SnapshotCM is a configuration management tool for maintaining versioned source files. SnapshotCM supports HP-UX, Linux, Solaris, Tru64 and Windows NT platforms. All platforms support command-line access. Windows also supports a graphical interface.

Architecture

SnapshotCM uses a client-server model. The SnapshotCM server running on a central machine maintains versioned files in a database.

The SnapshotCM client commands run on user workstations. Many of the command names are similar to RCS: wci, wco, wdiff, whist (=rlog) and wmerge. Other commands exist for manipulating attributes that RCS does not support, running the GUI, etc.

Key Terms

A SnapshotCM project is a collection of files and directories to be versioned together. Each version of a project is called a snapshot.

SnapshotCM snapshots and workspaces are the two places your files are kept. A snapshot is a state of your file hierarchy maintained by the central server. All attributes are maintained in the snapshot (name, directory, content, mode, keyword expansion setting, Text/Binary IO setting, and existence). All changes to files and directories affect a single snapshot-- no other snapshot is affected. Another way to understand a snapshot is as a parts list or global label of files, along with their versions and attributes. Many snapshots can exist simultaneously for different purposes. As a list of pointers, snapshots can be created and removed easily. Changes can be copied or merged among snapshots, and snapshots are mapped to local workspaces where editing and building occur.

A workspace is a directory hierarchy on a local developer machine. A workspace is associated with a single snapshot. Once an association is created, file operations need not reference the server or snapshot explicitly.

For Windows, SnapshotCM has a GUI interface. The Project Browser (PB) displays the relationships among the various project snapshots. A Workspace Browser (WB) is an explorer like interface that displays the file and attribute hierarchies held by snapshots and workspaces.

Using SnapshotCM

To manipulate files, create a workspace by associating a snapshot with the root of your desired workspace. Do this by running "wmap add". Then chdir into the workspace and use wupdate (or wco) to populate the workspace. On Windows, you may prefer to run the GUI. Select your project and double click the snapshot you want to browse. In the GUI, files can be checked-out or checked-in using right-click or by dragging from one pane to another or by using the toolbar buttons.

To check your snapshot (SnapshotCM) to workspace (local) association, run wmap from a command prompt or select Snapshot -> Show Workspace Mapping... from the GUI.

The SnapshotCM commands are located at C:\Program Files\True Blue Software\SnapshotCM on Windows (default location), and /opt/SnapshotCM/bin on Unix.

See also:  http://www.truebluesoftware.com/

Quick Reference - Workspace Commands:

Most workspace commands:

• when given a directory, operate on the names in that directory rather than the directory itself.
• accept a -R option to operate recursively on a directory, and -d to operate on directory itself.
• accept -? and --help options to display usage.
• accept -n and -q options to preview actions and suppress normal output.
• accept -M to show workspace mapping, and -V to show command version.
• accept explicit workspace via -N workspace, or via -h host -S snapshotPath -D directory.
• accept -X to display full paths in output.
• accept both numeric and snapshot path names as revision arguments to the -r option. "." means the revision selected by the currently mapped snapshot, ".." the revision selected by the parent of the currently mapped snapshot, and so on. Full snapshot paths are OK too.

Quick Reference - Snapshot Commands:

Most snapshot commands accept the -V option to show command version.

All commands support default options set in $HOME/.truecmrc. For example, to turn off "wco -l" lock comment prompting, add wco -t "" to the .truecmrc file (which defaults the lock comment to the empty string).