View caches

To improve its performance, the view_server process associated with a view maintains a cache. The default size of this cache is adequate for typical views, but a larger cache can further improve the performance of views in which very large software systems are built by omake or clearmake.

The view server maintains the following caches, consisting mostly of VOB data, to respond faster to RPCs from clients:
  • An object cache, which facilitates retrieval of objects such as versions and branches
  • A directory cache, which facilitates file-system directory read access
  • A stat cache, which stores file attributes
  • A name cache, which stores names and accelerates name lookups
When a view_server process is started, it chooses its cache size from the first one of these that yields a value:
  • A per-view persistent value set when the view was created (cleartool mkview –cachesize) or modified with the cleartool setcache –view –cachesize command
  • A per-host persistent value set with setcache –view –host
  • A site-wide default set with setcache –view –site
  • A default value: 4096 KB

The view cache size represents the total number of bytes available for allocation among the individual view caches.

For information about setting the cache size for a view and for a site, see the setcache reference page. For information about displaying cache information, see the getcache reference page.