diffbl

Compares the contents of baselines or streams

Applicability

Product

Command type

ClearCase®

cleartool subcommand

Platform

UNIX

Linux

Windows

Synopsis

  • Display differences between two baselines or streams nongraphically:
    diffbl [ –act/ivities ] [ –ver/sions | -elements ] [ –bas/elines ]
    [ –fir/st_only ] [ –nre/curse ] [ –nme/rge ]

    { baseline-selector1 | stream-selector1 }

    { baseline-selector2 | stream-selector2 }

  • Display differences between the specified baseline and its predecessor baseline nongraphically:
    diffbl –pre/decessor [ –act/ivities ] [ –ver/sions ] [ –nre/curse ] [ –nmerge ] baseline-selector
  • Display differences between two baselines graphically:
    diffbl –g/raphical baseline-selector1 baseline-selector2
  • Display differences between the specified baseline and its predecessor baseline graphically:
    diffbl –g/raphical –pre/decessor baseline-selector

Description

The diffbl command compares the contents of two baselines or streams and displays any differences it finds. You can choose to see differences in terms of activities, versions, and for composite baselines, members.

You can use the diffbl command to compare a baseline and a stream, a baseline and a baseline, or a stream and a stream. When specifying a stream, all baselines in the stream are used in the comparison as well as any changes in the stream that are not yet captured in a baseline. The following symbols are used to describe the results of a comparison:

Symbol Meaning
<< The item is present only in baseline-selector1 or stream-selector1.
>> The item is present only in baseline-selector2 or stream-selector2.
<- The activity is present in both of the items being compared and is newer in baseline-selector1 or stream-selector1.
-> The activity is present in both of the items being compared and is newer in baseline-selector2 or stream-selector2.
none There are no differences between the objects being compared.

To display version information, the diffbl command must be issued from a view context.

Restrictions

None.

Options and arguments

Specifying the information to display

Default
–activities
–act/ivities
Displays differences in terms of activities.
–ver/sions
Displays differences in terms of versions.
–elements
Displays differences in terms of elements.
–bas/elines
For composite baselines, displays differences in terms of member baselines. When used with the –activities option, displays each member baseline followed by activities in the member baseline.
–fir/st_only
Shows only those changes that appear in the first object specified for the comparison.
–nre/curse
For composite baselines, displays differences between the named baselines themselves and not between their members.
–nme/rge
Compares two baselines on the same stream and reports only activity and version changes made on that stream.

Comparing a version with its predecessor

Default
None.
–pre/decessor
Displays differences between the specified baseline and its immediate predecessor.

Reporting differences graphically

Default
Reports differences in nongraphical form.
–g/raphical
Displays differences graphically. This applies only to baselines, not streams.

Selecting the objects to compare

Default
None.
baseline-selector1 , stream-selector1
Specifies objects to use in the comparison.

baseline-selector is of the form: [baseline:]baseline-name[@vob-selector] and vob is the baseline's UCM project VOB. stream-selector is of the form: [stream:]stream-name[@vob-selector] and vob is the stream's UCM project VOB.

baseline-selector2, stream-selector2
Specifies objects to use in the comparison.

baseline-selector is of the form: [baseline:]baseline-name[@vob-selector] and vob is the baseline's UCM project VOB. stream-selector is of the form: [stream:]stream-name[@vob-selector] and vob is the stream's UCM project VOB.

Examples

The UNIX system and Linux examples in this section are written for use in csh. If you use another shell, you might 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 might 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 system and Linux shells or Windows command interpreter prompt, followed by the cleartool command. In cleartool interactive mode, cmd-context represents the interactive cleartool prompt.

  • Compare activities in two streams:
    cmd-context diffbl stream:java_int stream:java_dev 
    Comparing the following:
    		java_int
    		java_dev
    Differences:
    << deliver.java_dev.19990917.140443 "deliver java_dev on 09/17/99 14:04:43."
    << deliver.java_dev.19990917.141046 "deliver java_dev on 09/17/99 14:10:46."
  • Compare baselines in two streams:

    cmd-context diffbl -ver stream:java_int stream:java_dev
    Comparing the following:
    java_int
    java_dev
    Differences:
    << /vobs/parser/myfile.c@@/main/java_int/2
    << /vobs/parser/myfile.c@@/main/java_int/3

  • Compare a baseline with its predecessor baseline:

    cmd-context diffbl -predecessor
    test_sum.D001207.124@net/acrolein/export/home/lli/vobs/lli_test_sum

    Comparing the following:
    test_sum.D001207.124@net/acrolein/export/home/lli/vobs/lli_test_sum
    test_sum.D001207.123@net/acrolein/export/home/lli/vobs/lli_test_sum
    Differences:
    >> deliver.lli_test_sum.20001113.165650 “deliver lli_test6_sum on
    11/13/00 16:56:50."
    >> test_act_00795 “test act"