PowerAda CM Menu

The CM menu provides PowerAda's interface with a site's configuration management software. The actual dialogs for each action are site- and CM system-specific, and include their own online help.

In most cases, the operations afforded by the CM menu correspond directly to functions performed by the underlying CM tools. For a detailed explanation of these functions, consult the documentation for your CM system.

The CM dialogs appear in two styles. 'Simple' dialogs have fields for entering text, helper buttons (along the right side) and control buttons (Action, Apply, Dismiss, Help) along the bottom. The Simple dialogs provide feedback through small dialog boxes, or in some cases (like the View File dialog pictured) by invoking your preferred editor. In some cases, diagnostic or progress information is sent to PowerAda's message pane.

Fancy' dialogs provide a text widget for command output. After you press the Action button to invoke the CM command, the output appears in this text widget. If the command takes more than a few seconds to run, output appears in the text widget as it becomes available. By pressing the Interrupt button, a command which is taking too long to complete, or is behaving incorrectly, can be cancelled. Finally, after the command completes, the text widget can be cleared, or its contents can be sent to your preferred editor.

The Fancy dialog must be explicitly dismissed. Simple dialogs will dismiss themselves upon successful command completion, unless the Apply button is used to invoke the command.

All of the file-based operations can operate on the selected or current file(s), or on a file or files specified in the operation's dialog. These are listed below, grouped by CM System. The CM menu provides commands for only one CM system at a time.

Integrated CM Menus

At this printing, PowerAda is delivered with five alternatives for the CM menu: None, CMVC, Razor, CVS, ClearCase and PCMS. On Linux, Razor is the only supported CM system at this time. The choice is provided when PowerAda is installed, but may be changed afterward. Integration with other products is supported as well. Details about selecting and customizing the CM menu and its operations are provided in Chapter 5, "Choosing a CM System" and Customizing the Configuration Management Integration.

A brief summary of the operations available for each of currently supported CM products is provided below. Note that if the CM alternative None is selected, no CM menu will appear.

CMVC Operations

Extract Files: Makes a local copy of the latest or specified version of the specified file(s) from CM, but does not lock them against others' changes.

Check Out Files: Makes a local writable copy of the latest version of the specified file from CM, and locks it against changes by others.

Check In Files: Makes a new version of the specified file(s) in CM from the designated local file(s), and releases the CM lock held on the file.

Unlock Files: Releases the CM lock held on the specified file(s) without changing the CM database.

Lock Files: Marks the specified file(s) in CM as locked by you, so others cannot check in changes to them.

Undo: Backs out the most recent change to the specified file(s).

Diff Files: Performs a text compare between a local file and another file in CM or on disk.

View Files: Makes a temporary copy of the current or specified version of the specified file(s) and shows it in the editor.

Show File Info: Provides information about the specified file in CMVC, including its version, whether it is locked, and what project it appears in (if any). If the 'Long' option is selected, shows the common files and change history of the file as well.

Show Gotten Files: Displays a list of files in CM that have been locked by the specified user.

Create Files in CM...: Adds the specified new file(s) to the CM database.

Delete Files in CM...: Delete's the CM pathnames for the specified file(s) from the CM database. The local file will not be deleted.

Defects

This is a cascadeable menu offering the user options to open, show, remark or cancel defects.

Features

This is a cascadeable menu offering the user options to open, show, remark or cancel features.

Tracks

Create Track: Creates a track which associates a defect or feature with a release and also moves the defect or feature to the 'working' state.

Move Track to Fix State: Moves the track from the working to the fix state.

Show Track: Shows the details of a selected CM track.

Move Track to Integrate State: Moves the track from the fix to the integrate state.

Level Track: Adds the selected CM track to a level.

Cancel Track: Delete a previously created CM track. If the track being cancelled is the only one associated with a defect or feature, then that defect or feature will also be cancelled.

Extract All Files in Track: Extracts all files associated with a given CM track. The newest version of a file checked in for a given track is extracted.

Other

Runs a "Launcher" which provides a number of commands not available from the CM menu.

Razor Operations

Checkout: Makes a local writable copy of the latest version of the specified file from CM, and locks it against changes by others.

