/BriefCase 3 Toolkit

for

Software Development and Configuration Management
Now FREE from Applied Computer Sciences, inc.

  Table of Contents from the new 
/BriefCase 3 SCM Toolkit Reference and User's Guide.


1.  The /BriefCase Software Configuration Management
    (SCM) Toolkit ...................................... 1-1
    1.1   Target Audiences ............................. 1-1
    1.2   Essential /BriefCase Terminology ............. 1-1
    1.3   What is /BriefCase ........................... 1-2
    1.4   Availability and Licensing ................... 1-6
    1.5   Background - Why /BriefCase was Developed .... 1-6
    1.6   Why Developers Like /BriefCase . ............. 1-9
    1.7   About Applied Computer Sciences, inc. ....... 1-13

2.  /BriefCase Features ................................ 2-1
    2.1   General ...................................... 2-1
    2.2   Revision Management .......................... 2-2
    2.3   Named/Tagged Release Management .............. 2-5
    2.4   Integral Bug/Enhancement Tracking Subsystem .. 2-6

3.  What's New in Release 3 ............................ 3-1

4.  General Information ................................ 4-1
    4.1   Software Configuration Management (SCM)
          Tools ........................................ 4-1
    .2   Supported Platforms and System Requirements .. 4-2

5.  Project Organization ............................... 5-1
    5.1   Project Working Directory Replication ........ 5-2
    5.2   Project Directory Tree Structures ............ 5-4
    5.3   Header files ................................. 5-4
    5.4   Object files ................................. 5-4
    5.5   Static and Shared/Dynamic Libraries .......... 5-4
    5.6   Executables and Runtime File ................. 5-5
    5.7   Project Runtime Packaging, Promotion and
          Installation ................................. 5-5

6.  Building Software Products with /BriefCase ......... 6-1
    6.1   What is a Makefile ........................... 6-2
    6.2   Project Makefile Trees ....................... 6-3
    6.3   Makefile vs. makefile ........................ 6-4
    6.4   Dependencies in Makefiles .................... 6-5
    6.5   Function Prototypes and their Header Files ... 6-8
    6.6   Host/Project-specific Environment Setup
          Interactions ................................ 6-10
    6.7   Oracle Pro*C Issues ......................... 6-11

7.  Branch Revisions and Merging ....................... 7-1
    7.1   Overview of Concepts and Management Issues ... 7-1
    7.2   When and How to Use Branch Revisions ......... 7-1
    7.3   Branch Revision Notes ........................ 7-2
    7.4   Merging Branch Revisions back into the Main
          Trunk ........................................ 7-2
    7.5   Essential Merge Concepts and an Example ...... 7-2
    7.6   The /BriefCase vmerge Command ................ 7-4

8.  Named (Tagged) Source Releases ..................... 8-1
    8.1   Source Release Tags .......................... 8-1
    8.2   Private Tags ................................. 8-1
    8.3   How to Tag a Release ......................... 8-2
    8.4   How to Validate the Tagged Release ........... 8-3
    8.5   How to Fix an Incorrectly Tagged Release ..... 8-4
    8.6   How to Delete an Obsolete or Useless Tag ..... 8-5
    8.7   How to Experiment Safely With Tags: Tag
          Aliases ...................................... 8-5

9.  Runtime Releases, Packaging, and Life-Cycle ........ 9-1
    9.1   A Developer's View ........................... 9-2
    9.2   The View from QA/Test ....................... 9-10
    9.3   The View from Production Control ............ 9-13
    9.4   The /BriefCase QA_pull Command .............. 9-15
    9.5   Runtime Package Security, User Groups ....... 9-16

10. Project Administration ............................ 10-1
    10.1  How to Add New /BriefCase Client Hosts and
          Users ....................................... 10-1
    10.2  Sample Client Host Information Form ......... 10-3
    10.3  Project Administration Commands ............. 10-3
    10.4  How To Start a New /BriefCase Project ....... 10-4
    10.5  Adjusting Project Group Permissions ......... 10-5
    10.6  Customizing ident.config Files .............. 10-5
    10.7  Customizing the project.setup file .......... 10-9
    10.8  Customizing the Project's BC_CBO File ...... 10-10
    10.9  Restoring /BriefCase Project Directories
          From a Backup .............................. 10-12
    10.10 Removing Obsolete Projects ................. 10-12
    10.11 Project Release Administration ............. 10-13
    10.12 Runtime Package Tagging and Promotion ...... 10-13

11. Command Summaries, by Feature Group ............... 11-1
    11.1  File Management ............................. 11-1
    11.2  Project Build ............................... 11-1
    11.3  Bug Tracking ................................ 11-1
    11.4  File/Revision Comparison, Matching .......... 11-2
    11.5  Private Release/Tag Management .............. 11-2
    11.6  Project Source Release/Tag Management ....... 11-2
    11.7  Prototype Runtime Packaging ................. 11-2
    11.8  Tagged Release Content and Differences
          Reports ..................................... 11-2
    11.9  Runtime Package Promotion ................... 11-2
    11.10 Info/Reports ................................ 11-2
    11.11 Project Administration ...................... 11-3
    11.12 Miscellaneous Commands ...................... 11-3

