometime, a developer got a serials of weird ClearCase problems on the only Windows 2003 server running CC client. Such as:

ClearCase credencial manager service cannot start, even after clearn re-installation;

Sometmies ClearCase explorer hangs at start up;

The snapshot views hanged during update;

After click on the snapshot view shortcut in CC explorer, it hangs for a long time, then prompts "Timed out trying to start view_server for view ...";

When right click on the elements in a snapshort view in Windows explorer, Windows explorer hangs;

CC explorer hangs when click on "finish" button to create a view (both snapshot and dynamic);

Problem adding dynamic view shortcut to CC explorer, it reports "The name specified is not a registered view tag";

Some dynamic views can start up properly while other hangs. Once the dynamic views started, it can check-out/in.

....

The vob server is on Solaris, the view storage is locally on the Windows 2003 server. After some drill down, we noticed that some ccgzip.exe processes were running in Task Manager. And the updating of snapshort view always stopped at elements with type compressed_file. To help investiation, we also installed procmon to capture the processes status.

It turned out that our PATH env variable is too long, and ClearCase bin folder happens to be the last one in the string. So some the dlls the ccgzip program referred to cannot be located. After moving the ClearCase bin folder to the beginning of the PATH string, everything works like a charm.

.pid file under view storage

2007-09-07T11:54:00.001-07:00

After the view is started, a .pid file is created under the view storage directory. The pid of its view_server process is stored in the file, so ClearCase can keep track on which view server process is associated with it. After the view_server process is terminated by "cleartool endview -server ", the .pid file will be removed by ClearCase.

However, in certain situatations, the .pid fails to be removed and the view will have problem starting up again. You can safely delete the .pid file and try to start the view again.

What to do when the developer is on vacation?

2007-08-13T12:40:00.000-07:00

It is not uncommon that a developer goes on vacation when the team find out that some files are checked out and reserved by him. In this case you don't want to remove the view and unco all the check-outs. Instead, a cleartool unreserve command will switch the reserved checkout to unreserved mode, and allow the other developers to be able to check-in their changes.

First, look for the version tree (or lsco) to identify the view that contains the checked-out file. In this example, DP14_9.0_Rel.

Next, find out the view storage location that holds the files.

cleartool lsview DP14_9.0_Rel
DP14_9.0_Rel \\CBAD1-KCIDJJ\views_stg\DP14\DP14_9.0_Rel.vws

or using command:
cleartool desc -l vob:/vobs/vob_name
....
VOB holds objects from the following views:
CBAD1-KCIDJJ:C:\views_stg\DP14\DP14_9.0_Rel.vws [uuid 181126d5.374a4296.bf6a.58:f1:7a:85:ec:21]

Now, set the checkout to unreserved mode.

cleartool unreserve -view CBAD1-KCIDJJ:C:\views_stg\DP14\DP14_9.0_Rel.vws .\CBFE-FE\JavaSource\com\cibc\bankframe\fe\withcustomer\inquiries\common\InquiriesEPanel.java

nfs failure caused ClearCase error

2007-07-25T06:12:00.000-07:00

Problem.
1. command "cd /;ls -l" hanged, while "ls" could work.

2. in /var/adm/atria/log/albd_log, "Daily View Space" normally takes less than 1 minutes. Now it hanged.

2007-07-22T04:30:03-04 albd_server(411): Ok: Job 5 "Daily View Space" (10430) Started.
....
2007-07-23T04:30:03-04 albd_server(411): Warning: Job 5 "Daily View Space" is still running -- skipping scheduled execution.

Check "cleartool schedule -edit –schedule". Confirmed that jobs were skipped.

3. command "su" failed with Segmentation Fault, while "su -" could work.

Solution.
Check /var/adm/messages file.

Jul 24 12:05:43 dse-750-poc1 nfs: [ID 733954 kern.info] NOTICE: [NFS4][Server: 10.2.194.31][Mntpt: /mnt]NFS server 10.2.194.31 not responding; still trying
Jul 24 12:11:02 dse-750-poc1 last message repeated 1 time
Jul 24 12:12:12 dse-750-poc1 su: [ID 810491 auth.crit] 'su root' failed for qinl on /dev/pts/3
Jul 24 12:17:02 dse-750-poc1 nfs: [ID 733954 kern.info] NOTICE: [NFS4][Server: 10.2.194.31][Mntpt: /mnt]NFS server 10.2.194.31 not responding; still trying
Jul 24 12:25:02 dse-750-poc1 nfs: [ID 733954 kern.info] NOTICE: [NFS4][Server: 10.2.194.31][Mntpt: /mnt]NFS server 10.2.194.31 not responding; still trying
Jul 24 16:23:34 dse-750-poc1 nfs: [ID 733954 kern.info] NOTICE: [NFS4][Server: 10.2.194.31][Mntpt: /mnt]NFS server 10.2.194.31 not responding; still trying
...