Extract: Makes a local copy of the latest or specified version of the specified file(s) from CM, but does not lock them against others' changes.

Checkin: Makes a new version of the specified file(s) in CM from the designated local file(s), and releases the CM lock held on the file.

Uncheckout: Releases the CM lock held on the specified file(s) without changing the CM database.

Lock: Marks the specified file(s) in CM as locked by you, so others cannot check in changes to them.

Introduce: Adds the specified new file(s) to the CM database.

Remove Files From Razor: Deletes the CM pathnames for the specified file(s) from the CM database. The local file will not be deleted.

Diff Files: Performs a text compare between a local file and another file in CM or on disk.

View Files: Makes a temporary copy of the current or specified version of the specified file(s) and shows it in the editor.

Versions: Runs a "Launcher" which provides an interface to the file management part of the Razor tool suite, containing a number of commands not available from the CM menu.

Issues: Runs a "Launcher" which provides an interface to the problem tracking part of the Razor tool suite, containing a number of commands not available from the CM menu.

CVS Operations

Specifying "Current Directory" For CVS Operations: Most CVS commands can act on directories as well as individual files. To select the entire directory in the PowerAda browser, you can highlight either the directory entry, or the "CVS" directory created when you checked files out of the repository. Since there aren't any legal operations you can perform on the CVS directory, PowerAda will assume you want to operate on the current directory if you select "CVS".

Update Files: Brings your local directory up to date by extracting files from the repository or merging their changes. Update may create some conflicts you need to resolve manually.

Checkout Files: Creates a directory containing copies of files from the repository. Most other CVS commands require that you run Checkout first. Checkout takes only a directory as an argument, not files.

Commit Files: Makes a new version of the specified file(s) in the repository from your local files.

Release Files: Indicates that you are done working with the files in the directory and cancels a previous 'Checkout'.

Diff Files: Performs a text compare between a local file and another file in CM or on disk.

Show File Status: Displays a report of the status of files with respect to the repository (e.g., up-to-date, locally modified, needs merge).

Show File Log: Displays a report of the history of a file, files, or directory.

Add Files: Adds a new file to the repository. You must subsequently perform a Commit on the file or its directory to make the addition permanent. Use "Import" to add a directory.

Import Directory: Adds a new directory to the repository.

Remove Files: Removes files from the repository. You must subsequently perform a Commit on the file to make the removal permanent.

ClearCase Operations

See Running PowerAda in the ClearCase Environment for details on setting up PowerAda to work with ClearCase.

Checkout: Makes a local writable copy of the latest version of the specified file from CM, and locks it against changes by others.

Checkin: Makes a new version of the specified file(s) in CM from the designated local file(s), and releases the CM lock held on the file.

Uncheckout: Releases the CM lock held on the specified file(s) without changing the CM database.

New Element: Adds the specified new file(s) to the CM database.

Reserve: Converts an unreserved checkout to reserved.

Unreserve: Converts a reserved checkout to unreserved.

Diff Files: Performs a text compare between a local file and another file in CM or on disk.

View Files: Shows a specified version of a file in the editor.

Show File Info: Provides information about the specified file in ClearCase, including its version, whether it is locked, and what project it appears in (if any).

ClearCase: Runs a "Launcher" which provides a number of commands not available from the CM menu.

PCMS Operations

Fetch: Makes a local copy of the latest version of the specified file(s) from CM, but does not lock them against changes by others.

Extract: Makes a local writable copy of the latest or specified version of the specified file(s) from CM, and locks them against changes by others.

Return: Makes a new version of the specified file in CM from the designated local file, and releases the CM lock held on the file.

Undo: Backs out the most recent change to the specified file(s).

Cancel Extract: Releases the CM lock held on the specified file(s) without changing the CM database.

Diff Items: Performs a text compare between a local file and a file in CM, or between two versions in CM.

Show File Info: Provides information about the specified file(s) in CM, including its version and whether it is locked.

Create Items in PCMS: Add the specified new file(s) to the CM database.

Remove Items from Workset: Remove the specified file(s) from the specified workset. This is equivalent to successively undoing all versions of a file.

xpcms: Runs a "Launcher" which provides a number of commands not available from the CM menu.

Navigation menu