IBM Rational ClearCase 7.0: Master the Tools That Monitor, Analyze, and Manage Software Configurations

Take a deep dive into extending ClearCase 7.0 to ensure the consistency and reproducibility of your software configurations

• Master ClearCase from the inside out: Go technical for consistent, well-structured, and robust software
• Cut out chaos! Introduce order through reproduction with clearmake
• Use and extend ClearCase in manageable collaborations
• Design scalable and stable working practices with ClearCase MultiSite distribution

In Detail

Undeniably, IBM Rational ClearCase is one of the major Software Configuration Management (SCM) tools on the market, and an integral part of a development environment. It introduced significant novelties into SCM, making it an original and insightful tool, and it's precisely these features that are often underutilized by ClearCase users. This book will show readers how to use ClearCase to its full potential and take advantage of its build auditing and dependency analysis applied to derived objects, workspace management with dynamic views, and its support for distributed development with ClearCase MultiSite. Through mastering ClearCase tools, this book will demonstrate that ClearCase is for users, and not only for the administrators.

The book capitalizes on the main competitive advantage of ClearCase: that, thanks to build avoidance, ClearCase can focus on and identify derived objects through build management. This practical guide will help you master the tools for monitoring, analyzing, and managing software configurations with ClearCase.

The book spends as little time as possible setting the scene. It delves straight into the ClearCase essentials of Build Management, which serves as the basis for the whole book.

By the end of the book you will have learned how to master and optimize the various tasks pertaining to both administration and day-to-day development, in both a single-site and a multi-site environment. The emphasis is on ensuring the collaborative management of software development. Special attention is paid to third-party tool management under ClearCase and many practical examples are given, with a particular focus on the command line and scripting as a means to maximize flexibility and management over one's work.

This book is a practical guide that highlights and demonstrates those specific functions not traditionally expected from an SCM tool, and supported only by ClearCase.

What you will learn from this book

• Master ClearCase command line essentials with Perl's text handling capabilities
• Take full advantage of audited dependencies to support truly incremental development
• Extend ClearCase with powerful Perl modules
• Gain a wealth of troubleshooting tips and tricks for ClearCase, using the tool as a wholly distributed system
• Get fully acquainted with a novel model of branching and publishing for optimizing distribution with ClearCase
• Shed new light on testing from a Software Configuration Management perspective
• Understand the value of focusing on derived objects, and also learn how to avoid generating duplicates
• Get to grips with using ClearCase MultiSite to design processes that are stable over distribution

Approach

This is a practical book with plenty of code examples for mastering ClearCase tools to monitor, analyze, and manage software configurations.

Who this book is written for

If you are a developer who wants to use ClearCase for software development then this book is for you. This book is not for experts, but it will certainly challenge your technical skills.

While ClearCase concepts and tools are presented for those unfamiliar with the tool, an ability to use the command line as well as some fluency with shell scripting will certainly be an advantage.