Snapshot view's view.dat file is corrupt or missin

Snapshot view's view.dat file is corrupt or missing

 Technote (troubleshooting)

Problem(Abstract)

This technote details some of the errors that will occur when the view.dat (.view.dat) is corrupt or has been removed from the root of an IBM® Rational® ClearCase® snapshot view.

Symptom

Cause

Scenario 1:

The view.dat file has become corrupt, and attempting to create a view shortcut in ClearCase Explorer fails with:

The pathname specified does not resolve to a registered view

Note: This error will also occur if the selected directory is not actually the view root of a snapshot view.

Scenario 2:

After removing the view.dat from the root directory of a snapshot view, the view will stop working.

Accessing or updating the snapshot view from ClearCase Explorer returns:

The pathname specified for this snapshot view shortcut does not represent the root of a snapshot view. Use the Shortcut Properties dialog to modify the shortcut.

When trying to update the snapshot view from command line returns:
C:\admin_view>ct update -graphical
cleartool: Error: 'C:\admin_view' is not a valid snapshot view path.

Resolving the problem

The view.dat file must be restored from backup or regenerated if no copy is available.

Follow the instructions in for information on how to regenerate a snapshot view's view.dat file.

The errors will stop appearing after the view.dat is replaced or put back in the workspace of the snapshot view.

 

Regenerate the view.dat file

 Technote (troubleshooting)

Problem(Abstract)

This technote explains how to regenerate an IBM® Rational® ClearCase® snapshot view's view.dat file if it has been removed from the view's root directory on UNIX®, Linux® or Microsoft® Windows®.

Symptom

The steps to regenerate the view.dat file located in IBM Rational ClearCase Developing Software are incorrect for versions 2002.05.00 and 2003.06.00.

During execution of the command syntax an error similar to the following occurs:

Can't open perl script "c:\rational\etc\utils": No such file or directory

Cause

There is a syntax error in the commands for UNIX, Linux and Windows.

This was reported as documentation defect, .

Resolving the problem

The product documentation has been corrected for .

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Overview

The view.dat file is a read-only text file used to identify which work space directory is related to a given snapshot view.

Note: The filename on UNIX and Linux is .view.dat.

This file is created in the top level of the snapshot view's directory, and contains a string similar to:

ws_oid:69d492a190374b0cbcf2357c44d4447c view_uuid:84bc6dfdb01d458d93fb9afee9e5f94c

Note: ws_oid is the Object Identity of the work space directory and the view_uuid is the Universally Unique ID of the view.

If this file is removed (deleted), then the snapshot view will stop working, and the update will return errors, such as detailed in .

The view.dat can be generated using the ClearCase utility, regen_view_dot_dat.pl. This utility ships with Rational ClearCase and is located in:

• /opt/rational/clearcase/etc/utils/ on UNIX and Linux
• C:\Program Files\Rational\ClearCase\etc\utils on Windows

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Regenerating a view.dat file

UNIX and Linux

Perl /opt/rational/clearcase/etc/utils/regen_view_dot_dat.pl [ –tag snapshot-view-tag ] snapshot-view-path

Example:

Perl /opt/rational/clearcase/etc/utils/regen_view_dot_dat.pl -tag pat_v1.4_cropcircle_sv ~/pat_v1.4_cropcircle_sv

Windows

C:\Program Files\Rational\ClearCase\etc\utils\regen_view_dot_dat.pl [ –tag snapshot-view-tag ] snapshot-view-path

Example:

ccperl C:\Program Files\Rational\ClearCase\etc\utils\regen_view_dot_dat.pl -tag pat_v1.4_cropcircle  c:\pat_v1.4_cropcircle