CMVC FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:
MISCELLANEOUS TOPICS (USERS, DEFECTS/FEATURES, ACCESS, ETC.)
Document Number TR 29.2329
Angel Rivera, Lee Perlov
CMVC/TeamConnection Development
IBM Software Solutions
Research Triangle Park, North Carolina
Copyright (C) 1997 IBM Corp.
All rights reserved.
ii CMVC FAQ: end user tasks
ABSTRACT
This technical report provides answers to frequently asked
questions made by CMVC users with respect to miscellaneous
topics:
o End user tasks
o Defects and features
o Administration of users
o Components and authority access
o Special reports
o Notification
o Miscellaneous
ITIRC KEYWORDS
o CMVC
o components
o defects
o features
o users
o access
o notification
o reports
ABSTRACT iii
iv CMVC FAQ: end user tasks
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
ANGEL RIVERA
Mr. Rivera is an Advisory Software Engineer and team lead for the
development of CMVC 2.3. He joined IBM in 1989 and since then
has worked in the development and support of library systems.
Mr. Rivera has an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from The Univer-
sity of Texas at Austin, and B.S. in Electronic Systems Engi-
neering from the Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores
de Monterrey, Mexico.
LEE R. PERLOV
Mr. Perlov is a Staff Software Engineer in the
TeamConnection/CMVC development group. He started working for
IBM in 1985 in Gaithersburg, Md, working in the Federal Systems
Division on various projects for the United States intelligence
community. He then moved to RTP to work on library development
and support.
Mr. Perlov received a B.S.Acc degree in Accounting from the Uni-
versity of Florida in 1983. He also completed two years of grad-
uate work in the Department of Computer Science at the University
of Florida.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS v
vi CMVC FAQ: end user tasks
CONTENTS
ABSTRACT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . III
ITIRC KEYWORDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iii
ABOUT THE AUTHORS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . V
Angel Rivera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v
Lee R. Perlov . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v
FIGURES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IX
1.0 INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2.0 GENERAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.1 Brief history of deliverables for CMVC 2.3 . . . . . . 3
2.2 Is CMVC going to work with the Year 2000? . . . . . . 4
2.3 Does CMVC support encryption between the client and the
server? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.4 Does CMVC comply with military specifications? . . . . 5
2.5 Are CMVC and TeamConnection compatible between each
other? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.5.1 The big differences for users . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.5.2 The big differences for family administrators . . . 7
2.5.3 The big differences for tools integrators . . . . . 7
2.6 What are the known incompatibilities within the CMVC
versions? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.7 Clarification of sizes in Chapters 6 and 7, CMVC User's
Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.8 Using different time zones with the CMVC client and
server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.8.1 Other tricks with time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.9 What is the authentication mechanism for CMVC? . . . 10
2.10 Why a long family name (with port number) has
priority over short name? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.11 Clarification of Flag Arguments, in page 3 of
Commands Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3.0 END USER TASKS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
3.1 Sample profile for a CMVC client . . . . . . . . . . 13
3.2 How to get the first baseline in CMVC . . . . . . . 13
3.3 Usage of NULL to reset 0 characters in certain
attributes in CMVC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.4 Imbedding newline characters into comments . . . . . 18
3.4.1 Unix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
3.4.2 OS/2 and Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
3.5 How to delete an object in CMVC . . . . . . . . . . 20
3.6 Can the test records be assigned to someone other than
the environment person? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.7 What are the prerequisites for enabling/disabling
subprocesses? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Contents vii
3.8 Using Unix alias and wrappering CMVC Commands . . . 24
4.0 DEFECTS AND FEATURES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
4.1 Cannot use a binary file as input to the remarks for a
defect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
4.2 Cannot modify old remarks in a defect . . . . . . . 27
4.3 Is it normal to have duplicate verification records? 27
4.4 How to list all the defects of a component and its
children . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
4.5 Proposed workarounds for common complaints about
defects and features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
5.0 ADMINISTRATION OF USERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
5.1 Suggestion that every CMVC superuser should have at
least 2 user ids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
5.2 How to modify an email through the backdoor that has
more than 15 characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
5.3 Error 0010-655 when trying to delete a userid . . . 34
5.4 Broadcasting a message to all active CMVC users . . 34
6.0 AUTHORITY ACCESS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
6.1 Component owner cannot give obvious authority to other
users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
6.2 Confusion about component owner authority . . . . . 36
6.3 Cannot look at the contents of a file with general
authority . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
6.4 How to specify a read-only access to files in a
component structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
6.5 What is the role of the CMVC user id
"InheritedAccess"? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
6.6 How do I know if the authority has been restricted in
a component? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
6.7 Example of inherited access in a component hierarchy 39
6.8 Can the base authorities be restricted? . . . . . . 40
6.9 Additional details on restricting authority access . 40
6.10 Clarification on FileCheckIn and FileUndo authority
actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
6.11 Can I specify for files: RO Access to all . . . . . 42
7.0 SPECIAL REPORTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
7.1 Hint when using % in queries in REXX files . . . . . 43
7.2 How to list all files checked in between 2 dates . . 43
7.3 How to get a list of all components that have files in
a given release . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
7.4 To get numeric sorting, use versionid instead of
versionSID . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
7.5 Where do the numbers for defects and features come
from? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
7.6 Why does "field <> 'value'" not include null? . . . 46
7.7 Sorting defect/feature names . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
7.8 Use of 1=1 as argument to query for all instances of
an object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
7.9 How to specify dates in a query . . . . . . . . . . 48
7.10 How do I use a Report command in a shell script? . 48
viii CMVC FAQ: end user tasks
8.0 NOTIFICATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
8.1 Who gets notified when a CMVC action occurs? . . . . 51
8.2 How to remove specific notification messages from CMVC 51
8.3 Suggestion of using another account to receive
messages in CMVC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
APPENDIX A. BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
A.1 How to get electronic copies of manuals and TRs . . 54
A.1.1 IBM Intranet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
A.1.2 Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
APPENDIX B. COPYRIGHTS, TRADEMARKS AND SERVICE MARKS . . . 57
FIGURES
1. Prerequisites for disabling a subprocess. . . . . . . 22
2. Prerequisites for enabling a subprocess. . . . . . . . 23
3. Example of inherited access . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Contents ix
x CMVC FAQ: end user tasks
1.0 INTRODUCTION
This technical report provides answers to frequently asked
questions made by CMVC users with respect to miscellaneous topics
(users, defects/features, access)
This technical report covers the following topics:
o General
o End user tasks
o Defects and features
o Administration of users
o Components and authority access
o Special reports
o Notification
1.1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Many of the questions and answers that are compiled in this tech-
nical report were obtained from the CMVC forum in the IBMPC con-
ferencing disk, and from the CMVC6000 forum in the IBMUNIX
conferencing disk.
We want to thank the main participants in these electronic forums
for their support!
Also, we want to thank Dodde Stark for editing this technical
report.
Introduction 1
2 CMVC FAQ: end user tasks
2.0 GENERAL
2.1 BRIEF HISTORY OF DELIVERABLES FOR CMVC 2.3
This is a brief history of the deliverables for CMVC 2.3:
1. CMVC 2.3.0.0: December 30, 1994
The GA for CMVC 2.3 (2.3.0.0) was in a standalone CD-ROM The
actual level from our CMVC family was 2.3.0.12, but this fact
was not visible to the users.
2. CMVC 2.3.0.14: June 30, 1995
The next public delivery of CMVC was with another standalone
CD-ROM called version 2.3.0.14. From this moment on, we
started using the 3rd number to indicate the modification and
the 4th number to indicate the level. This was the last time
that we issued a standalone CD-ROM for CMVC.
3. CMVC 2.3.0.18: December 1, 1995
The next public delivery of CMVC was with level 2.3.0.18 and
we participated with the AIX Version 3 Software Solutions
Showcase CD-ROMs.
4. CMVC 2.3.0.22: June 11, 1996
The next public delivery of CMVC was with level 2.3.0.22 and
we participated with the AIX Version 4 Software Solutions
Showcase CD-ROMs, 5th edition.
5. CMVC 2.3.0.25: June 30, 1997
In May 1997, from our level 2.3.0.24 (version 2.3.0 uses 2
digits to represent the year) we branched to another release,
called 2.3.1 which uses 4 digits to represent the year and
which is Year 2000 compliant.
Then we proceeded to release 2.3.0.25 (2 digits for the year)
to the public through the external ftp site. We need to keep
working in this release because there are old platforms and
databases that we still need to support and which we do not
think is worthy to support for CMVC 2.3.1, such as AIX 3, DB2
V1, Informix 5, SunOS 4.1, HP-UX 9.
