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I am reading the documentation of mkview as I am trying to create a snapshot view on my local disk and I am confused by the terminology surrounding "view storage directory", "snapshot view directory" and the -stgloc, -vws and -colocated_server options.

Here's my understanding:

  • "snapshot view directory" refers to the working directory on my local file system where I will be editing the files I checkout
  • "view storage directory" refers to some directory in the server where metadata about my view will be kept. I won't have anything to do with this directory.

Is this correct?

So to create a snapshot with server storage of the "view storage directory" and local storage of the "snapshot view directory", I would do:

ct mkview -sna -tag view_tag -vws /data/VIEWS/view_tag.vws -host foo -hpath /data/VIEWS/view_tag.vws -gpath /data/VIEWS/view_tag.vws  ~/some/path/in/my/local/filesystem

(/data/VIEWS is an NFS file-system in my machine). Is that right? This seems to be consistent with what is described here.

However, I don't get what the -hpath and -gpath options are supposed to do (given that -vws has already provided the view storage directory and given that they seem to carry the same values). Also I don't understand the caveat in the mkview documentation that says (under -vws):

Use -stgloc rather than this option whenever possible
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Marcus Junius Brutus
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1 Answers1

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"snapshot view directory" refers to the working directory on my local file system where I will be editing the files I checkout

Yes, it can be anywhere on your disk, as opposed to dynamic view which are using a fixed mounting point (M:\ on Windows, /view on Unix)

"view storage directory" refers to some directory in the server where metadata about my view will be kept. I won't have anything to do with this directory.

Yes, and that is valid for both snapshot and dynamic view. You don't have anything to do... except both the ClearCase view server and your account must be capable to access it, which means it is often referenced though a global storage path.

The cleartool mkview man page (the official html page) describes vws as:

view storage directory in a location that is consistently connected to the local area network, on a host where ClearCase has been installed or on a NAS device that provides storage for such a host.
This location could be a server storage location (specified by –stgloc) or a location specified by the –vws option

If the view server is not your local workstation, then –host –hpath –gpath reference a host and path accessible both by your workstation and by the ClearCase server.

If the view server is your workstation, then -vws and hpath can be a local path, while gpath is a network shared path accessible by the view server.

I prefer keeping the view server on the local host (provided ClearCase was installed with that feature), as it avoids creating a single point of failure (a remote View server), and quickens the view operations (since the metadata are stored locally).

VonC
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