Perl/ClearCase Programming

1
Perl/ClearCase Programming

• With an emphasis on UNIX/Windows interoperation
• David Boyce
• BMRCCUG 9/25/2001

2
General Notes

• Me
• dsb_at_cleartool.com
• http//www.cleartool.com
• Focus Scripting vs Programming
• Portability vs Interoperability
• Perl vs Java (philosophy)

3
A Co-Operating Win32 Perl

• ClearCase bundled perl (ccperl)
• Local-only WIN32 build
• Local with network modules
• Networked standard build
• Networked ActiveState build

4
Sharing modules

• Make use of SMB symlink translation
• Must be on UNIX/Samba/TAS/NAS
• Some SMBs require symlink switch
• Even WIN32 binary modules work
• Share /usr/local/bin (\\server\ulb)
• or /usr/local (\\server\local).
• All maintenance from UNIX.

5
Sharing and executing scripts

• Choices executing scripts on Windows
• Register the .pl/.plx extension
• Use pl2bat
• Use a redirector
• _at_echo off
• \\server\perl\bin\perl \\server\ulb\whence
• Local .bat, remote/shared perl script (ulb)
• Use perls bin directory
• UNC path entries must be user and at end

6
Trigger Definition

• ct lstype -l trtypemkelem_post
• trigger type "mkelem_post"
• 02-Aug-99.183501 by VOB Admin
  (vobadm.ccusers_at_sparc5)
• owner vobadm
• group ccusers
• all element trigger
• post-operation mkelem
• action -execunix /usr/local/bin/perl
  /data/ccase/triggers/mkelem_post.tgr
• action -execwin perl //ultra10/triggers/mkelem_
  post.tgr
• excluded users vobadm
• My triggers are at http//www.cleartool.com

7
Interop Tips and Tricks

• use constant MSWIN gt O /MSWin32Windows_NT/i
  
• Quoting make use of qq() and q()
• Especially in e scripts
• No single quote () in cmd.exe
• Remember 2gt1 works on Windows
• -e foo_at__at_/main/0
• Useful for testing dynamic-vs-snapshot
• Follow with ct desc for snapshot support

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Interop Tips and Tricks (cont)

• Make a DNS alias usr for the fileserver
• Enables e.g. //usr/local/bin anywhere
• Useful for includes in cspecs etc.
• Use the notify command for email (4.0)
• Beware of PERL5LIB et al (CC bug)
• Use binmode on all binary files
• Cleartool returns native version paths

9
Interop Tips and Tricks (cont)

• Use s\\/g if MSWIN
• FileSpec 0.82 (abstract pathnames)
• FileSpec-gtrel2abs(path) native
  fmt
• FileSpecUnix-gtrel2abs(path) force Unix
  fmt
• my nul MSWIN ? NUL /dev/null
• system(cmd gtnul 2gt1)

10
Interop system() and exec()

• The documentation lies!
• system() always uses a shell
• exec() always exits
• Perl 5.6.0 emulates fork but not exec
• emulation exit(system(cmd)!0))
• Best use ClearCaseArgv
• for complex/long-running programs

11
My Perl Modules

• ClearCaseClearPrompt
• ClearCaseWrapper
• ClearCaseSyncTree
• ClearCaseCRDB
• EnvPath
• IPCClearTool
• ClearCaseArgv

12
ClearCaseClearPrompt

• Handles temp files automatically
• Capable of asynchronous operation
• Handles trigger series automatically
• Captures/emails error msgs (CC 4.2)
• use ClearCaseClearPrompt qw(clearprompt
  TRIGGERSERIES CAPTUREvobadm)
• clearprompt(proceed, -prompt, Hi!))
• bug clearprompt(qw(text -def 0 prompt), Bug
  ?)

13
ClearCaseWrapper

• Not an API, a program in module form
• Potentially wraps all cleartool access
• Cannot affect Windows GUI
• Many cmdline features (-rec/-all/-dir)

14
ClearCaseSyncTree

• Analogous to citree, clearfsimport
• Preserves CRs
• Maps filenames
• Takes or derives file lists
• Regular expression filtering
• Comes with synctree program

15
ClearCaseCRDB

• Unreleased
• CR analysis (impact analysis)
• Comes with whouses program
• Forward or backward analysis

16
EnvPath

• Simply adds methods to existing EVs
• Prepend, Append, Remove
• InsertBefore, InsertAfter
• Uniqify, DeleteNonexistent
• Replace, Whence (take REs)
• Comes with envpath program
• Comes with whence program for Windows
• use EnvPath PATH
• PATH-gtRemove(/usr/ucb)

17
IPCClearTool

• Interop
• Speedup order of magnitude, or none.
• Significant constant overhead
• CAL on Windows, coprocess on UNIX
• Preferred interface via ClearCaseArgv

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ClearCaseArgv Features

• Command line as object
• Advanced Option Parsing (option sets)
• Interoperability
• Prog, opts, args
• Attributes
• Verbosity (debug, quiet)
• Execution exceptions (autofail)
• Can exit or call exception handler

19
ClearCaseArgv for Interop

• Quoting (-gtautoquote)
• Path normalization (-gtoutpathnorm)
• Output (-gtstdout, -gtstderr)
• Globbing (-gtautoglob)
• Xargs behavior (-gtqxargs, -gtsyxargs)

20
ClearCaseArgv examples

• my ct ClearCaseArgv-gtnew
• ct-gtautochomp(1)
• my _at_co ct-gtlsco(-s, -all, .)-gtqx
• ct-gtci(-c, comment, _at_co)-gtsystem
• my _at_co ctqx(lsco s all .)
• ctsystem(qw(mkelem c comment), _at_co)

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Special-purpose Objects

• my ct ClearCaseArgv-gtnew
• ct-gtautofail(1)
• ct-gtautochomp(1)
• my ctq ClearCaseArgv-gtnew
• ct-gtstdout(0)
• ct-gtstderr(0)

22
Setting attributes

• Per-object ct-gtstderr(1)
• Globally ClearCaseArgv-gtstderr(1)
• export ARGV_STDERR1
• ClearCaseArgv-gtattropts
• -/dbg1
• -/quiet1
• -/ipc1

23
Question Time

• At http//www.cleartool.com
• This presentation
• Code samples
• Detailed documents