Check the mount point /mnt. Could not cd into.

Log on to Server: 10.2.194.31, restart nfs daemon.
/etc/init.d/nfs.server start

After the nfsd started, every problem is gone.

Germ's waterfall

2007-07-24T06:58:00.000-07:00

When my son was sipping some apple juice from a straw yesterday, he apparently lost in his thoughts. "Hey, what are you thinking about?", I asked him. "The germs in my throat must think the apple juice is a waterfall." I burst out laughing.

"How did you know it?!"

2007-07-18T13:26:00.000-07:00

Every night, when my daughter is finally put to bed, she would ask for some water to drink. More than often, when we bring a glass of water upstairs to her bedroom, she would either hide somewhere, or pretend she is sleeping.

The day before yesterday, when my husband found her pretending to have felt asleep, he told her that he already knew that she was pretending. My daughter asked how he knew it. My husband joked with her that she would keep her mouth wide open if she was sleeping. And he showed her extravagantly how she would look like. Last night, when my husband went back to her bedroom with a glass of water, he couldn't help laughing. My daughter was lying on the bed with her mouth wide open, arms and legs stretched out, just like how my husband showed her the night before. When my husband told her that he knew she was pretending, she was very curious and a little bit disappointed: "How did you know it?!"

Heap size limitation on Windows

2007-07-18T08:23:00.000-07:00

For 32 bit Windows systems, the OS support 2GB address space. However, the maximum leap size that a JVM can allocate is less than 2GB. This is caused by the way the JDK DLLs are rebased.

For JDK1.3, the heap size is around 1.2GB. Here is a dump of the DLL layout for JDK1.3.0 using listdlls.exe

Base Size Path
0x00400000 0x5000 d:\jdk1.3\bin\java.exe
0x503f0000 0x10b000 d:\jdk1.3\jre\bin\hotspot\jvm.dll
0x50220000 0x7000 d:\jdk1.3\jre\bin\hpi.dll
0x50380000 0xd000 d:\jdk1.3\jre\bin\verify.dll
0x50250000 0x17000 d:\jdk1.3\jre\bin\java.dll
0x50390000 0xd000 d:\jdk1.3\jre\bin\zip.dll
0x6bd00000 0x21000 C:\WINNT\System32\cwbaudll.dll
0x77f60000 0x5e000 C:\WINNT\System32\ntdll.dll
0x77dc0000 0x3f000 C:\WINNT\system32\ADVAPI32.dll
0x77f00000 0x5e000 C:\WINNT\system32\KERNEL32.dll
0x77e70000 0x54000 C:\WINNT\system32\USER32.dll
0x77ed0000 0x2c000 C:\WINNT\system32\GDI32.dll
0x77e10000 0x57000 C:\WINNT\system32\RPCRT4.dll
0x78000000 0x40000 C:\WINNT\system32\MSVCRT.dll
0x77fd0000 0x2a000 C:\WINNT\System32\WINMM.dll

So that leaves 0x50000000 - 0x00400000 = 1276MB contiguous address space. Run the following command:
rebase.exe -b 0x6D000000 \jdk1.3\jre\bin\*.dll \jdk1.3\jre\bin\hotspot\jvm.dll

It will increase the heap size to around 1.65GB.

Compare that to the listdlls output for jdk1.5, which allows around 1.45GB heap size (with JDK1.4.2, -Xmx1200M is the maximum)
0x00400000 0xc000 5.00.0040.0005 D:\jdk1.5\bin\java.exe
0x6d6b0000 0x189000 5.00.0040.0005 D:\jdk1.5\jre\bin\client\jvm.dll
0x6d2f0000 0x8000 5.00.0040.0005 D:\jdk1.5\jre\bin\hpi.dll
0x6d680000 0xc000 5.00.0040.0005 D:\jdk1.5\jre\bin\verify.dll
0x6d370000 0x1d000 5.00.0040.0005 D:\jdk1.5\jre\bin\java.dll
0x6d6a0000 0xf000 5.00.0040.0005 D:\jdk1.5\jre\bin\zip.dll

rebase.exe is from Visual Studio.
listdlls.exe is from http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/default.mspx.

