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text_file_delta: Error: "foo.c" is not a 'text file': it contains a line exceeding 8000 bytes

Troubleshooting


Problem

This technote explains why attempts to checkin an IBM® Rational® ClearCase® file causes an error stating the file contains a line exceeding 8000 bytes along with steps to resolve the problem.

Symptom

During checkin the following error occurs:

text_file_delta: Error: "foo.c" is not a 'text file': it contains a line exceeding 8000 bytes.
Use a different type manager (such as compressed file).
cleartool: Error: Type manager "text_file_delta" failed create_version operation.
cleartool: Error: Unable to check in "foo.c".

Cause

This is due to the text_file_delta type manager is unable to handle a single line of 8000 bytes or more.



Note: Some type manager errors on Windows are reported in the Windows Application Log (Source:ClearCase, Category:Debug). Therefore, when performing the checkin operation on Windows the error below will be displayed and the more detailed message as noted above will be reported in the
Application Log.

cleartool: Error Type manager "text_file_delta". failed create_version operation.
cleartool: Error: Unable to check in "testfile".

Resolving The Problem

This issue has been addressed by new type managers that were made available in ClearCase 2002.05.00, refer to technote 1127954 on how to implement them in your environment.

The details in technote 1119269 discuss how these new type managers are integrated after upgrading to ClearCase 2003.06.00.

The new type managers are only made available in a VOB that is at feature level 4. If you have upgraded to Rational ClearCase 7.0, but have not upgraded the VOB to feature level 4, then the new type managers are not available for use.

WORKAROUNDS:

There are two possible ways to resolve this issue without using the new type managers detailed above:

  1. Insert line breaks in the file so that the length of every line is less than 8000 characters to allow the checkin to succeed.


    OR

  2. Modify the file type so that it uses a different type manager like compressed_file.

    Example: cleartool chtype compressed_file foo.c

Refer to the IBM RFE Community for information about a Change request (RFE) 3656 that was opened to request support for exceeding 8,000 bytes per line on text files.

[{"Product":{"code":"SSSH27","label":"Rational ClearCase"},"Business Unit":{"code":"BU053","label":"Cloud & Data Platform"},"Component":"Type Manager","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;7.0.1;7.1;7.1.1;7.1.2;8.0","Edition":"","Line of Business":{"code":"LOB45","label":"Automation"}},{"Product":{"code":"SSSH27","label":"Rational ClearCase"},"Business Unit":{"code":"BU053","label":"Cloud & Data Platform"},"Component":"Type Manager","Platform":[{"code":"","label":""}],"Version":"","Edition":"","Line of Business":{"code":"LOB45","label":"Automation"}}]

Document Information

Modified date:
29 September 2018

UID

swg21146197