Build and Release Workspace Strategies

For each project it is recommended that you create additional views for building and releasing. This prevents the build or release from being polluted. A build view is usually created based on the latest contents of the project integration stream or branch. This can be either a dynamic or snapshot view. For fastest build performance, a snapshot view can be used; however, the view needs to be updated first. Here's a typical convention for build view naming:

• For snapshot views:

  C:\Views\project_bld (on Windows)

  or

  /Snapshot_views/project_bld (on UNIX or Linux)

• For dynamic views:

  M:\project_bld (on Windows)

  or

  /view/project_bld (on UNIX or Linux)

where project is the name of the UCM project or Base ClearCase release, such as RatlBank_Model.

Saving Your Build or Release Config Spec

If you are using Base ClearCase and you have a complicated (multiple-line) config spec for a build or release, save it! Save the contents of the config spec, and version-control it as a normal element in ClearCase. This will allow you to quickly re-create the build from scratch if the view is removed for any reason.

Release views should be created based on specific baselines or labels to ensure completeness (not the latest contents of a stream). Here's a typical convention for release view naming:

• For snapshot views:

  C:\Views\project_rel (on Windows)

  or

  /Snapshot_views/project_rel (on UNIX or Linux)

• For dynamic views:

  M:\project_rel (on Windows)

  or

  /view/project_rel (on UNIX or Linux)

I recommend snapshot views for Integration Builds (to achieve the fastest execution times) and dynamic views for Release Builds (to take advantage of ClearCase build auditing, which is described in Chapter 9, "Build Reporting and Auditing"). This is primarily because with snapshot views less network interaction is required, and builds typically can require access to hundreds if not thousands of files. However, if you are solely interested in the fastest build time for your Integration Builds, and you are using a snapshot view, you should also take into account the load time for the snapshot view as well as the actual time to execute the build. Because dynamic views work transparently over the network, there is no load time.