11. Using Streams to Enforce
Process

Gated streams are a special type of stream that, when used with AccuRev triggers, allow you to define the conditions under which changes can be promoted; triggers on gated streams update the StreamBrowser to provide at-a-glance status of those changes. When used in front of build or test streams, gated streams can help limit the occasions when faulty code is promoted, reducing the negative impact on development -- you don’t want to make your changes available to others who share or rely on your code if it doesn’t compile or breaks the build, for example, and gated streams help ensure this doesn’t happen.

Read this chapter to learn:

•	What a gated stream is, and where and how to use them in your stream hierarchy

•	How to create and work with gated streams and their child streams (called staging streams)

•	How to use triggers to submit changed files to external tools like compilers, build managers, or test suites

•	How triggers update the StreamBrowser based on results returned by those tools

For more information: AccuRev provides other features -- Access Control Lists (ACLs), stream locks, and workflow, to name a few -- that help you manage change and enforce processes in the enterprise. See Chapter 9 AccuRev Security Overview in the AccuRev Administrator’s Guide to learn about ACLs and other tools for restricting access to streams. See Chapter 4, Using Workflow to Enforce SCM Policy, in the AccuRev Web Interface User’s Guide to learn about issue management in AccuRev.