Rational ClearCase Commands Reference: mkattr

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mkattr

Attaches attributes to objects

APPLICABILITY

Product	Command type
ClearCase	cleartool subcommand
ClearCase LT	cleartool subcommand

Platform
UNIX
Windows

SYNOPSIS

Attach attributes to specified file system objects:
mkattr [ –rep·lace ] [ –r·ecurse ] [ –ver·sion version-selector ]
[ –pna·me ] [ –c·omment comment | –cfi·le comment-file-pname
|–cq·uery | –cqe·ach | –nc·omment ]
{ attribute-type-selector value
| –def·ault attribute-type-selector }
pname ...
Attach attributes to specified non-file-system objects:
mkattr [ –rep·lace ] [ –c·omment comment | –cfi·le comment-file-pname
| –cq·uery | –cqe·ach | –nc·omment ]
{ attribute-type-selector value
| –def·ault attribute-type-selector }
object-selector ...
Attach attributes to versions listed in configuration record:
mkattr [ –rep·lace ] [ –c·omment comment | –cfi·le comment-file-pname
| –cq·uery | –cqe·ach | –nc·omment ]
[ –sel·ect do-leaf-pattern ] [ –ci ] [ –typ·e { f | d } ... ]
[ –nam·e tail-pattern ] –con·fig do-pname
{ attribute-type-selector value
| –def·ault attribute-type-selector }

DESCRIPTION

The mkattr command attaches an attribute to one or more objects. You can specify the objects themselves on the command line, or you can specify a particular derived object. In the latter case, mkattr attaches attributes to versions only—some or all of the versions that were used to build that derived object.

An attribute is a name/value pair:

BugNum / 455	Integer-valued attribute
BenchMark / 12.9	Real-valued attribute
ProjectID / "orange"	String-valued attribute
DueOn / 5-Jan	Date-value attribute

Restrictions on Attribute Use

In several situations, attempting to attach a new attribute causes a collision with an existing attribute:

You want to change the value of an existing attribute on an object.
(If the attribute type was created with mkattype –vpbranch) An attribute is attached to a version, and you want to attach an attribute of the same type to another version on the same branch.
(If the attribute type was created with mkattype –vpelement) An attribute is attached to a version, and you want to attach an attribute of the same type to any other version of the element.

A collision causes mkattr to fail and report an error, unless you use the –replace option, which first removes the existing attribute.

Referencing Objects by Their Attributes

The find command can locate objects by their attributes. Examples:

On a UNIX system, list all elements in the current working directory for which some version has been assigned a BugNum attribute.
cmd-context find . –element 'attype_sub(BugNum)' –print
Now do the same thing on a Windows system; note the difference in quoting.
cmd-context find . –element attype_sub(BugNum) –print
List the version of element util.c to which the attribute BugNum has been assigned with the value 4059 (note UNIX quoting).
cmd-context find util.c –version 'BugNum==4059 ' –print
On a Windows system, list the version of all elements in the current working directory to which the attribute Tested has been assigned with the string value "TRUE".
cmd-context find . –version 'Tested=="TRUE"' –print

More generally, queries written in the query language can access objects using attribute types and attribute values. See the query_language reference page for details.

RESTRICTIONS

Identities

You must have one of the following identities:

Element owner
Element group member
Object owner
Object group member
VOB owner
root (UNIX)
Member of the ClearCase administrators group (ClearCase on Windows)
Local administrator of the ClearCase LT server host (ClearCase LT on Windows)

Locks

An error occurs if one or more of these objects are locked: VOB, element type, element, branch type, branch, attribute type, object to which the attribute is being attached (for non-file-system objects).

Mastership

(Replicated VOBs only) If the attribute's type is unshared, your current replica must master the type. If the attribute's type is shared, your current replica must master the object to which you are applying the attribute. If the attribute's type is global and shared, your current replica must master the object to which you are applying the attribute; also, your current replica must contain a local copy of the type, or the administrative VOB at the current site must master the type.