6. CMVC 2.3.1.1: June 30, 1997
General 3
Finally, at the end of June we are releasing 2.3.1.1 (4
digits for the year) to the external ftp site; only the
latest platforms and databases are handled: AIX 4, DB2 V2,
HP-UX 10, Informix 7, Solaris 2.5, Oracle 7.1/7.2 (we cannot
run on Oracle 7.3). Not all the combinations are ready yet,
but we are working on them.
2.2 IS CMVC GOING TO WORK WITH THE YEAR 2000?
QUESTION:
Is CMVC going to work with the Year 2000?
ANSWER:
CMVC 1.x and 2.3.0.x store dates with only two digits for the
year. Thus, the sorting of objects by date may give incorrect
results, because the year "1997" is represented as "97" but the
year "2000" is represented as "00". CMVC does not manipulate in
any way the year information and relies on the underline database
for the sorting.
In mid-1997, the release 2.3.1.1 was branched from 2.3.0.25 in
order to use 4 digits to represent the year, and thus, 2.3.1.x is
Year 2000 Compliant.
2.3 DOES CMVC SUPPORT ENCRYPTION BETWEEN THE CLIENT AND THE
SERVER?
QUESTION:
Does CMVC support encryption between the client and the server?
ANSWER:
CMVC does not explicitly support any encrypting mechanism.
However, as long as the CMVC server and CMVC client are not aware
of any data encryption, it would be possible to do encryption
(probably by hardware) in the communications channel.
4 CMVC FAQ: end user tasks
2.4 DOES CMVC COMPLY WITH MILITARY SPECIFICATIONS?
QUESTION:
Does CMVC comply with military specifications, such as MIL-2167
and MIL-0937?
ANSWER:
CMVC does not have to conform to military specifications, but the
organization using CMVC needs to do it. In order for the organ-
ization to comply with these specifications, the organization
must collect certain information and follow a certain process.
Through its configurable fields, user exits, selectable processes
and e-mail notification, CMVC can support an organization that
needs to operate according to military standards. In installa-
tions like this, you most certainly need a consultant that knows
how to configure CMVC to use the labels and definitions from the
military specifications. Also, the development organization of
the customer usually decides to what extent they must follow the
military specifications and which processes to use during various
development phases. Here, the configurability of the software CM
tool is essential, as it needs to support their process and
collect the information they need.
2.5 ARE CMVC AND TEAMCONNECTION COMPATIBLE BETWEEN EACH OTHER?
QUESTION:
Are CMVC and TeamConnection compatible between each other?
ANSWER:
Although TeamConnection is the successor product to CMVC and
there is a lot of common functionality between these products,
there is NO compatibility between CMVC and TeamConnection. That
is, a CMVC client cannot work with a TeamConnection server, nor
can a TeamConnection client work with a CMVC server.
TeamConnection provides migration tools to help migrate a CMVC
family to TeamConnection.
For more information on CMVC/TeamConnection, please see the fol-
lowing technical reports:
29.2253 Comparison between CMVC 2.3 and TeamConnection 2
29.2254 Migrating CMVC 2.3 to TeamConnection 2
General 5
The big differences between TeamConnection and CMVC are shown in
the next subsections, which were extracted from the TR 29.2253
mentioned above.
2.5.1 The big differences for users
____________________________________
Here are a few things that will be significant changes for CMVC
users migrating to TeamConnection.
o The names of several objects have changed. For example,
tracks are now workareas and levels are now drivers.
o The versioning scheme is different:
- Files (parts) are NOT versioned by checkout/checkin, but
by the number of freezes in a workarea.
- Version numbers are named relative to the workarea (for
example, the part a.c can have a version number work1:3).
- Drivers and releases are essentially specialized
workareas, and therefore versioned.
o Workareas are much more important than tracks and behave dif-
ferently.
- A workarea needs to be specified in all teamc part
-checkin and -checkout commands. Even if you are just
using TeamConnection to store parts in a single release
without any defects or features, you need to create a
workarea and periodically integrate and commit your
changes.
- You will periodically be required to refresh your
workarea before you perform actions like integrating the
workarea, or checking parts in or out. For example, if
you try to check out a file that another user has updated
in a different workarea, but has not committed, you will
need to refresh from that workarea.
- You must freeze a workarea (explicitly or implicitly) to
create new versions of parts changed in that workarea.
o When performing queries, like filling in a filter window, you
are often querying within a context instead of the entire
family. You need to specify that context by entering
release, driver or workarea. If you do not provide enough
context you will get an error or not be able to press the OK
button.
6 CMVC FAQ: end user tasks
2.5.2 The big differences for family administrators
____________________________________________________
Here are a few things that will be significant changes for CMVC
Family Administrators migrating to TeamConnection.
o There is a single installation for the TeamConnection soft-
ware and the ObjectStore database (which is used by
TeamConnection). You do not need to be an expert at a data-
base before administering TeamConnection families.
NOTE: Object Design Inc. provides courses on the adminis-
tration of ObjectStore.
o All of the data is stored in the database, including files.
You will not need to know SCCS in order to keep the database
and file versions synchronized. This also makes backup much
easier.
o Most of the administration commands have changed. See the
TEAMCONNECTION ADMINISTRATOR'S GUIDE for more details.
Further, a separate GUI is provided for family administration
on the Intel operating systems. It is planned to port the
GUI to the Unix operating systems.
o TeamConnection build administration requires maintaining
pools of build machines so that TeamConnection can properly
perform release builds. This means that TeamConnection
requires more extensive planning and management for the
network.
o The migration facility is different in TeamConnection than in
CMVC. Further, we recommend you follow the process docu-
mented in the Technical Report, MIGRATION FROM CMVC 2.3 TO
TEAMCONNECTION 2.0.
2.5.3 The big differences for tools integrators
________________________________________________
CMVC relied on framework tools such as SDE/WORKBENCH to provide
tool integration. SDE/Workbench provided build integration
through "make", GUI integration and messaging, etc.
TeamConnection is actually a point of integration, and it pro-
vides:
o A generic build interface that allows for traditional builds,
as well as packaging and distribution.
o A client cache that allows client applications to extract and
update data in the TeamConnection family without calling
client commands.
General 7
o An API to allow client applications to perform TeamConnection
tasks using function calls instead of client line commands.
2.6 WHAT ARE THE KNOWN INCOMPATIBILITIES WITHIN THE CMVC
VERSIONS?
QUESTION:
What are the known incompatibilities within the CMVC versions?
ANSWER:
CMVC version 2 is not compatible with CMVC Version 1 nor with any
version of TeamConnection.
Any CMVC V2 client can work with any CMVC V2 server, the
exceptions are the OS/2 and Windows client that require at least
a CMVC 2.2 server.
There are no other restrictions with respect to operating
systems. For example, a CMVC V2.1 client in HP-UX can work with
a CMVC V2.3 server on AIX.
2.7 CLARIFICATION OF SIZES IN CHAPTERS 6 AND 7, CMVC USER'S
REFERENCE
QUESTION:
Clarification of sizes in Chapters 6 and 7, CMVC User's Refer-
ence.
ANSWER:
The sizes for most of the fields in the Chapter 6 (Views for
Queries) and Chapter 7 (Tables for Queries) of the CMVC User's
Reference manual show a number that is higher than the one actu-
ally used by the CMVC server which works with a number of charac-
ters that is half that original number.
This means that if Release Name has a size of 31 (characters) it
can only accept 15 bytes.
This method forces a limitation of Single Byte Character Set
(SBCS) and Double Byte Character Set (DBCS) strings to the number
of characters. This means that although the Release Name has the
field length of 31 bytes, it can accommodate only 15 SBCS charac-
ters and 7 DBCS characters.
8 CMVC FAQ: end user tasks
NOTE: The reason for a 31 bytes is that the field allows 2 bytes
for each character, plus 1 byte for the NULL to terminate the
string.
2.8 USING DIFFERENT TIME ZONES WITH THE CMVC CLIENT AND SERVER
QUESTION:
Without actually changing the time zone used on the host, is
there any way to convert dates by time zones within CMVC?
ANSWER:
The Date and Time is a field obtained from the database (it is a
string), and it is the date and time of the CMVC server.
There are no functions in CMVC that will change the value of this
string to accommodate for the different time zones between the
server and the client.
2.8.1 Other tricks with time
_____________________________
There are several other cases where it is useful to change the
system time temporarily in order to do something in CMVC. We do
not strongly recommend these, but some of our customers have
found these steps useful.
o Checking out a file that has not been changed in over a year.
SCCS returns a warning when checking out a file that has not
been changed in over a year. This is distracting for CMVC.
If you have lots of such files to change, it is better to
backdate your system while checking out, then set the system
back to current time to check in.
o Restoring from an archive.
If you need to restore from an old archive, that is, create a
new family from an archive. Rolling back the date of the
system will give a consistent date for all restored objects,
including the database.
General 9
2.9 WHAT IS THE AUTHENTICATION MECHANISM FOR CMVC?
QUESTION:
What is the authentication mechanism for CMVC? How could I
become another CMVC user?
