Removing checked-out references of a view from a VOB

Problem(Abstract) How to remove IBM® Rational® ClearCase® checkout references that are cataloged in the VOB database after a view is removed or becomes inaccessible using the cleartool rmview -uuid command on Microsoft® Windows®, UNIX®, or Linux®. Symptom Any on the following symptoms may be experienced: Attempts to perform a checkout result in the following error: %cleartool co foo.c cleartool: Error: Element "foo.c" is already checked out to view "". Attempts to uncheckout a file result in the following error: %cleartool unco foo.c "Cannot_generate_name_for_checkout_in_view:.."

Cause

The checkout fails because the file is already checked out reserved to a view that was either removed or is no longer accessible on the network. If a view has become inaccessible or was deleted by mistake and the VOB database still holds references to the checkouts you will need to remove the reference from the VOB database in order to checkout the file from a different view. Note: Review http://quicktechref.blogspot.com/2008/11/checkout-reserved-element-that-is.html if the view still exists and you do not wish to uncheckout the element (potentially losing the changes made).

Resolving the problem

Having checkout(s) to a view that is no longer available or accessible is very common. Here are some steps on how to remove the references in the VOB database. Note: Only run this procedure if the data contained in the view (the checkouts) are no longer needed or if the view no longer exists. This operation performs an uncheckout in the VOB database for all elements that were related to the view. If a view still exists and you use the procedure below to delete records relating to it from any VOB, make sure that the view is removed immediately. MULTISITE CONSIDERATIONS: If removing the view checkout references from a replicated VOB, the rmview command should be run at the site where the view checkouts were originally performed. See technote 1124700 if you are running 2002.05.00 and have a problem removing references to the VOB. Refer to the rmview section of the ClearCase Command Reference Guide for additional information about the usage of the rmview command. PROCEDURE: 1. First you need to determine what the UUID is of the old view. a. COMMAND TO RUN IF THE VIEW EXISTS: From the command line you will need to run cleartool lsview -long and find the view and copy its uuid number. Example: cleartool lsview -long TEST Tag: TEST Global path: \\MYHOST\VIEW\TEST.vws Server host: MYHOST Region: Your_Region Active: YES View tag uuid:fa7fc590.42f34d53.ae68.b6:30:f5:30:c5:a4 Text mode: unix View on host: Your_Host View server access path: C:\VIEW\TEST.vws View uuid: fa7fc590.42f34d53.ae68.b6:30:f5:30:c5:a4 View owner: MYDOMAIN\user1 b. COMMAND TO RUN IF THE VIEW HAS BEEN REMOVED: From the command line you will need to run cleartool describe -l vob:\ and find the view and copy its uuid number. Example: cleartool describe -long vob:\baseccvob versioned object base "\baseccvob" created 04-Oct-04.16:48:26 by user1.group1@MYHOST VOB family feature level: 4 VOB storage host:pathname "MYHOST:C:\CC_Store\vob\baseccvob.vbs" VOB storage global pathname "\\MYHOST\cc\vob\baseccvob.vbs" database schema version: 54 VOB ownership: owner MYDOMAIN\user1 group MYDOMAIN\group1 VOB holds objects from the following views: MYHOST:C:\VIEW\TEST.vws [uuid a7fc590.42f34d53.ae68.b6:30:f5:30:c5:a4] Attributes: FeatureLevel = 4 Hyperlinks: AdminVOB@687@\baseccvob -> vob:\proj_1 2. The next step is to remove all the references to the VOB (which will perform the uncheckout). COMMAND TO RUN: From the command line you will need to run cleartool rmview -uuid -avobs to remove all the checkedout references from all VOBs in that region. Example: %cleartool rmview -uuid fa7fc590.42f34d53.ae68.b6:30:f5:30:c5:a4 -avobs Removed references to view "fa7fc590.42f34d53.ae68.b6:30:f5:30:c5:a4" from VOB "\VOB1". Removed references to view "fa7fc590.42f34d53.ae68.b6:30:f5:30:c5:a4" from VOB "\VOB2". Removed references to view "fa7fc590.42f34d53.ae68.b6:30:f5:30:c5:a4" from VOB "\VOB3". Removed references to view "fa7fc590.42f34d53.ae68.b6:30:f5:30:c5:a4" from VOB "\VOB4". 3. The last step is to verify if the references have been removed from the VOB. Use the command invocation from 1b (cleartool describe -l vob:\) to ensure the checkout are gone. If the references have not been removed, follow the instructions in technote 1146797. Note: If a directory has been unchecked out, then all new elements created when it was checked out are no longer referenced by that directory. Consequently, they were all moved to the lost+found directory. To restore these files from the lost+found directory, please refer to technote 1120317.