AccuRev CLI User's Guide

Exclusive File Locking and Anchor-Required Workspaces
Exclusive file locking (serial-development mode) can be implemented at the depot level, the
workspace level, or the element level (keep –E, add –E). If exclusive file locking applies to an
element:
• It is maintained in the read-only state in your workspace tree when you are not actively
working on it.
• If the element is active in a sibling workspace (having been processed with anchor, co,
revert, keep, move, defunct, or undefunct), you cannot make the element active in your
workspace.
Note: in this context, workspaces are considered siblings if they promote to the same stream.
If the stream hierarchy includes pass-through streams, workspaces can be siblings even if they
have different parents.
• If the element is not active in any sibling workspace:
• You can make a file element active with the co or anchor command. This makes the file
in your workspace tree writable.
Unix/Linux: only the “user” write permission is enabled, not the “group” or “other” write
permission. Your umask setting is ignored.
• Before you can keep a new version of a file element, you must first use co or anchor to
make it active.
• You can make an element active with move, defunct, undefunct, or revert without
having to first use co or anchor.
An exclusive file lock on a file element is released when active development on the file ends in
that workspace:
• A promote command sends your private changes to an element from your workspace stream
to the backing stream.
• A purge command discards your private changes to an element.
Either way, the workspace returns to using a backing-stream version of the element.
In an anchor-required workspace, all elements are maintained in a read-only state when you are
not actively working on them. Using such a workspace is similar to working with exclusive file
locking, except that you are not constrained by elements’ activity in sibling workspaces:
• You can make a file element active with the co or anchor command. This makes the file
writable.
• Before you can keep a new version of a file element, you must first use co or anchor to make
it active.
• You can make an element active with move, defunct, undefunct, or revert without having to
first use co or anchor.
AccuRev CLI User’s Guide 4