ANSWER:
The authentication mechanism for CMVC is as follows:
o You need to be authorized to access CMVC from a known host
and as a known CMVC user id. For example, in the case of
user Angel Rivera that logs in as "rivera" to the host
"cordoba" (a UNIX host) and wants to interact with CMVC with
the CMVC userid "rivera".
o However, if we rely only on those 2 variables, then anybody
that has access to the host "cordoba" could login into a CMVC
family as a superuser, and possibly cause havoc in the
family.
o Therefore, a third variable comes into play: because CMVC
does not have passwords for users, but the UNIX operating
system does, then CMVC forces to you login into the operating
system (and thus, you have to provide a password for
authentication to the operating system).
When you do this login action, you have to use a name; in
this example is the system login "rivera". We called it the
system login id, and this is the 3rd variable that is needed.
Because the OS/2 and Windows operating systems do not have a
login mechanism, the CMVC_USER and USER variables are used as
the system login.
o So you need to have an authorized set of these 3 variables
registered with CMVC in order to be authenticated as a valid
user.
This scheme allows to have multiple roles with CMVC. Contin-
uing with the example, the user has both a CMVC normal user
id "rivera" and a CMVC superuser id "su_angel", but only one
system login: "rivera". Notice that this user does not have
a special UNIX account called "su_angel". Thus, the user has
2 hosts lists, both of which have the same system login
(rivera) and host, and one host list has the CMVC user id of
"rivera" and the other has the user id of "su_angel"
o Unfortunately, CMVC is NOT consistent with the usage of Login
and Userid. Sometimes they are mixed up, and this causes
confusion, specially with the line commands, which were
created first in the history of the evolution of CMVC. For-
10 CMVC FAQ: end user tasks
tunately, the GUI tries to alleviate this problem and it is
more consistent with the terms.
2.10 WHY A LONG FAMILY NAME (WITH PORT NUMBER) HAS PRIORITY OVER
SHORT NAME?
QUESTION:
Why a long family name (such as familyName@hostName@4321) has
priority over short name (such as familyName or
familyName@hostName?
ANSWER:
o The long family name format is:
familyName@hostName@portNumber
When you specify the hostName and port number, CMVC does not
do any name resolution and thus, this format has precedence
over the short family name (see next paragraph). Thus, you
can put anything you want as the "familyName" and you will
still connect to the specified port on the specified host.
o The short family name format is:
familyName
When you specify just the family name without the @'s, CMVC
uses the name to find the host name and port number from the
nameserver (or the local /etc/hosts file) and the
/etc/services file.
2.11 CLARIFICATION OF FLAG ARGUMENTS, IN PAGE 3 OF COMMANDS
REFERENCE
QUESTION:
Clarification of Flag Arguments, in page 3 of Commands Reference
ANSWER:
The "Name" value that follows a flag of a CMVC command has
another restriction besides the ones mentioned in the table in
page 3 of the CMVC Commands Reference:
The Name cannot begin with a + (plus) or a - (minus) character.
This limitation is needed to avoid confusion with other Flags,
which always begin with any of these 2 characters.
General 11
12 CMVC FAQ: end user tasks
3.0 END USER TASKS
3.1 SAMPLE PROFILE FOR A CMVC CLIENT
QUESTION:
Is there a sample profile ready-to-use for a CMVC client?
ANSWER:
Starting with CMVC 2.3.0.18, we are providing an excellent sample
profile for a CMVC client. We strongly recommend that every
client, regardless of the expertise of the user, should use the
CMVC client sample profile as the profile for the CMVC client (or
at least to be used as the basis for the profile). We are con-
stantly adding new environment variables and adding new hints and
tips.
The client sample profile has variables that are dependent on the
operating system and which are commented out; it is the responsi-
bility of the CMVC user to review the entire profile and uncom-
ment those variables that are appropriate.
The CMVC client sample profile is located in:
/usr/lpp/cmvc/samples/profile.user
3.2 HOW TO GET THE FIRST BASELINE IN CMVC
QUESTION:
Now that CMVC is installed and ready to be used, what should I do
to get the first baseline of the files that I have in my work-
station and that I want to store in CMVC?
ANSWER:
If you are a novice user, it is recommended to use the CMVC GUI
for now. This example will emphasize it. If you are using the
CMVC GUI for OS/2 or Windows, then you will find everything you
need in the "selected" menu. In UNIX, use the "actions" and
"show" menus.
Here are the steps to follow to obtain your first baseline of the
files to be stored in CMVC by using tracks and levels, which are
strongly recommended for normal production work.
End user tasks 13
1. The CMVC family administrator or a superuser needs to create
the following:
o Users and their host list entries.
o The component hierarchy.
o The release or releases.
o The authority for the users to access the component hier-
archy.
2. Ensure that the process configuration for the main component
where you will open the initial feature has the following
subprocesses:
o dsrFeature is probably on but not necessary for you right
now
3. Ensure that the process configuration for your release has
the following subprocesses:
o "track" should be "yes".
o "approval" is probably "yes" but is not necessary for you
right now.
o "fix" should be "yes".
o "level" should be "yes".
o "test" is probably "yes" but is not necessary for you
right now.
4. To exploit the values from the Options (UNIX) or Settings
(OS/2 and Windows) window, you could setup the following
default values:
For UNIX, OS/2 and Windows:
o Relative directory:
Specify the full path name of the directory that is the
top one that has the beginning of your file structure.
For example, let's suppose that you have the following
files in your workstation and you want to create them in
CMVC:
/home/user1/src/cat/file1
/home/user1/src/file2
/home/user1/makefile
Later on when you extract the files from CMVC you want to
preserve the original meaningful directory path:
src/cat/file1
src/file2
makefile
In this case you need to specify that the relative direc-
tory is:
14 CMVC FAQ: end user tasks
/home/user1
For OS/2 and Windows only:
a. Component.
b. Release.
5. Bring up the Features window.
From the pull down menu, create a feature which will be used
to create the files into CMVC from the files in your work-
station to obtain your first baseline.
6. Refresh the list of the Features window in order to see the
entry for the new feature.
7. If dsrFeature is on, you need to perform the "design, size,
and review" steps, by highlighting the feature and selecting
the proper action from the pull down menu.
You need to provide a value for the remarks when doing the
design step. However, for the other steps, you may not need
to specify remarks.
8. Accept the feature. This action moves the feature to the
Working state.
9. Create a track for your feature and the desired release.
If the approval subprocess is active for the release, then
the track is created in the Accept state. Otherwise, the
track is created in the Fix state (we are assuming that this
subprocess is active for this example).
10. From the Features window, highlight the desired feature and
select the action Show Tracks. This will bring up the Tracks
window.
11. From the Tracks window then you could select to show the
Approval Records (if using the approval subprocess) or the
Fix Records.
12. If the approval subprocess is on, then you need to show the
Approval records for your track and accept them; you could
also abstain.
Any of the above actions will move the track to the Fix
state.
However, if you reject the approval records, then the track
does not move to the Fix state.
End user tasks 15
13. Once a track is in the Fix state, then you can now handle
files.
From the CMVC Task window you could bring up the Files window
and select the Create action from the pulldown menu.
You could use the Choices button next to the path name field.
This will show you all the files that are available from the
relative directory specified in the settings.
NOTE: When using OS/2 and Windows, the file names are shown
IN UPPERCASE (they are provided in this format by the Oper-
ating System, though). However, if you want to develop in
multiple platforms such as UNIX (which is case sensitive),
then we recommend that the files should be created in lower-
case.
If you care about the permissions of your files, then create
at the same time those files that have the same permissions.
When handling a list that has multiple files in the same
action, CMVC takes the file permissions from the first file
and uses them for the rest of the files in the list.
14. Because each file in CMVC is associated with a component,
then whenever a file change is done (create, checkin, delete,
rename) then a fix record is created for each affected compo-
nent.
The idea behind this concept is that the component owner
should be aware of the file changes and
approve/abstain/reject them.
15. After you have finished creating and checking in the files
from your workstation, then you are ready to complete the fix
records.
From the Track window, highlight the desired track and select
the action that shows the Fix records.
The owner for each component involved in the track should
handle the fix record and complete it.
This actions moves the track to the Integrate state.
NOTE: You need to have level process on at this point, or
the track will move all the way to complete.
16. From the CMVC Tasks window select the Levels window. Then
from the Levels window create a new level for the desired
release.
16 CMVC FAQ: end user tasks
A level is a very useful object in CMVC and is used to gather
tracks (and the associated file changes) that need to be
built together.
17. Create a level member for the track.
One way to accomplish this action is by highlighting the
desired level and then performing the action Add Level
Member.
18. Perform a "delta" level extract to a new directory in order
to verify that everything is checked in correctly.
