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About eclipsed files and ClearCase

Question & Answer


Question

What is an eclipsed IBM Rational ClearCase object and how can it be resolved?

Answer

The definition of a ClearCase eclipse:
A VOB object that is not visible because another object with the same name is currently selected by the view.



Eclipsed elements
The objects that become eclipsed most frequently are elements. An eclipsed element is created when it is obscured by a view-private file.

An eclipsed file will be listed in a GUI window with a partially shadowed moon icon as in the example below:





This event may occur when the dynamic view is not able to delete the local copy of the file after you have checked it in.

Note that another view will not have the eclipse, because the view-private file will not be there.

Certain applications will create a temporary file within the view, thus creating the eclipsed file situation. In the case described here, a third-party tool is locking the local file and preventing ClearCase from deleting it during check-in.

Note: Shutting down the application prior to performing the initial copy operation will avoid the eclipse problem. On Windows hosts you may be able to determine the application using a third party tool, such as Process Monitor, which can be downloaded from http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/default.aspx


Example:

The following example illustrates how an eclipsed file is created:
  1. In a dynamic view create a view private file (test.txt)

  2. In another dynamic view with the same config spec create a view private file with the same name as the first view (test.txt).

  3. In one of the views, add the view private file to source control.

  4. The other view will now display the file (test.txt) as eclipsed.


Solution:

The solution for resolving eclipsed objects is to rename or remove the local / view-private copy of the object that is obscuring the VOB copy.

In the scenario where a third party application is holding a lock on the local copy, you will need to shut down the application in question to release the lock and then refresh the view. The local copy should be removed at that point; however, if for some reason the element is still eclipsed, you should then be able to rename the local copy to resolve the problem.


HINT:

The 'cleartool ls' command can assist in finding eclipsed files; it will show "[eclipsed]" by eclipsed versions. For example:

Microsoft Windows:


cleartool ls -r | find "eclipsed"

Example:
M:\def1\dmm>cleartool ls -r |find "eclipsed"
.\make-class\makefile.dist@@ [eclipsed]
.\make-class\special.o@@ [eclipsed]

UNIX and Linux:

cleartool ls -r | grep eclipsed

[{"Product":{"code":"SSSH27","label":"Rational ClearCase"},"Business Unit":{"code":"BU053","label":"Cloud & Data Platform"},"Component":"VOB","Platform":[{"code":"PF002","label":"AIX"},{"code":"PF010","label":"HP-UX"},{"code":"PF015","label":"IRIX"},{"code":"PF016","label":"Linux"},{"code":"PF027","label":"Solaris"},{"code":"PF033","label":"Windows"}],"Version":"7.0;7.1;7.1.2;8.0;8.0.1","Edition":"","Line of Business":{"code":"LOB45","label":"Automation"}}]

Document Information

Modified date:
16 June 2018

UID

swg21132484