Clearcase is so slow on checkin: how quickly checkin a large set of modified files?

Question

I am used to use git/svn or cvs but know I need to work with clearcase.

My usual workflow consists of a daily 30 commits and about 5 checkout to an older revision.

With git, each commit is done in less than 5 seconds (It is slow because I need to write good comments) and every update from a previous revision takes about 10 seconds.

With ClearCase I noticed everything is different...

Each commit takes about 10 minutes (when I do refactoring I need to checkout a lot of files, more than 500 each time). And because I am working with embedded targets I have to work in this way : do some changes, commit, test on the plateform, debug, commit, go back to my first point.

To be able to go back in a previous revision with cc I have to create a label after each commit because setting a view to a specific date can be dangerous (server and local time are sometime different).
Then I have to apply the label to all my files.
It means about 30 labels per days.
If I want to go back to a previous revision I need to manually edit the config spec and reload my view.

It seems my usual workflow that I took from my experience with git or svn have to be different with clearcase.

And just for information here is the time I might spend everyday with git and cc:

git: 30*5 + 5*10 = 200s -> 3min cc: 30*600 + 5*800 = 22000s -> 6h

How would you speed up that process ?

Enterprise source control operates over enterprise timescales. — CB Bailey, May 23 '14 at 06:48
Do you know if triggers are launched in your environment during checkin or checkouts? — Tamir Gefen, May 23 '14 at 08:09
I asked my ccadmin, he said we do not use any triggers because they are too slow — nowox, May 23 '14 at 08:52

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 11:57

The key difference between ClearCase and git is that it is a file-by-file VCS, meant to manage a large set of files with few modifications at a time.

So if you have many modifications at once, the clearfsimport I suggested in your previous question is your best bet.

But in general, that tool makes you re-think your workflow in order to:

split your code base into different set of files (setting a label on a small set of file is less time-consuming than setting it on all the file of a Vob).
manage different views in order to have one with the right config spec (or to launch an update in parallel)
merge regularly, on a dedicate set of file, to avoid having to merge too many files.

That is why UCM was introduced: those "set of files" are called components, and putting a label is called "baseline".
Plus in UCM you check-in your files in an "activity" (which plays the role of a commit).
UCM can help keeping control on the management of those files.

Clearcase is so slow on checkin: how quickly checkin a large set of modified files?

1 Answers1