19. If you discover that a file is missing, then do the fol-
lowing:
a. Delete the level member.
b. Change the track to the fix state.
c. Change the fix record to active.
d. Go back to 13 on page 16
20. If all the files are now in the level, then commit and com-
plete the level.
That should give you a permanent baseline to start from. You
can do later a full extract of this level in order to obtain
this baseline.
3.3 USAGE OF NULL TO RESET 0 CHARACTERS IN CERTAIN ATTRIBUTES IN
CMVC
QUESTION:
Usage of NULL/null to reset 0 characters in certain attributes in
CMVC.
ANSWER:
Currently it is possible to specify the NULL or null keyword to
reset to null (that is, to 0 characters) certain attributes in
CMVC, but this is possible only under the following circum-
stances:
o Only from the line command (it is not possible to do it from
the GUI) and using the flag -modify.
o Only values that can have free-text can be changed to null,
such as the reference field in defect/feature by using the
keyword null (or NULL) such as:
Defect -modify 247 -reference null
End user tasks 17
The use of "null" in this instance will actually change the
contents to zero characters, and will not use the word "null"
in the reference field: that is, the field will be blank.
The exceptions to the use of keyword "null" to make null an
attribute are:
o Cannot use for configurable fields, such as "target" in
defect/feature.
o Cannot use for fields that expect a configurable value (that
have a "choices" button in the GUI), such as "severity" in
defect/feature.
o Cannot use for required fields, such as "abstract" in
defect/feature.
o Cannot reset to null a free-text field that accepts blank
spaces.
If you need to 'blank' an attribute, it is possible to use the
line command with the -modify flag to reset the attribute to a
single blank character by using " " as shown in the following
example:
Defect -modify 247 -reference " "
However, this procedure does not actually reset the contents of
the attribute to 0 characters. Any searches that use this field,
should look for " " instead of using the SQL operators 'is null'
or 'is not null'.
3.4 IMBEDDING NEWLINE CHARACTERS INTO COMMENTS
The CMVC GUI makes it easy to imbed newline characters into
remarks, but the command line leaves you to figure this out on
your own. Here are some useful techniques:
3.4.1 Unix
___________
Unix makes it very easy to imbed newline characters into a
string:
o Escaping the newline:
You can escape a newline character with a backslash, '/'.
For example:
Defect -open ... -remarks "This is line one \
and this is line two"
18 CMVC FAQ: end user tasks
o You can also redirect from standard input:
You define an "end-of-file" character string (such as !EOF),
then redirect from standard input. This uses a feature of
the CMVC command line interface to support redirection of
standard input. Here is an example:
Defect -open ... -remarks - -family octo <<!EOF
This is line one
and this is line two
!EOF
3.4.1.1 Quoting rules in Unix shell scripts
In the above examples, quotes (") were used. There are some
important quoting rules to keep in mind when using Unix:
o No quotes allows the shell do anything it wants.
There is a very long list of operations performed on the com-
mands you type in a command shell. The most obvious are the
ones listed below. In only a few cases is the order really
important. If the two examples below are not sufficient,
look at a book on Unix shell scripts.
o Quotes delay interpretation until after filenames are
expanded.
This is a subtlety, but in order for many commands to inter-
pret a string like "*.c", it is necessary to avoid letting
the shell convert the string to something like: a.c b.c c.c
That is what quotes do for you.
However, quotes do not prevent the shell from value substi-
tution. For example, "$HOME" will be substituted for some-
thing like: /home/guest
Quotes are usually what you want to use.
o Nothing that begins with a dollar sign ($) is interpreted in
the current shell.
A string like '$HOME' will print exactly as seen, without
$HOME being replaced with the value for the environment vari-
able. This is useful when you want to pass something to a
shell script for interpretation unaltered. If you pass
'$HOME' as an argument to a shell script, it will arrive as
$HOME and be subject to interpretation there.
End user tasks 19
3.4.2 OS/2 and Windows
_______________________
This should also work in the Windows operating system variations.
OS/2 is very stubborn when it comes to imbedded cr/lf characters,
but it is possible.
o Escape character: &caret.
In OS/2, the escape character is a caret, &caret.. In order
to continue a remarks you must do the following:
defect -open -remarks "this is a long"&caret.
More? "description of my problem"
You will be prompted with "More?", but the line will con-
tinue.
You will find that the escape feature in OS/2 is more limited
than the one in UNIX, but the basic capability is there.
o Redirecting standard input.
- Just like Unix, you can use '-' as the value for remarks
in a CMVC line command, then redirect the value from a
file.
Defect -open ... -remarks "This is line one &caret.
and this is line two"
- OS/2 has different syntax for redirecting from standard
input. Start by redirecting from the console, "<con:",
then conclude the input string with Ctrl-Z in the first
column of a line. Here is an example:
Defect -open ... -remarks - -family octo <con:
This is line one
and this is line two
<Ctrl-Z>
3.5 HOW TO DELETE AN OBJECT IN CMVC
QUESTION:
As a test, I created a component named test1, and then imme-
diately deleted it.
I did a Show All Components query and the test1 component still
shows up. How do I delete a component such that it will no
longer be listed on a Show All Components query?
ANSWER:
20 CMVC FAQ: end user tasks
When you "delete" most of the objects in CMVC, they are not
really deleted, but instead, the Drop Date (or similar field) is
filled in. This indicates to CMVC that the object is conceptu-
ally deleted. Then, if you want to recreate the "deleted" object
later on, CMVC will just erase the value of the Drop Date.
If you do not want to see the "deleted" items, you will need to
specify the following in the query:
and dropDate is null
For example, to list all the components, except the deleted ones,
you can issue the following query from the Components window:
name like '%' and dropDate is null order by name
However, there are other objects for which the delete action
means to be completely deleted from the database, because these
objects do not have a dropDate field. These objects are the
lists, such as host list, fix record list, etc.
3.6 CAN THE TEST RECORDS BE ASSIGNED TO SOMEONE OTHER THAN THE
ENVIRONMENT PERSON?
QUESTION:
We are using the test subprocess and we have a large number of
testers. The test records are created with the environment
person as the owner. We do not want to assign all the test
records to only one person and then ask that person to reassign
them to the other testers.
If we do not manually change the owner of the test records, is
there a way for tester A to see what is their waiting workload
(defects they opened which have unmarked test records)?
ANSWER:
One suggestion is to use the Notification Lists.
The CMVC family administrator could create a new notification
group which will include the TrackTest action, and then the
testers could subscribe to that notification group for the compo-
nent in which the release was created.
NOTE: The only purpose for creating a release in a given compo-
nent is to inherit the access lists and the notification lists
for that component.
End user tasks 21
3.7 WHAT ARE THE PREREQUISITES FOR ENABLING/DISABLING
SUBPROCESSES?
QUESTION:
What are the prerequisites for enabling/disabling subprocesses?
ANSWER:
Because of the asynchronous relationship between the predefined
CMVC process configuration and the CMVC process being used by
releases and components, the family administrators should prop-
erly manage the update of these predefined CMVC process (espe-
cially for deleting and modifying existing predefined CMVC
processes). If it is mismanaged, user confusion may result but
the integrity of the CMVC configuration will not be impacted in
any way.
The prerequisites for disabling a subprocess are shown below:
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| Figure 1. Prerequisites for disabling a subprocess. |
+-------------------------+-------------------------------------+
| SUBPROCESS | PREREQUISITE |
+-------------------------+-------------------------------------+
| dsrDefect, dsrFeature | No defect or feature owned by the |
| | component is in design, size or |
| | review state. |
+-------------------------+-------------------------------------+
| verifyDefect, | No verification record owned by the |
| verifyFeature | component is in ready state. |
+-------------------------+-------------------------------------+
| approve | No track associated with the |
| | release is in the approve state. |
+-------------------------+-------------------------------------+
| fix | All fix records associated with the |
| | release are in complete state. |
+-------------------------+-------------------------------------+
| level | All levels are either in complete |
| | or working state, and, no track is |
| | in integrate state. |
+-------------------------+-------------------------------------+
| test | No test associated with the release |
| | is in ready state. |
+-------------------------+-------------------------------------+
The prerequisites for enabling a subprocess are shown below:
22 CMVC FAQ: end user tasks
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| Figure 2. Prerequisites for enabling a subprocess. |
+-------------------------+-------------------------------------+
| SUBPROCESS | PREREQUISITE |
+-------------------------+-------------------------------------+
| dsrDefect, dsrFeature | None |
+-------------------------+-------------------------------------+
| verifyDefect, | None |
| verifyFeature | |
+-------------------------+-------------------------------------+
| approve | An approver list(4) must exist for |
| | the release. |
+-------------------------+-------------------------------------+
| fix | None |
+-------------------------+-------------------------------------+
| level | No track is in fix or integrate |
| | state. |
+-------------------------+-------------------------------------+
| test | An environment list(4) must exist |
| | for the release. |
+-------------------------+-------------------------------------+
1. In general, the prerequisite is checked on a component when
the process of the component is being modified. However, in
case a defect or feature is assigned to a new component, the
prerequisite is checked on a defect (or feature).
