Continuing to work during a build

As your build progresses, other developers continue to work on their files and might check in new versions of elements that your build uses.

If your build takes an hour to complete, you do not want build scripts executed early in the build to use version 6 of a header file and scripts executed later to use version 7 or 8.

To prevent such inconsistencies, any version whose selection is based on a LATEST config spec rule is locked out if it is checked-in after the instant that clearmake was invoked. The moment that the clearmake build session begins is the build reference time.

The same reference time is reported in each configuration record produced during the build session, even if the session lasts hours (or days):

% cleartool catcr hello.o

Target hello.o built by drp.dvt
Host "fermi" running OSF1 V1.3 (alpha) 
Reference Time 26-Feb-03.16:53:58, this audit started 
26-Feb-03.16:54:10 ...
Note: The reference time is the build reference time, when the overall clearmake build session began. The this audit started time is when the execution of the individual build script began.

When determining whether an object was created before or after the build reference time, clearmake adjusts for clock skew, the inevitable small differences among the system clocks on different hosts. For more information about build sessions, see Build sessions, subsessions, and hierarchical builds.

CAUTION: A coordinated reference time of a build applies to elements only, providing protection from changes made after the build began. You are not protected from changes to view-private objects and non-MVFS objects. For example, if you begin a build and then change a checked-out file used in the build, a failure might result. To avoid this problem, do not work on the same project in a view in which a build is in progress.