clearexport

Product	Command type
ClearCase	command

Platform
UNIX®
Linux®
Windows®

Description

The clearexport_ccase utility plays a central role in cross-VOB maintenance by copying VOB objects from one VOB to another, specifically:

Elements
All the elements and links cataloged within a directory
A hierarchy of directories, file elements, and VOB symbolic links

For information about moving elements from one VOB to another or splitting a VOB into two or more VOBs, see relocate.

The copy procedure involves two stages: export and import. During the export stage, you invoke clearexport_ccase in the VOB where the data to be moved resides. clearexport_ccase creates a datafile (by default, named cvt_data) and places in it descriptions of the objects in the VOB (for details, see Table 1).

In the import stage, you invoke clearimport on the datafile. clearimport reads the descriptions in the datafile and imports the information into the new VOB. Use the same config spec (the same view) for both the export and import phases.

Note: You can run this command only in a dynamic view. Also, you cannot run this command on UNIX or Linux and then run clearimport on Windows to import the data, or vice versa. However, you can transfer data in either direction between a UNIX or Linux VOB and a Windows VOB by mounting the UNIX or Linux VOB on your Windows machine and running both clearexport_ccase and clearimport on the Windows machine.

Contents of the datafile

Table 1 describes which aspects of objects clearexport_ccase includes in the data file. Not all objects are included in all circumstances; for example, derived objects are not available in snapshot views.

Table 1. ClearCase items included in data file
Item	Description in data file?	Notes®
Directory element	Yes	The datafile includes descriptions only of the elements and cataloged links in the directory version selected by the current view; thus, for example, metadata associated with the directory version is not exported. Even exporting all directories in a VOB may miss the elements not included in the VOB as it is currently seen by the view.
File element	Yes	If the element has a user-defined element type, an error occurs if you invoke clearimport in a VOB in which that element type is not defined. (clearimport makes no effort to verify that the element type is defined the same way in both VOBs.) `clearexport_ccase` includes in the datafile descriptions of any attributes attached to an element object itself. By default, `clearexport_ccase` includes descriptions of all versions in the datafile, but you can specify command options to limit the versions that are included.
Checked-out versions	No	When `clearexport_ccase` processes a checked-out version, it issues a warning message and does not include a description of the checked-out version in the datafile.
Symbolic links	Yes	UNIX and Linux
Checked-in DOs	Yes	Config records of checked-in DOs are copied to the new VOB when you invoke clearimport (ClearCase).
Event records	Yes
Type objects	Yes
Attributes	Yes	Attribute types are not preserved, but are represented as strings.
Labels	Yes
Hyperlinks	Some	Only hyperlinks that represent merges (hyperlinks of type Merge) are described in the datafile.
Triggers	No
Contents of lost+found directory	See Notes	To include the contents of lost+found in the datafile, make lost+found the current directory, and then run `clearexport_ccase`.

Translation of branches and version labels

A label type cannot have the same name as a branch type within the same VOB. If clearexport_ccase encounters a label-branch naming conflict, it renames one of them. For example, the label rel2 may become rel2_1. Such renaming can introduce inconsistencies over multiple runs of clearexport_ccase. The same label may be renamed during one run, but not during others. You can enforce consistency by using the same translation file in multiple invocations of clearexport_ccase. If you name such a file, using the –T option, clearexport_ccase uses it as follows:

To look up each label or branch to determine whether it has been translated previously. If a match is found, the current name is translated the same way.
To record each translation of a new label or branch for use in future lookups.

The first time you use clearexport_ccase, use –T to create a new translation file. On subsequent invocations, use –T again and specify the same translation file, for consistent name translation.

Syntax of translation file

The translation file consists of one or more lines in the following form:

{ label | branch } old-name new-name

For example, to rename the branch type pre_import_work to post_import_work and the label BL1.7 to IMPORT_BASE, the translation file contains the lines:

branch pre_import_work post_import_work 
label BL1.7 IMPORT_BASE

No blank lines are allowed in the file.

Handling of elements that cannot be exported

When clearexport_ccase encounters an element that cannot be exported (for example, a file with format problems or a broken symbolic link), it prints an error and continues. After creating the data file, the command prints a summary of the elements that could not be exported.