2. When the 'verify' subprocess is disabled and after the CMVC
server successfully validates the prerequisites, the CMVC
server will remove all the 'notReady' verification record
associated with the component. If a defect (or feature) is
re-assigned from a component with 'verify' subprocess to
another component without this subprocess, then CMVC server
will remove all the 'notReady' verification record for that
defect (or feature).
Those deleted verification records will not be recreated at
the time the 'verify' subprocess is enabled or the defect (or
feature) is re-assigned to a component with 'verify' sub-
process, but are recreated at the time when the defect and/or
feature are ready for verification.
3. When 'test' subprocess is disabled and after successfully
validating the prerequisite, CMVC server will remove all the
'notReady' test record associated with the release.
Those deleted test records will not be recreated at the time
the 'test' subprocess is enabled but are recreated at the
time when the track are ready for testing.
4. Flags are provided in the RELEASE -CREATE command to allow
the user to create the approver list and environment list.
Example:
End user tasks 23
Release -create releaseName -process processName -environment envName
-tester testerName -approver approverName
3.8 USING UNIX ALIAS AND WRAPPERING CMVC COMMANDS
For some CMVC users, a specialized client interface makes more
sense than the current, very flexible and complex, command line
interface. For many users, they need to interface with such a
small part of CMVC (for example, only opening defects and proc-
essing verification records) that the GUI is also more than they
need. These customers can do two relatively simple changes
outside of CMVC:
1. Aliasing commands.
Unix provides a simple aliasing tool for Korn shell. There
is also one for C-Shell, but we will only demonstrate the
Korn shell here. All the 'alias' Korn shell command does is
to replace the first word typed by the user with a string
that can be more than one word long. Here is an example:
alias NewDef="Defect -open -family ${CMVC_FAMILY} -sev 3 ... -remarks"
Now, when a user types "NewDef "A new problem ..."", a defect
is opened with the remarks specified, and everything else
hardcoded or taken from environment variables.
2. Wrappering a command.
This is a very simple concept, and if you need to do this you
probably already have. However, if you are new to CMVC you
might not have gotten around to it yet.
Here are some reasons to wrapper a command:
o Save typing, such as when certain parameters are always
the same
o When users need to "become" several different CMVC users,
based on the task they are performing.
o When starting the GUI or running commands for several
different families.
Since your users are already pointing to the cmvc/bin and
cmvc/samples directories, there is no reason to not add shell
scripts of your own to the samples directory. If you are
worried about overwriting your tools when you do a CMVC
upgrade, then put your tools in another directory and symbol-
ically link the files into the samples directory. If you
look closely at the CMVC installation, you will see we make
use of symbolic links.
24 CMVC FAQ: end user tasks
As for the actual tools, just pick a name (such as NewDef),
put the file into the samples directory and make it execut-
able. By the way, we provide many samples with CMVC. The
following is a simple but effective start:
#!/usr/bin/ksh
echo Executing $0:
echo parameters: $*
End user tasks 25
26 CMVC FAQ: end user tasks
4.0 DEFECTS AND FEATURES
4.1 CANNOT USE A BINARY FILE AS INPUT TO THE REMARKS FOR A
DEFECT
QUESTION:
While opening a defect, when entering remarks, there is an option
to insert the contents of an existing file. However, when trying
to insert a file that has binary characters in it, we get a
partial file of the ascii up to the binary character. In other
words the text is cut at the binary character. Does the remarks
field take only ascii characters?
ANSWER:
Yes, only non-control characters are allowed in the remarks.
4.2 CANNOT MODIFY OLD REMARKS IN A DEFECT
QUESTION:
I discovered a typo in the remarks that I used to open a defect.
Now I would like to fix the typo, but I cannot modify these old
remarks.
ANSWER:
The remarks are part of the audit trail for a defect or feature;
this audit trail cannot be modified, it can only be appended,
that is, you can only add new text to it, but you cannot delete
or modify old text.
4.3 IS IT NORMAL TO HAVE DUPLICATE VERIFICATION RECORDS?
QUESTION:
When showing verification records of a defect, we got multiple
entries with the same defect number but different originators.
Is this normal? What is the best way to close these defects?
ANSWER:
Defects and features 27
Assuming that other defects or features were returned as dupli-
cates of the defect with the duplicate verification records, this
is normal behavior.
Each owner of a verification record has to accept, reject or
abstain on his/her record for the defect to get closed. This
allows submitters of defects or features that were returned as
duplicates to verify that the change they wanted actually got
implemented.
4.4 HOW TO LIST ALL THE DEFECTS OF A COMPONENT AND ITS CHILDREN
QUESTION:
How to do I list the defects of a component and its children?
ANSWER:
Anyplace where you can specify compName='xyz', you can substitute
it with the following:
compid in
(select childId from CompMemberView where parentCompName='xyz')
You will have to do this from the entry field at the bottom of
the query window, but you can save the query to the task list or
as a default query.
NOTE: Some databases are case sensitive. The correct case for
each database field is shown in the manual CMVC USER'S REFERENCE.
4.5 PROPOSED WORKAROUNDS FOR COMMON COMPLAINTS ABOUT DEFECTS AND
FEATURES
o What to do when a verification record is rejected?
One design problem of CMVC with respect to defects is that
when a verification record is rejected, then the defect is
moved to the state 'closed' instead of reopening the defect
or opening a new defect.
You can use the user exit cloneDefectSilent as explained in
/usr/lpp/cmvc/samples/server.samples to clone the existing
defect when the verification is rejected.
o A better way to use verification records
28 CMVC FAQ: end user tasks
Set authorities so that every user can accept/reject their
own verification records, then abstain everyone else's ver-
ification records. In that way, only one person verifies a
defect/feature. This could also benefit from a user exit.
o Showing relationship between defects and features during
development.
Use the reference field on defects to point to related fea-
tures.
Use naming conventions to show relationships. For example,
if the feature is 1410, then the defects start with 1410.1
and continue by incrementing the last digit: 1410.2, 1410.3,
etc.
Defects and features 29
30 CMVC FAQ: end user tasks
5.0 ADMINISTRATION OF USERS
5.1 SUGGESTION THAT EVERY CMVC SUPERUSER SHOULD HAVE AT LEAST 2
USER IDS
QUESTION:
Suggestion that every CMVC superuser should have at least 2 user
ids.
ANSWER:
It is strongly recommended that every CMVC superuser in your
family should have at least 2 CMVC user ids: one as a normal user
and another as a superuser. Furthermore, only when doing CMVC
tasks that require superuser authority should the CMVC superuser
id be used; for all other CMVC activities, the non-superuser id
should be used.
The reason for this recommendation is to avoid that, by accident,
a CMVC superuser could bypass the normal safeguards of CMVC and
cause problems or confusion with other users. For example, John
is at the same time a CMVC superuser, a releaseLead for rel-A and
a normal developer for rel-B; he can add level members to a level
in rel-A, but he should not do it for rel-B. However, if John is
always using CMVC as a superuser, then it could be possible that
John could successfully add, by accident, a level member in
rel-B. If John only uses the CMVC superuser id for superuser-
related tasks, and uses a normal userid for the majority of his
CMVC tasks, then John would be prevented by CMVC to add a level-
member for rel-B.
Based on our experience, we recommend that all the CMVC superuser
ids should be easily identifiable, such as by adding the prefix
"su_" to the normal CMVC user id. In this example, John would
have his normal userid "john" and his CMVC superuser id
"su_john". In that way, John can easily known when he is working
as a superuser with CMVC.
Administration of users 31
5.2 HOW TO MODIFY AN EMAIL THROUGH THE BACKDOOR THAT HAS MORE
THAN 15 CHARACTERS
QUESTION:
I am trying to enter an email address that has more than 15 char-
acters and I get the error message 0010-149.
Is there a fix for this problem? Is there a workaround?
ANSWER:
In CMVC 2.3.0.18 we fixed a limitation in the handling of the
userid of the email address (the field before the @ "at" sign).
The problem was that only the first 15 characters were accepted,
and if this field had more than 15 characters, the message
0010-149 was shown.
o Solution:
To upgrade to the CMVC version 2.3.0.18 or later.
o Workaround:
If the migration to the latest CMVC release is not feasible
at this time, then in some cases, it might be necessary to
modify the address field for a user that has more than 15
characters (such as: 12345678901234567890@host) and it is
possible to do that by bypassing CMVC and directly using the
SQL statements. By the way, this is the method used by the
'mkdb' when creating the CMVC database.
