The clearexport_cvs command processes Concurrent Versions Systems (CVS) files so they can be imported into ClearCase elements and versions. The source data can range from a single file to an entire directory tree.
During the export stage, you invoke clearexport_cvs in the area where the CVS files reside. clearexport_cvs creates a datafile (by default, named cvt_data) and places in it descriptions of elements, branches, and versions. clearexport_cvs follows symbolic links it encounters during the export stage.
In the import stage, you invoke clearimport on the datafile to import information into the new VOB.
clearexport_cvs ignores most information in CVS files that is not related to version-tree structure. clearexport_cvs converts each CVS symbol, which names a revision or branch, into the appropriate construct: version label or branch. You can specify a translation file to control naming, enforcing consistency over multiple invocations of clearexport_cvs. You can use the –S and –V options to preserve CVS state attributes and CVS revision numbers as attributes of the corresponding ClearCase version. The –A option enables you to export CVS Attic subdirectories if you choose to recursively descend source_name arguments that specify directories.
clearexport_cvs and clearimport use magic files to determine which element type to use for each element clearimport creates. For more information about magic files and file typing, see the cc.magic reference page.
clearexport_cvs works directly with the structured CVS files. It does not process the working files created with checkout and checkout –l commands. Be sure to check in working files with the checkin command before running the exporter. clearexport_cvs issues warning messages when it encounters checked-out files, but it still processes them.
You must share the drive that the CVS repository is on. This is because clearexport_cvs attempts to resolve the UNC path name regardless of what is shared. If the drive is not shared, you will have a path in the cvt_data file that looks like this: \\machine_name\c$\your_folder. The c$ directory is not accessible by clearimport, which fails with a message that indicates that the extract command could not be invoked.
During import, clearimport invokes a shell to extract data from the datafile. clearimport can handle some, but not all, characters that are special to shells. Import fails for any file name that includes any of these characters:
Before running clearexport_cvs, rename any file whose name contains these characters.
A CVS symbol is a mnemonic name for a particular revision or branch of a CVS file. clearexport_cvs translates the symbols to version labels and branch names (more precisely, to names of label types and branch types).
Because there is no concept of a subbranch of the main branch, clearexport_cvs does not process single-digit symbols that name CVS branches. If a CVS symbol includes characters that are not valid in names of label types or branch types, clearexport_cvs replaces the offending name. For example, the CVS symbol C++ can be renamed to “C..”.
A label type cannot have the same name as a branch type within the same VOB. If the same CVS symbol names both a revision and a branch (not necessarily in the same CVS file) clearexport_cvs renames one of them. For example, after exporting a symbol FX354, which names a branch, it may encounter the same symbol as the name of a revision in another CVS file. In this case, it creates label type FX354_1.
This renaming of CVS symbols can introduce inconsistencies over multiple runs of clearexport_cvs. The same symbol may be renamed during processing of some CVS files, but not change during processing of other files. You can enforce consistency by using the same translation file in multiple invocations of clearexport_cvs. If you name such a file, using the –T option, clearexport_cvs uses it as follows:
The first time you use clearexport_cvs, use –T to create a new translation file. On subsequent invocations of clearexport_cvs, use –T again, specifying the same translation file for consistent name translation.
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
After you export data, do not move the data to another location before importing it.
It is not a good practice to move exported data between different operating systems or between operating systems with different architectures (for example, 32–bit and 64–bit Windows systems).
When you use the –A option, clearexport_cvs exports files found in CVS Attic directories. In most cases, these are zero-length files that have been removed from or never added to a particular CVS revision. When these files are imported into ClearCase, an empty version is created. While it can be useful to import these files into ClearCase, you should consider importing them onto a specific branch or stream where they can be referred to as needed but will not be selected by typical configurations.
Specify the time in one of the following formats:
date.time | date | time | now where:
Specify 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 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.)
If you use the –s option with this option, clearimport attaches CVS_REVISION attributes only to revisions created after the date-time you specified.
Each attribute requires about 1 KB of storage in the VOB database.
On Windows systems, the value of the TMP environment variable.
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. If the CVS files reside in CVS subdirectories, use the –r option to enable clearexport_cvs to find them.
cc.magic, default.magic, clearexport_*, clearimport, cvs(1), events_ccase, relocate, rsh(1) or remsh(1), sccs(1), wildcards_ccase