Question & Answer
Question
What is the .view file that is stored in the IBM® Rational® ClearCase® View storage directory on Microsoft® Windows® Linux® and UNIX®?
Answer
Problems associated with missing a .view file
Moving view and the .view file
About the .view file
When a view is created, a .view file is created in the view storage directory and contains the basic information about the view as defined by the options that can be used to create the view.
Review the ClearCase Command Reference Guide on the topic of mkview (cleartool man mkview) for more information on which options can be used to create a view.
The file contains the following data:
- The Host the view was created from.
- Host the view is stored and its path.
- The view UUID (Universally Unique ID)
- View kind:
- UCM view: -sumview
- Snapshot view: -snapshot
Note: No -snapshot line item means the view is a dynamic view.
- Web view: -webview
- No Share DO: -nshareable_dos
Note: No -nshareable_dos line item means the view will share DOs
- Text Mode: -textmode strip_cr & -textmode msdos (msdos = insert_cr).
Note: No -textmode line item means the view mode is transparent.
- Cache size: -cache <size in bytes>
Example: A UCM webview not sharing DOs configured with 5000 bytes view cache as a strip_cr mode view.
host2:c:\ClearCase_Storage\views\DOM1\user1\test.vws
bc4e0eb4.4211442e.a6f1.6e:58:c9:ed:89:3c
host1
-sumview
-webview
-cache 4096
-nshareable_dos
-textmode strip_cr
Problems associated with missing a .view file
In Windows Explorer, when you right click on a dynamic view the following error pops up:
*******************************************
ClearCase View Profiles
Cannot determine if the view is associated
Error getting view handle.
*******************************************
First try to stop the view and the server process at the command prompt:
cleartool endview -server <view tag>
Then try to start the view from command prompt:
cleartool startview <view tag>
The following error should appear:
view_contact call failed: RPC: Unable to receive; errno = [WINSOCK] Connection reset by peer
cleartool: Error: Error trying to contact view_server for view host1:C:\views\test_view.vws: No such file or directory
cleartool: Error: Couldn't set view tag test_view: No such file or directory
Try to remove the view from command line:
cleartool rmview <UNC path to view storage>
ClearCase will complain that the object is not a view.
cleartool: Error: \\host1\views\test_view.vws isn't a view: No such file or directory
cleartool: Error: Unable to remove view "\\host1\views\test_view.vws".
These symptoms can be associated to a missing .view file.
This file stores the view's Universal Unique identifier (UUID) and some attributes about the view in the view storage directory.
You must manually remove the view from the ClearCase registry as well as the file system.
Note: cleartool unregister -view will not work in this case as we need to specify the view's UUID.
- Run cleartool lsview -l <view-tag> to get the view's UUID
- Run cleartool unregister -view -uuid <view-uuid-obtained-in-step-1> to unregister the view
- Run cleartool rmtag -view <view-tag> for this view. Be sure to remove the view tag(s) from all regions to which this view is tagged
- Delete the View storage directory (from the above example: C:\views\test_view.vws) on the file system.
Moving a view and the .view file
Moving a view from one host to another host does not modify the .view file in the view storage directory to reflect the new location information.
This is expected behavior.
The information stored in the .view file always describes the view's first incarnation.
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Document Information
Modified date:
29 September 2018
UID
swg21252064