NOTE: Warning: before you follow the steps below, make sure
that you have a backup of your database and of your CMVC
family. If you make a mistake in the SQL statements, you may
corrupt the database, and you will need to restore the latest
backup.
1. Logon as the CMVC family administrator.
2. Connect to the database, such as:
db2 connect to <family>
3. Go into interactive SQL; in DB2 (command line processor)
type:
db2
4. Find out the internal userid for the CMVC user whose
address needs to be modified (example is shown below)
32 CMVC FAQ: end user tasks
db2 => select id,name,address from Users where login='doe'
***
put the user name here
A sample output is shown below; you need to validate the
name and address fields.
ID NAME ADDRESS
------- ----------------------- -----------------------------
10 John Doe short@carvm3
Note that the current example complies with the limit of
15 characters in the first field of the address (before
the @, "at" sign).
5. Issue the following modify command (one single line),
where the id field is the id found in step 4 (first
field; in the example is 10):
update Users set address='12345678901234567890@carvm3' where id=10
******************** **
place here your value user id
You can specify a value that has more than 15 characters
in the first field (before the @ "at" sign); in the
example there are 16 characters.
6. Commit the transaction (otherwise the value will not be
seen by CMVC), by doing:
commit work
7. Repeat step 4, and verify that the data is correct:
db2 => select id,name,address from Users where login='doe'
***
ID NAME ADDRESS
------- ----------------------- ----------------------------
10 John Doe 12345678901234567890@carvm3
Note that the new value has more than 15 characters in
the first field of the address.
8. Terminate the DB session:
terminate
Administration of users 33
5.3 ERROR 0010-655 WHEN TRYING TO DELETE A USERID
QUESTION:
I am trying to delete some userids and I am getting the message:
0010-655 You cannot delete user xxx. This user currently has
access. You must delete all access for this user
before this user can be deleted.
ANSWER:
The problem is that the user is a member of one or more authority
access groups, and you have to first delete the user from these
groups:
1. Using the GUI, from the Authority Access window, use the Open
List or Filter dialog to find out all the access groups that
the desired userid is a member of.
2. Using the GUI, from the list of items returned by the pre-
vious step, highlight the items and invoke the delete action.
3. Then you may try to delete the user again.
5.4 BROADCASTING A MESSAGE TO ALL ACTIVE CMVC USERS
QUESTION:
Is there an easy way to send a message to all active CMVC
clients?
It could be necessary in case of an unplanned shutdown or to
announce that a general problem has been solved.
ANSWER:
You may want to use the sample /usr/lpp/cmvc/samples/sendMailTo.
34 CMVC FAQ: end user tasks
6.0 AUTHORITY ACCESS
6.1 COMPONENT OWNER CANNOT GIVE OBVIOUS AUTHORITY TO OTHER USERS
QUESTION:
Component owner cannot give obvious authority to other users
ANSWER:
In CMVC 2.3.0.0 we updated the access authority groups to fill a
gap. The componentlead is now a superset of developer+, and the
releaselead is a superset of builder.
Originally, the shipped authority groups had some holes in the
authorities which caused confusion, such as the fact that a
developer+ has more FixYZ actions than the componentlead, which
causes an error when a component owner tries to give authority of
developer+ to a new user (the error says that the componentlead
cannot give an authority that the component lead does not have,
such as the FixYZ).
To correct this problem the following actions were added and are
applied automatically in new families, but which need to be added
manually into existing families.
1. Add to componentlead the following actions in authority.ld:
DefectModify
FixActive
FixComplete
FixDelete
2. Add to the releaselead the following actions in authority.ld:
LevelAssign
LevelCheck
LevelCommit
LevelComplete
LevelCreate
LevelDelete
LevelModify
MemberCreate
MemberDelete
SizeCreate
Authority access 35
3. Stop the cmvc daemons and run chauth to reload the contents
of the authority.ld file into the appropriate table in the
database.
6.2 CONFUSION ABOUT COMPONENT OWNER AUTHORITY
QUESTION:
I am confused about what a component owner can do. The CMVC User
Reference states that the component owner can do many things
implicitly, such as AccessCreate. That does not seem to be true.
I have to give the component owner componentlead before she can
add access for someone else. Am I reading something wrong or
have we got something set up wrong?
ANSWER:
A non-superuser with AccessCreate authority may not grant any
authority that includes any action that she/he does not explic-
itly have themself. In short, you ca not give a CMVC authority
that you do not have.
The thing that makes this confusing is that as an owner you have
certain implicit authorities but you cannot give these to someone
else unless they are also granted to you explicitly.
6.3 CANNOT LOOK AT THE CONTENTS OF A FILE WITH GENERAL AUTHORITY
QUESTION:
I am trying to view the contents of a file under general
authority and I am getting the error:
0010-183 You are not authorized to perform action FileExtract
on the specified file.
0010-184 You are not authorized to extract a copy of file
x (x = file name) associated with release
y (y = release name)
ANSWER:
In the default access authority groups shipped by IBM, the
FileExtract action, which is the one that you need to look at the
contents of a file, is not part of the general authority group.
However, the FileView action is part of the general authority
group and this action will give you the meta-data that CMVC has
about that file (such as version number, date last updated, etc).
36 CMVC FAQ: end user tasks
You have some alternatives:
o Use an access authority group that has the FileExtract
action, such as "developer".
This is the recommended solution.
o Add a new access authority group, such as "extractor", that
will have this FileExtract action.
Then, you can add this access group to those users who need
to view the contents of files, even if their authority is
general. CMVC handles the union of all the cumulative access
groups for a user for a given component.
o You could add the FileExtract to the "general" access group.
The drawback is that you may dilute the granularity of the
access by components; that is, you may give too much
authority to all the CMVC users.
6.4 HOW TO SPECIFY A READ-ONLY ACCESS TO FILES IN A COMPONENT
STRUCTURE
QUESTION:
Has anyone created an authority group which allows a user read-
only access to files in a component structure?
ANSWER:
CMVC adds up all the authority actions from all the authority
groups for a user. The result is list of all the authority
actions that are valid for that user. For example, if a user
belongs to two access lists (general and componentlead) in a
given component, then the authority actions from general are com-
bined with the authority actions from componentlead to provide
the complete list of the authority actions for that user.
This means that a user could have very few authority actions in
the root component (such as general) and then more authority
actions in children components.
A corollary of the above is that you could define a new authority
group such as "viewer" which would have ONLY few authority
actions, such as "FileView" (to view the details) and
"FileExtract" (to view the contents). Then you could add this
authority group to any use and this will allow the user to ONLY
view files. Of course, if the user has more FileXXX authority
actions, then the user could create/modify files.
Authority access 37
The nice thing about this approach is that you do NOT need to
modify the existing authority groups.
Another possibility is add the desired action to the "general"
authority group, and ensure that all users belong to this group.
6.5 WHAT IS THE ROLE OF THE CMVC USER ID "INHERITEDACCESS"?
QUESTION:
The "InheritedAccess" userID is created automatically when a new
CMVC family is created. What is the role for this userID? Could
I delete it?
ANSWER:
Please, do not delete nor change the names of the following CRIT-
ICAL objects in CMVC, which are automatically created during the
mkdb (the creation of the CMVC family database):
Component: root
User: InheritedAccess
The "root" component is the top component for all active compo-
nents.
The "InheritedAccess" user id is the visible aspect of the imple-
mentation (in CMVC Version 2) of the function to restrict the
access in children components.
NOTE: Without these objects, the CMVC family will not work prop-
erly.
6.6 HOW DO I KNOW IF THE AUTHORITY HAS BEEN RESTRICTED IN A
COMPONENT?
QUESTION:
How do I know if the authority has been restricted in a compo-
nent?
ANSWER:
Use Report -view accessView to view access for a component or
user. The TYPE column indicates the type of access (granted or
____
restricted).
38 CMVC FAQ: end user tasks
The userLogin INHERITEDACCESS indicates that the authority group
_______________
is restricted for all users inheriting this access.
Example output from Report -view accessView
compName userLogin userName userArea authorityName type
-------- --------------- --------- -------- ------------- ----------
demotest jan Jan Eaton Testing componentlead granted
demotest dave Dave Iyers Develmt developer+ granted
demotest pat Pat Anders Mgmt manager granted
demotest pat Pat Anders Mgmt projectlead restricted
demotest InteritedAccess projectlead restricted
6.7 EXAMPLE OF INHERITED ACCESS IN A COMPONENT HIERARCHY
QUESTION:
Example of inherited access in a component hierarchy
ANSWER:
An example of inherited access in a component hierarchy is shown
below:
In the above diagram, pat is the project leader for objects
managed by the code component and jan is the project leader for
objects managed by the docs component. The component demotest is
a child of both the code and the docs component.
Any access authority configured for these components will be
inherited by the demotest component unless it is restricted.
