Processing the First Baselevel

Next, populate gizmo with files from the first baselevel.

1.	Go to the first baselevel directory:

cd \baselevels\gizmo1.0

2.	Create a workspace to be used for importing files from the baselevel into AccuRev:

accurev mkws -w import -b gizmo -l .

Note that the command line ends with “dash-ell dot”. This creates a workspace called import, which is based on stream gizmo (currently empty) in the current location.

3.	Get a list of all of the files that AccuRev doesn't know about (which is all of them):

accurev stat -x > extfiles.list

The –x stands for external. View the resulting file. You may see many files that you don’t want to put under version control: object files, executables, text-editor backup files, etc.

4.	You can have AccuRev ignore such files, by specifying patterns (wildcards) that match their names in the .acignore file. For example:

*.exe
*.obj
*.lnk
*.err
*.map (and so on)

(See Specifying Ignore Patterns for External Objects.)

5.	Try the preceding two steps again, keep repeating this process until the stat –x command lists exactly the set of files that you want AccuRev to keep track of.

6.	Create initial versions of these files in the depot:

accurev add -c "initial file add" -x

This creates versions in the import workspace, but has not yet made them available to others working on the gizmo project. The –c option allows you to associate a comment with the transaction.

7.	To make these new files public, promote them to the gizmo stream:

accurev promote -c "initial file promote" -k

Recording the Baselevel with a Snapshot

At this point, you can create a snapshot of the gizmo stream. A snapshot is a special kind of stream, whose contents can never change. (Hence, a snapshot is also called a “static stream”, distinguishing it from a standard dynamic stream.) In this case, the snapshot will contain the versions in the first baselevel, because that’s exactly what the gizmo stream contains at the current time.

(The gizmo stream itself will change, as you incorporate additional baselevels. But any snapshot you create is guaranteed to be frozen forever!)

Use the mksnap command to create the snapshot:

accurev mksnap -s gizmo1.0 -b gizmo -t now

At any time in the future, you can use snapshot gizmo1.0 to see the contents of the first baselevel. And if you need to fix a bug that existed at this baselevel, you can create a maintenance stream below the snapshot. See Creating and Using a Maintenance Stream.

Note: AccuRev does not implement snapshots with “version labels”, as do branch-and-label SCM systems. Since there’s no need to attach a label to each version in the baselevel, creating a snapshot is virtually instantaneous!