rmview

Removes a view or removes view-related records from a VOB

Applicability

Product

Command type

VersionVault

cleartool subcommand

VersionVault Remote Client

rcleartool subcommand

Platform

UNIX®

Linux®

Windows®

Synopsis

  • VersionVault--Remove a dynamic view and its related records:
    rmview [ -f/orce ]
    { -tag dynamic-view-tag | dynamic-view-storage-pname }
  • VersionVault--Remove a snapshot view and its related records:
    rmview [ -f/orce ]
    { snapshot-view-pname | snapshot-view-storage-pname }
  • VersionVault--Remove only view-related records from a VOB:
    rmview [ -f/orce ] [ -vob vob-selector| -avo/bs | -a/ll ]
    -uui/d view-uuid
  • VersionVault Remote Client--Remove a web view and its related records:
    rmview [ -f/orce ] { -tag web-view-tag | copyarea-view-pname }
  • VersionVault Remote Client--Remove an automatic view and its related records:
    rmview [ -f/orce ] { -tag automatic-view-tag | automatic-view-storage-pname }

Description

The rmview command performs different, but related, tasks:

  • Removing a view and its related records from a VOB
  • Removing only the view-related records from a VOB

Removing a view and its related records

Use this form of the command to remove a view completely. Complete removal of a view entails the following actions:

  • Removing the view's storage directory. (The cleartext cache of an automatic view is never removed because it is intended to be shared by other automatic views on the local host.)
  • Removing view-related records for that view from all accessible VOBs: checkout records, derived object records (VersionVault dynamic views).
  • Killing its associated view_server process (dynamic views) or rview_agent (automatic views).
  • For a snapshot or web view, also removing recursively the view's root directory, which is the directory tree of loaded versions and view-private objects.
  • For a dynamic view, removing its entry in the root directory.
  • Removing the view's information from the view registry.

Be sure that the current working directory is not within the view storage area that you are deleting.

By default, rmview refuses to delete a view if any element is checked out to that view. You can override this behavior with the -force option.

rmview does not allow you to remove your current set view or working directory view (the view in which you are executing rmview). However, you can remove a view (set view or working directory view) that you are currently using if you issue the rmview command from a shell in which you are not using the view.

Note: On UNIX® or Linux®, if the view was created with mkview -ln, its view-private objects are stored in a directory tree in an alternate location. rmview attempts to delete this directory tree; if it does not succeed, an error occurs and the view storage area remains unaffected.
Note: On Windows®, if you use the subst or net use commands to assign a drive letter to the snapshot view directory, use the corresponding subst /d or net use /delete command to remove the assignment after you use rmview. Also, if you use the form rmview snapshot-view-storage-pname, the snapshot view directory is not deleted; use the form rmview snapshot-view-pname.

Purging view-related records only

Use this form of the command in either of these situations:

  • Complete purging of view-related records from all VOBs is not possible. (For example, some of the VOBs may be offline when you remove the view.)
  • A view storage area cannot be deleted with rmview, because it has become unavailable for another reason: disk crash, accidental deletion with some operating system command, and so on.

To remove view-related records only, use rmview and specify a view by its UUID (universal unique identifier; see the View UUIDs section). Despite being invoked as rmview, this form of the command has no effect on any view or view_server process, only on the specified VOBs.

Losing synchronization with VOB

Incorrect results occur if a VOB loses synchronization with its views. To avoid this problem:

  • Never remove a view with any command other than rmview.
  • If a view still exists, do not use rmview -uuid to delete records relating to it from any VOB. Make sure that the view need not be used again before using this command.

View UUIDs

Each view has a universal unique identifier. For example:

52000002.4ac711cb.a391.08:00:69:02:18:22

The listing produced by a describe -long vob: command includes the UUIDs of all views for which the VOB holds checkout records and derived object records.

Controlling the size of the vista.tjf file

The file vista.tjf records updates to the VOB that result from rmview operations. vista.tjf can grow very large. For information about limiting its size, read about the file db.conf in the config_ccase reference page.

Restrictions

Identities

You must have one of the following identities:

  • View owner
  • root (UNIX® and Linux®)
  • Member of the VersionVault administrators group (VersionVault on Windows®)

Locks

No locks apply.

Mastership

(Replicated VOBs) No mastership restrictions.