If we just wanted to restrict pat from inheriting projectlead
authority at the demotest component, then we could do so by spe-
cifically restricting pat to the projectlead authority.
If we wanted to restrict jan from inheriting projectlead
authority, we could also do so in the same manner. Eventually
this becomes a cumbersome process and we may want to establish
that all users inheriting the projectlead authority are
restricted at demotest.
Authority access 39
+------+
| root |
+------+
/ \
/ \
+------+ +------+
pat : | code | | docs | jan : projectlead
projectlead +------+ +------+ (granted)
(granted) \ /
\ /
+----------+
| demotest | jan : componentlead (granted)
+----------+ dave : developer+ (granted)
pat : manager (granted)
pat : projectlead (restricted)
InheritedAccess : projectlead
(restricted)
Figure 3. Example of inherited access
6.8 CAN THE BASE AUTHORITIES BE RESTRICTED?
QUESTION:
We want to restrict the base authority of specific users against
a specific component. For example, we do not want certain users
to open a defect against certain components (the DefectOpen is a
base authority).
ANSWER:
The base authorities cannot be restricted.
The Chapter 4 of the CMVC Users Reference say the following about
the actions that have base authority:
"...
a base authority that can be performed by all users in the family"
6.9 ADDITIONAL DETAILS ON RESTRICTING AUTHORITY ACCESS
QUESTION:
Additional details on restricting authority access
ANSWER:
40 CMVC FAQ: end user tasks
The component owner, superuser or user with ACCESSRESTRICT
______________
authority can restrict access for users at a component.
Restricted authority is NOT inherited by child components.
___
Restricted authority does not affect implicit and superuser
authority.
User whose access is restricted is notified. Subscribers to
ACCESSRESTRICT are notified. When -inherited is used, only sub-
______________
scribers are notified.
When a family is created, a special user "InheritedAccess" is
added to handle the restriction of authority access.
The id for this user is 0 in the Users table and must remain as 0
for the function to work correctly.
Each user on the access list of a component can have only one
entry for each authority group. Therefore, if the user has the
authority group 'developer' listed as a granted authority for a
component, the server will prevent the addition of the authority
group 'developer' as a restricted authority type for this user.
This current authority group would have to be deleted and then
the authority group can be restricted for the user.
If a user has multiple authority groups defined for a component
where some are granted and others are restricted, then the user's
access authority for that component will be the sum of all
authority groups and the restricted actions will take precedence
over the granted actions.
6.10 CLARIFICATION ON FILECHECKIN AND FILEUNDO AUTHORITY ACTIONS
QUESTION:
Clarification on FileCheckIn and FileUndo authority actions
ANSWER:
o The FileCheckIn authority gives a person the power to check
in a file EVEN if the file is locked by someone else.
o The FileUndo action for a specific change can be done by the
user who did that change, even if this action is not explic-
itly given to that user.
Authority access 41
RW ACCESS ONLY TO CREATOR?'
6.11 CAN I SPECIFY FOR FILES: RO ACCESS TO ALL
QUESTION:
We have files in CMVC that all our group needs to read, but that
should only be changeable by the creator. Can CMVC do this?
ANSWER:
CMVC does not have access restrictions at the File level, only at
the Component level.
Thus, you may want to expand your component hierarchy and dis-
tribute your files accordingly. For example if all files for the
GUI can only by modified by Sue, then move all those files into a
new component and name Sue as the owner of that component (or at
least, you give Sue the authority for FileCreate and FileModify,
such as developer+).
Remember that the access lists are inherited from a parent compo-
nent to a children component, and that the access lists are
merged and the total access is the union of the individual access
lists.
42 CMVC FAQ: end user tasks
7.0 SPECIAL REPORTS
7.1 HINT WHEN USING % IN QUERIES IN REXX FILES
QUESTION:
I am having problems with my REXX files in which the % wildcard
for SQL statements is not properly replaced.
ANSWER:
The % character in REXX or in the OS/2 and DOS batch languages is
used to denote an environment variable, such as %PATH%. However,
if you want to use the % character for SQL queries, then you need
to specify it double, as: %%
7.2 HOW TO LIST ALL FILES CHECKED IN BETWEEN 2 DATES
QUESTION:
I would like to have a report that lists all the files checked in
between two dates even if they are changed after this period.
ANSWER:
You could just use the versions table in a subquery:
Report -view FileView -where "sourceid in ( select sourceid \
from Versions where changeDate between \
'95/01/01' and '95/02/01')"
Also, you may want to play with variations of this query for per-
formance reasons, for example:
Report -view FileView -where "releaseName = 'myrelease' and \
exists ( select sourceid \
from Versions where changeDate between \
'95/01/01' and '95/02/01' and \
sourceid = FileView.sourceid)"
Special reports 43
7.3 HOW TO GET A LIST OF ALL COMPONENTS THAT HAVE FILES IN A
GIVEN RELEASE
QUESTION:
How to get a list of all components that have files in a given
release.
ANSWER:
One possible query is shown below:
Report -view compView -where "name in (select compName \
from FileView where releaseName = 'alpha' and \
dropDate is null)"
7.4 TO GET NUMERIC SORTING, USE VERSIONID INSTEAD OF VERSIONSID
QUESTION:
The order of the items using versionSID seems to be incorrect in
the following report:
Report -raw -view changeView -where "releaseName in ('relname') \
and pathName in ('pathname') order by versionSID"
The order is:
1.1
1.10
1.11
1.2
...
1.9
The expected order was 1.1 through 1.9, followed by 1.10 through
1.11.
ANSWER:
The versionSID (SID field in the versions table) is a variable
character field so the Report is behaving correctly.
Instead, try ordering by versionid, because this field is numeric
(it is generated from the Sequence table), it should provide you
with the ordering that you were expecting.
44 CMVC FAQ: end user tasks
7.5 WHERE DO THE NUMBERS FOR DEFECTS AND FEATURES COME FROM?
There are three "sequences" used in CMVC which are used to deter-
mine what internal "ID" numbers are assigned to any entry in a
table that must be uniquely identified. The "numbers" assigned
as names for defects and features are the most obvious. Each of
these sequences is stored as a separate row in the family's
SEQUENCE table. Once a number is used from one of these rows,
the value is incremented.
Here are the names of each row and what they are used for:
DEFECTS The default name for any defect or feature. Since
these numbers are very visible, this is the only use of
this number.
One minor side effect of the fact that the ID for a
defect/feature is also the default name, is that if you
change the name to something like "Defect1413" instead
of the default name "1413", then the number 1413 is
still used up. As a result, the next defect will have
a default name of 1414.
SOURCEID As explained previously (and in much more detail in the
the TR 29.2297 "CMVC frequently asked questions:
TRCMF-VC version control and database synchronization
issues"), the sourceId points to where a file is stored
in an SCCS archive in the VC tree.
This number is incremented each time a new file is
created. The limit of six digits in a numeric field
for some databases (4 for path plus 2 for SCCS archive
filename) is the reason why CMVC only supports
1,000,000 files. In other words, when sourceID reaches
999999, then the last archive vc/9/9/9/9/s.99 is
created.
GENERAL All other records in database tables that have a unique
identifying key (id) use this number.
Because these keys must be unique, we strongly warn
users that creating or deleting any record that con-
tains a column with a suffix name of "id", (such as
releaseId), risks corrupting the entire family.
Records in tables that have columns named like
releaseId, point to these unique records.
Further, these keys must be unique in order for all of
the database views that are used by the GUI and Report
command to display the correct values.
Special reports 45
7.6 WHY DOES "FIELD <> 'VALUE'" NOT INCLUDE NULL?
QUESTION:
Why does "field <> 'value'" not include null?
I queried the defects in my CMVC family for all the defects that
do not have a certain value in the Release field; let's say that
I got 100 records. Then I queried the defects that have a
certain value and let's say that I got 50 records. However, I
found out that there are really 175 defects in my CMVC family and
the above actions count for only 150 of them. What happened to
the missing 25 records?
ANSWER:
A null value is a value that forms a 3rd category when the
equal/no-equal operator is used.
o Values that are equal.
In the example above, there 50 records of this kind.
o Values that are not equal.
In the example above, there are 100 records of this kind.
o Values that do not exist, that is, that are null.
In the example above, there are 25 records of this kind.
Therefore, if you use the <> or the = operators, the resulting
query will not include the values that are null.
7.7 SORTING DEFECT/FEATURE NAMES
QUESTION:
If you do Report -view DefectView -where "order by name", the
output would look like the following:
1
10
100
...
2
20
200
...
Instead of the expected result:
46 CMVC FAQ: end user tasks
1
2
10
20
100
200
ANSWER:
This is because the defect name is now an alphanumeric field and
it is left justified (it was a numeric field in CMVC V1). This
was added to allow you to change the name of a defect.
To get the proper order of the defect names, use "order by
addDate, name".
