ClearCase: How to Uncheckout Files in Shapshot View Deleted From File System

Question

Four months ago a colleague had a shapshot view that he deleted from the file system while there were still directory checkouts on a certain branch, say branch \'A\'. Now so

Answer 1

You can unregister completely this view (even if the actual view is gone from the filesystem).

See "ClearCase: Is it possible to cancel checkouts not made from your own view?":

cleartool rmview -force -uuid (uuid_of_the_view) -vob \aVob

That will trigger, as a side-effect, the removal of the checkout status of any file checked out by this view (referenced by its uuid) in this vob (the -vob option).

See more at "How to delete clearcase views created by other users?":

cleartool lsview -l theViewToRemove # get its uuid
cleartool rmtag -view theViewToRemove
cleartool unregister -view -uuid uuid_of_viewToRemove

You even can use the nuke_view.pl script.

---

Now some of directories are obsolete and need to be rmname'd from other views, but this cannot happen apparently while they are still checked out on branch A.

As I mention in "How do delete a file in ClearCase?", even if you don't unregister the view, you can still remove a file from a branch, even if it is checked out in another branch.
You simply need to do it from the command-line:

cleartool rmname -force /path/to/file

---

Eric Schnipke proposes in the comments:

• (1) cleartool lsview -l theViewToRemove to get the view's UUID and then
• (2) cleartool rmview -force -uuid (uuid_of_the_view) -vob \aVob to remove the view and offending file version.