Options and arguments

Handling of directory arguments

Default: The datafile includes the version of a directory or file element currently selected by your view. If you specify a directory as a source-name argument, clearexport_ccase processes the files in that directory, but ignores the contents of the subdirectories; and clearimport creates a directory element for source-name and for each of its subdirectories.
–r: clearexport_ccase descends recursively into all the currently selected versions of source-name arguments that are directories.

Selective conversion of files

Default

clearexport_ccase processes all elements it encounters.

–s date-time

clearexport_ccase processes only versions modified with new metadata (labels, branches, attributes, and so on) or created since the specified time. Exception: clearexport_ccase processes a branch created at an old version if one or more new versions exist on the branch. Use this option for regular, incremental updating of an element from another one that is still under development. Be sure to specify a date-time that covers the entire period since the preceding update. In other situations, it is probably better to use –I instead of –s.

Note: In an incremental updating situation, if you remove a label or branch from an imported version, clearimport does not remove the label or branch from the target element.

Specify the time in one of the following formats:

date.time | date | time | now where:

`date`	:=	`day-of-week` \| `long-date`
`time`	:=	`h`[`h`]`:m`[`m`][`:s`[`s`]] [UTC [ [ `+` \| `-` ]`h`[`h`][`:m`[`m`] ] ] ]
`day-of-week`	:=	today \|yesterday \|Sunday \| ... \|Saturday \|Sun \| ... \|Sat
`long-date`	:=	`d`[`d`]`–month`[`–`[`yy`]`yy`]
`month`	:=	January \|... \|December \|Jan \|... \|Dec

Specify the time in 24-hour format, relative to the local time zone. If you omit the time, the default value is 00:00:00. If you omit the date, the default is today. If you omit the century, year, or a specific date, the most recent one is used. Specify UTC if you want to resolve the time to the same moment in time regardless of time zone. Use the plus (+) or minus (-) operator to specify a positive or negative offset to the UTC time. If you specify UTC without hour or minute offsets, Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is used. (Dates before January 1, 1970 Universal Coordinated Time (UTC) are invalid.)

–p date-time

Like -s, but processes only versions modified with new metadata (labels, branches, attributes, and so on) or created before the specified time.

–I { now | date-time }

Processes only the important versions of an element, but includes all versions created since the specified time. A version is important if any of these conditions is true:

It is the most recent version on its branch.
It has a version label.
It has an attribute.
A subbranch is sprouted from it.
Either end of a merge arrow hyperlink is connected to it.

Directory for temporary files

Default: On UNIX and Linux systems, the value of P_tmpdir (set in the stdio.h system include file; you can override this value by setting the TMPDIR environment variable).
On Windows systems, the value of the TMP environment variable.
–t temp-dir-pname: Specifies an alternate directory for temporary files. This directory must already exist.

Translation of branches and labels

Default: As described in the section Translation of branches and version labels, clearexport_ccase may rename a branch or label type to avoid naming conflicts.
–T translation-file: Uses the specified translation file to control conversion of label and branch names.

Storage location of datafile

Default: clearexport_ccase creates datafile cvt_data in the current working directory.
–o datafile-pname: Stores the datafile in the specified location. An error occurs if datafile already exists.

Specifying files to be processed

Default

clearexport_ccase processes the current working directory (equivalent to specifying a dot (.)) as the source-name argument). clearimport creates an element in the target VOB for each element in the current working directory. clearimport creates a directory element in the target VOB for each subdirectory of the current working directory.

source-name ...

One or more path names, specifying elements and/or directory versions:

For each specified element, clearimport re-creates some or all of its versions.
For each specified directory version, clearexport_ccase places descriptions in the datafile for all the elements it catalogs. clearimport either reuses an existing directory (creating a new version if new elements are added) or creates a directory element with a single version for the specified directory itself, and for its subdirectories.

Each source-name can be a simple file or directory name or a wildcard as described in wildcards_ccase. Specifying a parent directory (..) causes an error, as does any UNIX or Linux path name that includes a slash or any Windows path name that includes a slash or backslash. Run this command in a directory under which the elements to be exported reside.

Examples

Create entries in the datafile for the entire tree under directory element src, exporting important versions created before 1999 and all versions created since the beginning of 1999.
clearexport_ccase -r -I 1-Jan-1999 src
Create entries in the datafile for the elements in the current working directory, but not in any subdirectories; store the datafile in a file named newcvt.
clearexport_ccase -o newcvt .

clearexport_ccase

Applicability

Synopsis