7.8 USE OF 1=1 AS ARGUMENT TO QUERY FOR ALL INSTANCES OF AN
OBJECT
QUESTION:
Use of 1=1 as argument to query for all instances of an object
ANSWER:
o You can use the argument "1=1" to query for all objects of
the same kind.
For example, to query for all users:
- You can use the line command:
Report -raw -view Users -where "1=1"
- You can enter "1=1" (without the double quotes) in the
entry field for the query in the Open List dialog (UNIX)
or Filter dialog (OS/2).
o Another way is to use the following argument:
Report -raw -view Users -where " login like '%' "
Special reports 47
7.9 HOW TO SPECIFY DATES IN A QUERY
QUESTION:
How to specify dates in a query.
ANSWER:
CMVC uses the format YY/MM/DD for the dates. Please notice that
the year has only 2 digits. In TeamConnection we have fixed this
potential problem by using 4 digits.
If you want to query all the defects that were opened since the
beginning of April, 1996, you can do the following from the GUI:
1. Open the "Open List" or "Filter" dialog.
2. Locate the field that has dates, such as "Add Date".
3. Select the proper operand. In this example is greater-than
">".
4. Enter the date, such as April 1, 1996: 96/04/01
5. Apply or execute the query. A copy of the complete command
that used this query is stored at the end of the CMVC.LOG
file. See the GUI settings for the proper name and location
for this file.
6. In this case, the query from the Open List for Defects will
be:
addDate > '96/04/01'
Since the date also includes the time stamp in the string,
you can also do the query by using something like this:
addDate like '96/04/01%'
7. Then, the corresponding command at the bottom of the log will
be:
Report -raw -view DefectView -where "addDate > '96/04/01'"
7.10 HOW DO I USE A REPORT COMMAND IN A SHELL SCRIPT?
QUESTION:
How do I use a Report command in a shell script?
ANSWER:
The default output format of the Report command is, in general,
not appropriate for parsing in a shell script. The Report
command provides a "-raw" option for most queries in which the
48 CMVC FAQ: end user tasks
fields are separated with a pipe or vertical bar (|) symbol.
This makes for much easier parsing.
A shell script can use "awk" or "cut" to easily extract specific
columns from a query. For example, to extract the second column
from a report, you can do the following:
Report ... -raw | cut -d'|' -f2
Special reports 49
50 CMVC FAQ: end user tasks
8.0 NOTIFICATION
8.1 WHO GETS NOTIFIED WHEN A CMVC ACTION OCCURS?
QUESTION:
Who gets notified when a CMVC action occurs?
ANSWER:
When a CMVC user performs an action, all of the users are noti-
fied according to the table in the Notification chapter in the
CMVC User Reference.
There is one exception, the user who actually performs the action
is NOT notified because that user did the action and thus, CMVC
is not going to give the user an additional notification that the
user did it.
Also, if there are several CMVC users with the same mail address,
then only one of these users will get notified. Thus, if you
have more that one CMVC user id with the same mail address and
some of these CMVC user ids are involved in the notification, you
will not get additional notifications for each of them.
8.2 HOW TO REMOVE SPECIFIC NOTIFICATION MESSAGES FROM CMVC
QUESTION:
A user in our CMVC family does not want to receive CMVC notifica-
tion messages whenever there are updates in the family for which
the user is to be notified. Is there something we should do?
ANSWER:
There is no middle ground with the notifications from CMVC, that
is, you cannot customize to receive certain messages but not
other messages.
Some workarounds are shown below:
o You cannot remove the address from the user ID so that the
user no longer receives these messages, because the address
field is a required one. However, you could change the
Notification 51
address to an email account that does not exist or that is
created just for this purpose, such as
nobody@hostName
o You could create a "dummy" userid in your system that can be
used as the recipient of any CMVC messages that other users
do not want to receive.
Of course, the real CMVC users will not be able to get any
messages from CMVC at all.
In a sense, this "dummy" user id is the equivalent to having
a null device such as /dev/null.
8.3 SUGGESTION OF USING ANOTHER ACCOUNT TO RECEIVE MESSAGES IN
CMVC
QUESTION:
Suggestion of using another account to receive messages in CMVC.
ANSWER:
It you are a componentLead or a releaseLead and you receive a lot
of notifications from CMVC, you may want to consider creating
another system account for yourself whose primary purpose would
be to receive those notifications. In that way, these notifica-
tions will not clutter the mail of your primary account.
Once this secondary account is created, then you can simply
modify the address of your CMVC user id to reflect the new sec-
ondary account.
52 CMVC FAQ: end user tasks
APPENDIX A. BIBLIOGRAPHY
For more information on how to use CMVC, you can consult the fol-
lowing manuals and publications:
SC09-1596-01 IBM CMVC Client Installation and Configuration
SC09-1597-01 IBM CMVC User's Reference
SC09-1631-02 IBM CMVC Server Administration and Installation
SC09-1633-00 IBM CMVC Concepts
SC09-1635-01 IBM CMVC Commands Reference
The following Redbooks offer practical advice on CMVC:
GG24-4178-00 Did you say CMVC?
GG24-4345 CMVC: Customer's Perspective
The following technical reports describe in detail useful hints
on using CMVC:
29.2169 How to use CMVC with National Language Support (NLS)
and Double-Byte Character Sets (DBCS)
29.2180 How to do routine tasks in the OEM Platforms for CMVC
29.2183 Using CMVC for Products with Multiple
National Language Versions (NLVs)
29.2232 How to do migration tasks with CMVC
29.2244 How to build and package the CMVC client for Windows 3.1
29.2245 How to build and package the CMVC client for OS/2
29.2253 Comparison between CMVC 2.3 and TeamConnection 2
29.2254 Migrating from CMVC 2.3 to TeamConnection 2
29.2268 CMVC frequently asked questions:
license management with NetLS/iFOR
29.2269 How to build and package the CMVC server/Client for UNIX
29.2296 CMVC frequently asked questions:
files, releases, levels, and tracks
29.2297 CMVC frequently asked questions:
version control and database synchronization issues
29.2298 CMVC frequently asked questions:
hints and tips on using databases and OEM platforms
29.2299 CMVC frequently asked questions:
client for UNIX, OS/2 and Windows 3.1
29.2321 Comparison between TeamConnection 2 and CMVC 2.3 (2nd Edition)
29.2322 CMVC/TeamConnection: How to cope with dynamic IP addresses
29.2323 CMVC frequently asked questions:
handling file, release and level extract problems
Appendix A. Bibliography 53
A.1 HOW TO GET ELECTRONIC COPIES OF MANUALS AND TRS
Many of the manuals and technical reports mentioned in this docu-
ment can be downloaded as follows:
o From the IBM intranet (only for IBM employees).
o From the Internet (open to everyone).
A.1.1 IBM Intranet
___________________
A.1.1.1 Web Home Page
You can access the CMVC Service/Development Home Page at:
http://tc-cmvc.raleigh.ibm.com/cmvc
From the index at the top of the page, select:
o Technical Reports and related tools
o Documentation in ASCII text files
A.1.1.2 FTP
You can download the code from our internal FTP site, by doing:
1. ftp tc-cmvc.raleigh.ibm.com
2. login as 'anonymous' and for password give your email
address.
3. cd e:\cmvc\doc\tr
4. binary
5. get fileName
6. quit
A.1.2 Internet
_______________
A.1.2.1 Web Home Page
Not available.
54 CMVC FAQ: end user tasks
A.1.2.2 FTP
You can download the code from our external FTP site, by doing:
1. ftp ftp.software.ibm.com
2. login as 'anonymous' and for password give your email
address.
3. cd ps/products/cmvc/doc
4. binary
5. get fileName
6. quit
Appendix A. Bibliography 55
56 CMVC FAQ: end user tasks
APPENDIX B. COPYRIGHTS, TRADEMARKS AND SERVICE MARKS
The following terms used in this technical report, are trademarks
or service marks of the indicated companies:
+---------------------+-------------------------------------------+
| TRADEMARK, | COMPANY |
| REGISTERED | |
| TRADEMARK OR | |
| SERVICE MARK | |
+---------------------+-------------------------------------------+
| IBM | IBM Corporation |
| AIX | |
| OS/2 | |
| CMVC | |
| DB2/6000, DB2 | |
| TeamConnection | |
+---------------------+-------------------------------------------+
| PostScript | Adobe Systems Incorporated |
+---------------------+-------------------------------------------+
| HP-UX | Hewlett-Packard Company |
+---------------------+-------------------------------------------+
| Microsoft | Microsoft Corporation |
| Windows | |
| MS-DOS | |
+---------------------+-------------------------------------------+
| UNIX | X/Open Co., Ltd. |
+---------------------+-------------------------------------------+
END OF DOCUMENT
Appendix B. Copyrights, Trademarks and Service marks 57