OPTIONS AND ARGUMENTS

Moving an Attribute or Changing Its Value

Default: An error occurs if an attribute collision occurs (see “Restrictions on Attribute Use”).
–rep·lace: Removes an existing attribute of the same type before attaching the new one, thus avoiding the collision. (No error occurs if a collision would not have occurred.)

Specifying the Attribute Type and Value

Default

None. You must specify an existing attribute type; you must also indicate a value, either directly or with the –default option.

attribute-type-selector

An attribute type, previously created with mkattype. The attribute type must exist in each VOB containing objects to which you are applying attributes, or (if attribute-type-selector is a global type) in the administrative VOB hierarchy associated with each VOB. Specify attribute-type-selector in the form [attype:]type-name[@vob-selector]

type-name	Name of the attribute type
vob-selector	Object-selector for a VOB, in the form [vob:]pname-in-vob. The pname-in-vob can be the 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)

–def·ault

If the attribute type was created with a default value (mkattype –default), you can use –default attribute-type-name to specify the name/value pair. An error occurs if the attribute type was not created with a default value.

value

Specifies the attribute's value. The definition of the attribute type specifies the required form of this argument (for example, to an integer). It may also restrict the permissible values (for example, to values in the range 0–7).

Value type	Input format
integer	Any integer that can be parsed by the Windows strtol or UNIX strtol(2) system calls
real	Any real number that can be parsed by the Windows strtod or UNIX strtod(2) system calls
date	A date-time string in one of the following formats:
	date.time \| date \| time \| now where

	date	:=	day-of-week \| long-date
	time	:=	h[h]:m[m][:s[s]] [UTC [ [ + \| - ]h[h][:m[m] ] ] ]
	day-of-week	:=	today \| yesterday \| Sunday \|... \| Saturday \| Sun \|... \| Sat
	long-date	:=	d[d]-month[-[yy]yy]
	month	:=	January \|... \|December \|Jan \|... \|Dec
	Specify time in 24-hour format, relative to the local time zone. If you omit the time, the default value is 00:00:00. If you omit date, the default is today. If you omit the century, year, or a specific date, the most recent one is used. Specify UTC if you want to resolve the time to the same moment in time regardless of time zone. Use the plus (+) or minus (-) operator to specify a positive or negative offset to the UTC time. If you specify UTC without hour or minute offsets, Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is used. (Dates before January 1, 1970 UTC are invalid.)
string	Any string in standard C-language string literal format. It can include escape sequences: \n, \t, and so on. On UNIX, the string must be enclosed in double quotes. Also note that the double-quote (") character is special to both the cleartool command processor and the UNIX shells. Thus, you must escape or quote this character on the command line. These two commands are equivalent: cleartool mkattr QAed '"TRUE"' hello.c cleartool mkattr QAed \"TRUE\" hello.c On Windows, the shell removes double quotes. To pass them through to the cleartool command processor, you must precede them with a backslash character on the command line: `c:\>` cleartool mkattr QAed \"TRUE\" hello.c
opaque	A word consisting of an even number of hexadecimal digits (for example, `04a58f` or `FFFB`). The value is stored as a byte sequence in a host-specific format

Directly Specifying the Objects

The options and arguments in this section specify objects to be assigned attributes directly on the command line. Do not use these options and arguments when using a derived object to provide a list of versions to be assigned attributes.

object-selector ...

(Required) One or more names of objects to be assigned attributes. Specify object-selector in one of the following forms:

vob-selector	vob:pname-in-vob
		pname-in-vob can be the 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). It cannot be the pathname of the VOB storage directory.
attribute-type-selector	attype:type-name[@vob-selector]
branch-type-selector	brtype:type-name[@vob-selector]
element-type-selector	eltype:type-name[@vob-selector]
hyperlink-type-selector	hltype:type-name[@vob-selector]
label-type-selector	lbtype:type-name[@vob-selector]
trigger-type-selector	trtype:type-name[@vob-selector]
pool-selector	pool:pool-name[@vob-selector]
hlink-selector	hlink:hlink-id[@vob-selector]
oid-obj-selector	oid:object-oid[@vob-selector]

The following object selector is valid only if you use MultiSite:
replica-selector	replica:replica-name[@vob-selector]

[ –pna·me ] pname ...

