Question & Answer
Question
This technote explains how to regenerate an IBM® Rational® ClearCase® snapshot view's view.dat file if it has been removed from the view's root directory on UNIX®, Linux® or Microsoft® Windows®.
Answer
Overview
The view.dat file is a read-only text file used to identify which work space directory is related to a given snapshot view.
Refer to the IBM Rational ClearCase Developing Software Manual under the topic of How snapshot views are distinguished from standard directories for further details.
Note: The filename on UNIX and Linux is .view.dat.
This file is created in the top level of the snapshot view's directory, and contains a string similar to:
ws_oid:69d492a190374b0cbcf2357c44d4447c view_uuid:84bc6dfdb01d458d93fb9afee9e5f94c
Note: ws_oid is the Object Identity of the work space directory and the view_uuid is the Universally Unique ID of the view.
If this file is removed (deleted), then the snapshot view will stop working, and the update will return errors, such as detailed in technote 1209320.
The view.dat can be generated using the ClearCase utility, regen_view_dot_dat.pl which can be run from the view's work space directory. This utility ships with Rational ClearCase and is located in:
- /opt/rational/clearcase/etc/utils/ on UNIX and Linux
- C:\Program Files\Rational\ClearCase\etc\utils on Windows
Regenerating a view.dat file
UNIX and Linux
Perl /opt/rational/clearcase/etc/utils/regen_view_dot_dat.pl [–tag snapshot-view-tag] snapshot-view-path
Example:
Perl /opt/rational/clearcase/etc/utils/regen_view_dot_dat.pl -tag pat_v1.4_cropcircle_sv ~/pat_v1.4_cropcircle_sv
Windows
ccperl C:\Program Files\Rational\ClearCase\etc\utils\regen_view_dot_dat.pl [–tag snapshot-view-tag] snapshot-view-path
Example:
ccperl C:\Program Files\Rational\ClearCase\etc\utils\regen_view_dot_dat.pl -tag pat_v1.4_cropcircle c:\pat_v1.4_cropcircle
Review the ClearCase 7.0 Developing Software manual on the topic of To regenerate the view.dat file (cleartool man To regenerate the view.dat file) for the corrected documentation.
Japanese Windows environment
Running regen_view_dot_dat.pl may fail with an error because only the English message can be handled correctly in the perl script.
Example of the error message:
ccperl "C:\Program Files\Rational\ClearCase\etc\utils\regen_view_dot_dat.pl" -tag <view-tag-id> <view root directory path>
rgy_view_uuid: "".
Unable to get rgy info for view "<view-tag-id>"
usage: C:/atria/bin/ccperl regen_view_dot_dat.pl [-tag snapshot-view-tag] snapshot-view-pname
The ClearCase message has to be changed to display in English by setting the NLSPATH variable before execution of the perl script. If it is not set before the perl script is executed, the UUID for the snapshot view (rgy_view_uuid) cannot be handled correctly as seen in the above error.
Example:
set NLSPATH=C:\
ccperl "C:\Program Files\Rational\ClearCase\etc\utils\regen_view_dot_dat.pl" -tag <view-tag-id> <view root directory path>
rgy_view_uuid: "3ee2c4f595b04602aae9cadc0a049e27"
creating ".\view.dat".
Known Issue
The steps to regenerate the view.dat file located in IBM Rational ClearCase Developing Software are incorrect for versions 2002.05.00 and 2003.06.00.
During execution of the command syntax an error similar to the following occurs:
Can't open perl script "c:\rational\etc\utils": No such file or directory
This syntax error in the commands for UNIX, Linux and Windows was reported as a documentation defect APAR IC44224.
The product documentation has been corrected for Rational ClearCase 7.0 and later.
Documentation
- Hardcopy can be ordered from the IBM Publications Center.
- On-line documentation can be found:
About the ClearCase Information Center
Note: The on-line ClearCase version 7.x documentation can be found in the IBM Publication Center.
2003.06:
HTML
PDF LINKS
Note: The 2003.06.00 ClearCase manuals can be found on-line in the ClearCase Family.
- Distributed Documentation
UNIX® and Linux®: /opt/rational/clearcase/doc/books
Microsoft® Windows®: C:\Program Files\Rational\ClearCase\doc\books
Related Information
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Document Information
Modified date:
16 June 2018
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swg21204161