TFS Report rsErrorImpersonatingUser Error

2007-07-17T08:18:00.001-07:00

Problem. Our Team Foundation Server has just been set up. When accessing TFS Reports, I got the error

Cannot impersonate user for data source 'TfsOlapReportDS'. (rsErrorImpersonatingUser)
For more information about this error navigate to the report server on the local server machine, or enable remote errors

Solution.
1. Make sure the account AD\SmartTFSReports for TfsOlapReportDS data source has the correct password configured.
2. Start-> Run-> gpedit.msc-> computer configuration-> Windows Settings-> Security Settings-> Local Policy-> User right assignment-> Access this computer from the network-> check AD\SmartTFSReports account is included.
3. Get more detailed error by logging on to TFS report server, accessing the TFS reports. The detailed error message is: Logon failure: the user has not been granted the requested logon type at this computer.
4. Add AD\SmartTFSReports to administrator group.
5. You could set the "EnableRemoteErrors" configuration value to True in the ReportServer.ConfigurationInfo database table.

Another Problem. Team Explorer - red cross on "documents"-folder

Solution. This is client side problem. Run "devenv /resetuserdata": cleaned the client side cache on my computer under C:\Documents and Settings\\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Team Foundation\1.0\Cache\

java.lang.OutOfMemoryError

2007-07-12T11:13:00.001-07:00

Problem: when running Together Architect to audit a large code base, it reported java.lang.OutOfMemoryError

Solution: add java options when launching Together Architect.

-Xms1024M -Xmx1024M -XX:PermSize=256M -XX:MaxPermSize=256M

ClearCase check out from dyn view leds to blue screen

2007-07-10T11:28:00.000-07:00

Problem: ClearCase check-out from dyn view leds to blue screen (BSOD)

Cause: The new version of TrendMicro OfficeScan conflicts with MVFS.
TrendMicro OfficeScan Program version 7.3; Engine version 8.500.1002.
ClearCase version: 2003.6.14

Workaround: Shutdown Trend OfficeScan service, if possible.
Solution: upgrade ClearCase to 2003.6.16.

albd error: [WINSOCK] Connection reset by peer

2007-07-09T12:01:00.000-07:00

I played ClearCase too much recently that it stopped working on my desktop. My final attempt was to switch the albd account for the albd service on my desktop; and after that every local dynamic view stopped working. And everything related to albd service as well.

The albd service was up running. But it was not listening on 371 port (using "netstat -a"). The error message was like

"Could not contact albd server... [WINSOCK] Connection reset by peer...";

"albd_nt_init: Call to CreateFileMapping().. albd_svc_nt2.c\471"; and

"albd_contact call failed: RPC: Unable to receive; errno = [WINSOCK] Connection reset".

The only suggestive information I got from the internet was to change the value in HKLM\system\CuttentControlset\Control\Session Manager\Subsystems\Windows. In the string ...SharedSection*,*,*..., increase the third column from 512 to 3072. But even this failed.

My colleague volunteered to help me on this. He sat down beside me, took over the mouse, and .... started to dial IBM support. Unfortunately, the IBM support did not know more than I do, and he told me that he could do nothing more before I could to make albd service listening on 371.

I was in no mood of arguing with him, so I did what I could do as the last resort: reinstalling ClearCase. And guess what? It worked.

Ugly bird at Toogood pond

2007-07-06T06:37:00.001-07:00

We went to Toogood pond last evening, and saw the ugly bird again. This time, the bird joined a group of Canadian goose families. So it did not look that lonely as last time.

I was trying to figure out what species is the bird, but failed. It is a black bird with some white blocks, the size of a Canadian goose but much fatter. I doubt it could fly with the weight. The head looks like a turkey, but with its webbed feet, it shouldn’t be. When we approached it, the ugly bird started to drag it body towards us, wagging its fat tail like a dog.

Nemo is dead

2007-06-25T11:26:00.000-07:00

My four and half year old told us the other day, "I think Nemo is dead."

"Why?" surprised by his comment, we asked him. "Because the drainage is full of peepee and poopoo. It is so dirty, Nemo can't survive there."

It was not easy for us to think of a reason that Nemo could survive it.

Move a dynamic view locally

2007-06-22T06:49:00.000-07:00

Followed the Admin Guide. But there is one step missing in the doc. Here is a full list of steps.