(Required) One or more pathnames, indicating objects to be assigned attributes. If pname has the form of an object selector, you must include the –pname option to indicate that pname is a pathname.

A standard or view-extended pathname to an element specifies the version in the view.
A version-extended pathname specifies an element, branch, or version, independent of view.

Examples:

foo.c	Version of foo.c selected by current view)
/view/gamma/usr/project/src/foo.c	Version of foo.c selected by another view
foo.c@@\main\5	Version 5 on main branch of foo.c)
foo.c@@/REL3	Version of foo.c with version label 'REL3')
foo.c@@	The element foo.c
foo.c@@\main	The main branch of element foo.c

Use –version to override these interpretations of pname.

–ver·sion version-selector

For each pname, attaches the attribute to the version specified by version-selector. This option overrides both version-selection by the view and version-extended naming. See the version_selector reference page for syntax details.

–r·ecurse

Processes the entire subtree of each pname that is a directory element (including pname itself). VOB symbolic links are not traversed during the recursive descent into the subtree.

Note: mkattr differs from some other commands in its default handling of directory element pname arguments: it assigns an attribute to the directory element itself; it does not assign attributes to the elements cataloged in the directory.

Event Records and Comments

Default: Creates one or more event records, with commenting controlled by your .clearcase_profile file (default: –nc). See the comments reference page. Comments can be edited with chevent.
–c·omment comment | –cfi·le comment-file-pname |–cq·uery | –cqe·ach | –nc·omment: Overrides the default with the option you specify. See the comments reference page.

Using a Derived Object to Specify Versions

The options and arguments in this section specify versions to be assigned attributes by selecting them from the configuration records associated with a particular derived object. Do not use these options when specifying objects to be assigned attributes directly on the command line.

–con·fig do-pname

(Required) Specifies one derived object. A standard pathname or view-extended pathname specifies the DO that currently appears in a view. To specify a DO independent of view, use an extended name that includes a DO ID (for example, hello.o@@24–Mar.11:32.412) or a version-extended pathname to a DO version.

With the exception of checked-out versions, mkattr attaches attributes to all the versions that would be included in a catcr –flat listing of that derived object. Note that this includes any DO created by the build and subsequently checked in as a DO version.

If the DO's configuration includes multiple versions of the same element, the attribute is attached only to the most recent version.

Use the following options to modify the list of versions to which attributes are attached.

–sel·ect do-leaf-pattern –ci –nam·e tail-pattern –typ·e { f | d } ...: Modify the set of versions to be assigned attributes in the same way that these options modify a catcr listing. For details, see the catcr reference page and the Examples section.

EXAMPLES

The UNIX 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 shell or Windows command interpreter prompt, followed by the cleartool command. In cleartool interactive mode, cmd-context represents the interactive cleartool prompt.

