About recording merges that occur outside HCL VersionVault control

You can merge versions of an element manually or with any available analysis and editing tools. To update the version tree of an element with a merge that occurs outside HCL VersionVault control, follow the steps in this procedure:

  1. Check out the target version.
  2. Perform the merge with your own tools.
  3. Check in the target version.
  4. Record the merge by drawing a merge arrow from the contributors to the new version that contains the result of the merge.

After you draw the merge arrow, your merge is indistinguishable from one performed with HCL VersionVault tools.

Example on Linux or the UNIX® system

For example, use the following commands to merge a version of nextwhat.c on the enhance branch to the branch currently selected by your view: 

cleartool checkout nextwhat.c

Checkout comments for "nextwhat.c":

merge enhance branch
.

Checked out "nextwhat.c" from version "/main/1".

At this point, use your own tools to merge data into the checked-out version.

cleartool merge -to nextwhat.c -ndata -version .../enhance/LATEST

Recorded merge of "nextwhat.c".

The -ndata option suppresses the merge but creates merge arrows as if the versions had been merged.

Example on the Windows® system

For example, use the following commands to merge a version of nextwhat.c on the enhance branch to the branch currently selected by your view: 

cleartool checkout nextwhat.c

Checkout comments for "nextwhat.c":

merge enhance branch
.

Checked out "nextwhat.c" from version "\main\1".

At this point, use your own tools to merge data into the checked-out version.

cleartool merge -to nextwhat.c -ndata -version ...\enhance\LATEST

Recorded merge of "nextwhat.c".

The -ndata option suppresses the merge but creates merge arrows as if the versions had been merged.

Getting more information

For detailed information about completing this task, see the merge and version_selector reference pages in the VersionVault Command Reference.