1. Log on to the view host.
Log on as the view owner or privileged user.

2. Deactivate the view.
cleartool chview –readonly fs137_ucm0

3. Stop the view’s server process.
cleartool endview –server fs137_ucm0

4. Remove its tag and then unregister it.
cleartool rmtag –view –all fs137_ucm0
cleartool unregister –view /tmp/fs137_ucm0.vws

5. Copy the view. Log on as root
cd /tmp
cp -p fs137_ucm0.vws /ccstorage/views/fs137_ucm0.vws

6. Register the view at its new location and create a new view tag. Log on as the view owner,
cleartool register –view /ccstorage/views/fs137_ucm0.vws
cleartool mktag –view –tag fs137_ucm0 /ccstorage/views/v5_integration.vws

7. Make the view writable.
cleartool chview -readwrite fs137_ucm0
cleartool lsview -properties -full fs137_ucm0

8. Reactivate and test the view.
access the view and verify the following:
You can check out versions and, in a dynamic view, create view-private files.
All view-private objects were moved.

9. Update VOB references to this view. The view’s old location is still recorded by all VOBs that the view has accessed. To update this information, go to the view check out any element from each VOB that holds such a reference. (You can cancel the checkout immediately if you want).

10. Delete the old view storage directory.

11. Create additional tags as needed.
If the view has tags in other network regions, replace them with tags that reference the new location.

Could not Copy Data to View Storage

2007-06-20T12:31:00.000-07:00

We have experiencing some strange behavior of ClearCase dynamic view from some developers these few days.

The vob server is on Unix, the view storage is located locally on developers desktop. We use TAS as the interop solution. When some developers tried to check out, the ClearCase explorer reported: "The element is checkout, but could not copy to view storage". We checked everything, and finally narrowed down the behavior to Windows 2000 users. And we found out that when they try start-> run-> "\\10.2.194.153\ccstore", it prompt for id/password logon.

The problem can be solved by a reboot, or explicitly run "net use * \\10.2.194.153\cctore" command. It seems that the networking setting has been changed, the cached data is no longer valid.

Team Meeting

2007-06-15T10:27:00.001-07:00

We had a very informative team meeting yesterday.

The meeting was scheduled for checking our application migration status. But somehow, when we mentioned an experiment on the security setting, we started to discuss Lilo and Stitch, and kids TV programs, and TV control, and high tech. Anyway, we landed on geo caching. Everyone got excited. The manager started to tell the story of his treasure hunting experience. One person ran back to get her laptop and network cable so we could have a look of the website. Another wanted to teach us how to buy a GPS on eBay.

One hour later, the meeting minutes went like this.... We concluded that TV commander is a very effective device for controlling the total time that kids spend on watching TV.... We decided that we will go geocaching during next week’s team building. The GPS device will be provided by our manager. The site will be decided prior to the team building, somewhere near our office....

When I told my other half at home about the game, he was not that enthusiastic, and said that the site and the game must be set up by those GPS manufactures. Very well, it means that we have saved three hundred bucks of a new toy.

Manage Activity Creation

2007-06-14T14:09:00.000-07:00

One of our applications is moving from VSS to CC UCM. The management likes the idea of activity very much. They want to centralize activity creation and manage the project progress by monitoring the status of activities. The thing is, we don’t have enough money for ClearQuest, which would be the ideal tool for implementing the idea.

All relies on the ClearCase administers (i.e. me). My first task is to create a no_mkactivity trigger except for team leads that would be responsible for creating activities for the developers. However, the deliver and rebase operation implicitly creates activities. This kind of activity must be allowed.

#!/usr/bin/perl

# Only allow this mkact if it is a result of a deliver or rebase
# Determine this by checking the parent op kind
if ($ENV{"CLEARCASE_POP_KIND"} ne "deliver_start" && $ENV{"CLEARCASE_POP_KIND"} ne "rebase_start") {
print "Activity creation is only permitted for deliver and rebase.\n";
exit 1;
}

exit 0

We have to create a trigger type for each project, as the team lead would be changing from project to project. And we have to apply the trigger type to the integration stream and each development stream.

cleartool mktrtype -ucm -rep -pre mkactivity -execu "perl /ccstore/admin/no_mkact.pl" -execw "ccperl \\\\10.2.194.153\ccstore\admin\no_mkact.pl" -nc -nusers ccadmin no_mkact_V5.3

cleartool mktrigger -c "no mkactivity for you" no_mkact_V5.3 stream:qinl_V5.3_d@/vobs/Horizon_PVOB

cleartool mktrigger -c "no mkactivity for you" no_mkact_V5.3 stream:V5.3_i@/vobs/Horizon_PVOB

To automate the process, you may want to create a post-op trigger for mkstream as well. The trigger is used to attach the no_mkact trigger to the stream.

cleartool mktrtype -rep -ucm -postop mkstream -nc -execu "cleartool mktrigger -n
c no_mkact_V5.3 stream:\$CLEARCASE_STREAM" -execw "cleartool mktrigger -nc no_mk
act_V5.3 stream:%CLEARCASE_STREAM%" post_mkstream_V5.3

cleartool mktrigger -nc post_mkstream_V5.3 project:V5.3@/vobs/Horizon_PVOB

Besides that, we need a script for the team leads to create activities for their developers. Basically, it is a Perl script to take stream name, developer account id, and activity headline. The script will create the activity, and change the owner of the activity to the owner of the stream.