Options and arguments

Confirmation step

Default
Prompt for confirmation of the specified rmview operation.
-f/orce
Suppresses confirmation prompts for:
  • Complete view removal. Confirmation is needed to proceed if some elements are checked out to the view. Proceeding has the effect of canceling the checkouts and destroying the work items; rmview removes the checkout records from the appropriate VOBs.
  • Remove view-related records. Confirmation is needed to proceed if the view still exists.

Specifying the view

Default
None.
-tag dynamic-view-tag | web-view-tag | automatic-view-tag
Specifies the view to be removed: the view tag of a dynamic, web, or automatic view.
dynamic-view-storage-dir-pname
Specifies the storage location directory where the dynamic view resides. Be sure that the current working directory is not within this view storage area.
snapshot-view-pname
Specifies the path to your snapshot view. This is the directory in which you load your files and do your work. rmview removes the view storage directory and all relevant entries from the network's view registry. Be sure that the current working directory is not anywhere within this view storage area.
snapshot-view-storage-dir-pname
Note: This option is intended for deleting view storage associated with a snapshot view that was deleted using an operating system command. Only rmview effectively deletes a view; in normal circumstances, you should specify snapshot-view-pname instead of this argument to delete a snapshot view.
Specifies the directory within a storage location where the snapshot view resides. rmview removes the view storage directory and all relevant entries from the network's view registry. Be sure that the current working directory is not within this view storage area.
copyarea-view-pname
Specifies the path to a web view's copy area. This is the directory in which you load your files and do your work. rmview removes the view storage directory and all relevant entries from the network's view registry. Be sure that the current working directory is not anywhere within this view storage area.
automatic-view-storage-pname
Specifies the path to an automatic view's storage. rmview removes the view storage directory and all relevant entries from the network's view registry.

Specifying view-related records

Default
None.
-vob vob-selector
Specifies the VOB from which view-related records are to be removed. If you omit this option, cleartool uses the VOB containing the current working directory. Specify vob-selector in the form [vob:]pname-in-vob

pname-in-vob

Pathname of the VOB tag (whether or not the VOB is mounted) or of any file system object within the VOB (if the VOB is mounted)

-avo/bs
Specifies that view-related records are to be removed from the VOBs specified by the environment variable CLEARCASE_AVOBS, or if this variable is unset, from all VOBs mounted on the current host (VersionVault).
-a/ll
Specifies that the view-related records are to be removed from all VOBs in which such records can be found.
-uui/d view-uuid
Specifies the view whose records are to be removed from one or more VOBs.

Examples

The UNIX system and Linux examples in this section are written for use in csh. If you use another shell, you may need to use different quoting and escaping conventions.

The Windows examples that include wildcards or quoting are written for use in cleartool interactive mode. If you use cleartool single-command mode, you may need to change the wildcards and quoting to make your command interpreter process the command appropriately.

In cleartool single-command mode, cmd-context represents the UNIX system and Linux shells or Windows command interpreter prompt, followed by the cleartool command. In cleartool interactive mode, cmd-context represents the interactive cleartool prompt.

  • On a UNIX® or Linux® system, delete the view storage area at /view_store/Rel2.vws.

    cmd-context  rmview /view_store/Rel2.vws

  • Delete the view storage area whose view tag is anneRel2.

    cmd-context  rmview -tag anneRel2

  • Delete the checkout and DO records for a deleted view from the current VOB. Suppress the confirmation prompt.

    cmd-context  rmview -force -uuid 249356fe.d50f11cb.a3fd.00:01:56:01:0a:4f
    Removed references to VIEW "host2:\users\vbstore\tut\old.vws"
    from VOB "\users_hw".

  • On a Windows® system, delete the snapshot view, rdc_3.2, for which the root directory is E:\library\rdc_3.2.

    cmd-context  rmview -tag E:\library\rdc_3.2

  • On a UNIX® or Linux® system, remove the snapshot view test_ssview, even though it has checkouts.

    cmd-context  rmview -tag ~usr1/test_ssview.dir
    VOB "/tmp/testvob" still has check-outs.
    Remove view "/net/peroxide/export/home/usr1/test_ssview.dir/.view.stg"
    anyway?  [no]
    yes
    Removing references from VOB "/tmp/testvob" ...
    Removed references to view
    "/net/peroxide/export/home/usr1/test_ssview.dir/.view.stg"
      from VOB "/tmp/testvob".