Create an attribute type named BugNum. Then, attach that attribute with the value 21 to the version of util.c that fixes bug 21.
cmd-context mkattype –nc –vtype integer BugNum
Created attribute type "BugNum".
cmd-context mkattr BugNum 21 util.c
Created attribute "BugNum" on "util.c@@/main/maintenance/3".
Attach a TESTED attribute to the version of hello.h in the view, assigning it the value "TRUE".
UNIX:
cmd-context mkattr TESTED '"TRUE"' hello.h
Created attribute "TESTED" on "hello.h@@/main/2".
Windows:
cmd-context mkattr TESTED \"TRUE\" hello.h
Created attribute "TESTED" on "hello.h@@\main\2".
Update the value of the TESTED attribute on hello.h to "FALSE". This example shows that to overwrite an existing attribute value, you must use the –replace option.
UNIX:
cmd-context mkattr –replace TESTED '"FALSE"' hello.h
Created attribute "TESTED" on "hello.h@@/main/2".
Windows:
cmd-context mkattr –replace TESTED \"FALSE\" hello.h
Created attribute "TESTED" on "hello.h@@\main\2".
Attach a RESPONSIBLE attribute to the element (not a particular version) hello.c.
UNIX:
cmd-context mkattr RESPONSIBLE '"Anne"' hello.c@@
Created attribute "RESPONSIBLE" on "hello.c@@".
Windows:
cmd-context mkattr RESPONSIBLE \"Anne\" hello.c@@
Created attribute "RESPONSIBLE" on "hello.c@@".
On a UNIX system, attach a TESTED_BY attribute to the version of util.c in the view, assigning it the value of the USER environment variable as a double-quoted string. Using \" causes the shell to pass through (to cleartool) the double-quote character instead of interpreting it. (Specifying the attribute value as '"$USER"' does not work, because the single quotes suppress environment variable substitution.)
cmd-context mkattr TESTED_BY \"$USER\" util.c
Created attribute "TESTED_BY" on "util.c@@/main/5".
On a Windows system, attach a TESTED_BY attribute to the version of util.c in the view, assigning it the value of the USERNAME environment variable.
cmd-context mkattr TESTED_BY \"%USERNAME%\" util.c
Created attribute "TESTED_BY" on "util.c@@\main\5".
Attach a TESTED attribute to the version of foo.c in the current view, specifying an attribute string value that includes a space.
UNIX:
cmd-context mkattr TESTED '"NOT TRUE"' foo.c
Created attribute "TESTED" on "foo.c@@/main/CHECKEDOUT"
Windows:
cmd-context mkattr TESTED "\"NOT TRUE\"" foo.c
Created attribute "TESTED" on "foo.c@@\main\CHECKEDOUT".
On a Windows system in cleartool interactive mode, attach an OWNER attribute to the version of bar.c in the current view.
cleartool> mkattr OWNER '"jpm"' bar.c
Created attribute "OWNER" on bar.c
The same command in cleartool single-command mode shows the difference in quoting.
cleartool mkattr OWNER \"jpm\" bar.c
Created attribute "OWNER" on bar.c
Attach a TESTED attribute with the default value to each version that was used to build derived object hello.obj. Note that the attribute is assigned to versions of both files and directories.
cmd-context mkattr –config hello.obj -default TESTED
Created attribute "TESTED" on "\usr\hw\@@\main\1". Created attribute "TESTED" on "\usr\hw\src@@\main\2". Created attribute "TESTED" on "\usr\hw\src\hello.c@@\main\3". Created attribute "TESTED" on "\usr\hw\src\hello.h@@\main\1".
On a UNIX system, attach a TESTED attribute with the value "FALSE" to those versions that were used to build hello, and whose pathnames match the *.c tail pattern.
cmd-context mkattr –config 'hello' –name '*.c' TESTED '"FALSE"'
Created attribute "TESTED" on "/usr/hw/src/hello.c@@/main/3". Created attribute "TESTED" on "/usr/hw/src/util.c@@/main/1".
On a Windows system, attach a TESTED attribute with the value "FALSE" to those versions that were used to build hello.exe, and whose pathnames match the *.c tail pattern.
cmd-context mkattr –config hello.exe –name '*.c' TESTED \"FALSE\"
Created attribute "TESTED" on "\usr\hw\src\hello.c@@\main\3". Created attribute "TESTED" on "\usr\hw\src\util.c@@\main\1".
On a Windows system, attach a TESTED attribute with the value "TRUE" to all versions in the VOB mounted at \src\lib that were used to build hello.exe.
cmd-context mkattr –config hello.exe –name '\src\lib\...' TESTED \"TRUE\"
Created attribute "TESTED" on "\src\lib\hello.c@@\main\8". Created attribute "TESTED" on "\src\lib\util.c@@\main\5". Created attribute "TESTED" on "\src\lib\hello.h@@\main\1".
On a UNIX system, attach a TESTED attribute with the value "TRUE" to all versions in the VOB mounted at /src/lib that were used to build hello. Use interactive mode to enable use of the "..." wildcard.
% cleartool
cleartool> mkattr –config hello –name '/src/lib/...' TESTED '"TRUE"'
Created attribute "TESTED" on "/src/lib/hello.c@@/main/8". Created attribute "TESTED" on "/src/lib/util.c@@/main/5". Created attribute "TESTED" on "/src/lib/hello.h@@/main/1".

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