Cleartool mkact -in $stream -headline \"$act\" $act_id
Cleartool protect -chown $dev activity:$act_id

Feed Squirrels at my Backyard

2007-06-13T09:03:00.000-07:00

My father-in-law came to visit us and would stay for a while. He loves garden and stays outside at the backyard tending his plants all day long. One day, I discovered that he started to feed squirrels when I found a half-eaten corn squeezed at the top of the fence. He told me that the squirrels had come the day before and ruined some of his plants because they could not find food. I just hope that the rabbits live in nearby woods have not heard about his generosity yet, as his radish will ripen in a couple of weeks.

Install Together Architect 1.0 on Windows 2003 Server

2007-06-12T06:36:00.000-07:00

First error message: InstallAnyWhere: the memory could not "written".

Solution: Turn off DEP(Data Execution Prevention).
1. Click Start, click Run, type sysdm.cpl, and then click OK.
2. On the Advanced tab, under Performance, click Settings.
3. On the Data Execution Prevention tab, use one of the following procedures:
• Click Turn on DEP for essential Windows programs and services only to select the OptIn policy.
• Click Turn on DEP for all programs and services except those I select to select the OptOut policy, and then click Add to add the programs that you do not want to use the DEP feature.
4. Click OK two times.

Now that the installer can be launched. Yet, another error: "Invocation of this Java Application has caused an InvocationTargetException. This application will now exit. (LAX)". It turned out that the Together Architect installer is not supported for Windows 2003 server.

Solution: Install the software on a supported environment, and copy the installed folder through network to the Windows 2003 server box.

Access UCM with a base ClearCase view

2007-06-11T10:57:00.001-07:00

Sometimes, it maybe desirable to use a base ClearCase view to access a UCM baseline. This may happen when the code is read-only and you want to save the effort of joining the project and managing the streams, such as for build purpose.

The config spec looks like the following.

element /vobs/MyVob /main/0 –nocheckout
element * baseline_07_13_2007 –nocheckout

The first line is there for retrieving the vob root, because the vob root will not get labeled when creating the baseline.

Move to 553

2007-06-08T07:25:00.000-07:00

The other day, my six year old got sentimental suddenly when she realized that her little brother would be moving out of our house when he grows up. And she would not be able to see him around.

She said that she was going to move to 553 (which is the next house to ours). She asked her little brother where he planned to move. He told her that he was going to China. She was so disappointed but later brighten up telling me secretly that he would forget about his plan when he grows up.

I hope she will not.

ClearCase: Child Branch vs. Child Stream

2007-06-07T10:22:00.000-07:00

In base ClearCase, a dev branch is considered as the child branch of the integration branch. While in UCM, a dev stream is normally considered as the child stream of the integration stream. Yet, after analyzing the config spec of each, you can find out that a dev branch is a true child branch of the integration branch, while the dev stream is not, but only logically considered as a child stream of the integration stream.

Here is the typical dev branch config spec. It clearly shows that the dev branch is branched out from the int branch.

element * CHECKEDOUT
element * .../rel13.0_dev/LATEST
element * .../rel13.0_int/LATEST -mkbranch rel13.0_dev
element * /main/LATEST -mkbranch rel13.0_int

Here is the config spec of a dev stream. It shows that the dev stream is branched out from the recommended baseline.

element * CHECKEDOUT
element "[8226012109f011dc81910001833169b5=\Horizon]/horizon16/..." .../qinl_V5.3_d/LATEST
element "[8226012109f011dc81910001833169b5=\Horizon]/horizon16/..." V5.3_5_29_2007 -mkbranch qinl_V5.3_d
element "[8226012109f011dc81910001833169b5=\Horizon]/horizon16/..." /main/0 -mkbranch qinl_V5.3_d
element * /main/0 -ucm -nocheckout

The change of the branching mechanism from base to UCM means that you cannot always see the pretty picture of a version tree branching from main to integration, then to development branch. But it also makes it possible to add new elements to the dev stream when the integration stream is locked, which cannot be achieved in base CC.

Why blog?

2007-06-06T12:49:00.000-07:00

Welcome.

I will try to keep and share my thoughts and experiences at this site about my life and work.

Enjoy.