12. /BriefCase Command Reference ...................... 12-1
    12.1  BC .......................................... 12-1
    12.2  QA_pull ..................................... 12-1
    12.3  bc_chk ...................................... 12-1
    12.4  bc_makeparms ................................ 12-1
    12.5  bc_parms .................................... 12-2
    12.6  bci ......................................... 12-2
    12.7  bciR ........................................ 12-3
    12.8  bcol ........................................ 12-3
    12.9  bug_close ................................... 12-4
    12.10 bug_defer ................................... 12-4
    12.11 bug_drop .................................... 12-4
    12.12 bug_kill .................................... 12-4
    12.13 bug_log ..................................... 12-5
    12.14 bug_open .................................... 12-5
    12.15 bug_reopen .................................. 12-5
    12.16 bug_report .................................. 12-5
    12.17 bug_take .................................... 12-6
    12.18 bug_update .................................. 12-6
    12.19 bug_xref .................................... 12-6
    12.20 changes ..................................... 12-6
    12.21 chk_tag ..................................... 12-7
    12.22 make ........................................ 12-7
    12.23 admretag .................................... 12-7
    12.24 admtag ...................................... 12-8
    12.25 admtag_alias ................................ 12-8
    12.26 admuntag .................................... 12-8
    12.27 nact ........................................ 12-9
    12.28 nci ......................................... 12-9
    12.29 nciR ........................................ 12-9
    12.30 nco ........................................ 12-10
    12.31 ncoall ..................................... 12-10
    12.32 ncol ....................................... 12-11
    12.33 ncolall .................................... 12-11
    12.34 ndmk ....................................... 12-11
    12.35 newBCproj .................................. 12-11
    12.36 newfiles ................................... 12-12
    12.37 nfinchk .................................... 12-12
    12.38 nkw_exp .................................... 12-12
    12.39 nloc8 ...................................... 12-13
    12.40 nlock ...................................... 12-13
    12.41 nobs ....................................... 12-13
    12.42 noid ....................................... 12-14
    12.43 nout ....................................... 12-14
    12.44 npackage ................................... 12-14
    12.45 nproj ...................................... 12-15
    12.46 nretag ..................................... 12-15
    12.47 nrevs ...................................... 12-15
    12.48 nsummary ................................... 12-16
    12.49 ntag ....................................... 12-16
    12.50 ntag_alias ................................. 12-16
    12.51 ntag_diffs ................................. 12-16
    12.52 ntag_report ................................ 12-17
    12.53 ntagrel .................................... 12-17
    12.54 ntree ...................................... 12-18
    12.55 num ........................................ 12-18
    12.56 nuntag ..................................... 12-18
    12.57 nunzap ..................................... 12-18
    12.58 nupdate .................................... 12-19
    12.59 nzap ....................................... 12-19
    12.60 ptree ...................................... 12-20
    12.61 show_files ................................. 12-20
    12.62 show_install ............................... 12-20
    12.63 show_projects .............................. 12-20
    12.64 show_tagdates .............................. 12-21
    12.65 show_tags .................................. 12-21
    12.66 src_scan ................................... 12-21
    12.67 tman ....................................... 12-22
    12.68 vdif ....................................... 12-22
    12.69 vget ....................................... 12-22
    12.70 vi_project ................................. 12-22
    12.71 vlist ...................................... 12-23
    12.72 vlocks ..................................... 12-23
    12.73 vmatch ..................................... 12-23
    12.74 vmatch_tag ................................. 12-24
    12.75 vmerge ..................................... 12-24
    12.76 vtree ...................................... 12-24
    12.77 zapBCproj .................................. 12-25

13. /BriefCase Utilities .............................. 13-1
    13.1  Usage msg from cproto command ............... 13-1
    13.2  /BriefCase mkdep Command .................... 13-1
    13.3  Details of GNU protoize ..................... 13-2
    13.4  The indent command .......................... 13-4

14. Installation and Customization .................... 14-1
    14.1  /BriefCase Client/Server Overview ........... 14-1
    14.2  /BriefCase Server Installation and System
          Administration .............................. 14-7
    14.3  How to Secure the Repository ............... 14-10
    14.4  Installing the /BriefCase Distribution ..... 14-10
    14.5  Securing the Restricted BCadmin Commands ... 14-11
    14.6  Creating and Sharing the /BriefCase Server
          Directories ................................ 14-11
    14.7  Building the RCS and diff for the Server ... 14-12
    14.8  The /BriefCasetm Client Tools .............. 14-13
    14.9  What if a Make Fails? ...................... 14-14
    14.10 Customizing your /BriefCase Configuration .. 14-16
    14.11 Customizing the host.setup File ............ 14-19
    14.12 Configuring Printers in /BriefCase ......... 14-19
    14.13 /BriefCase Client Host System
          Administration ............................. 14-23
    14.14 Configuring Runtime Package Promotion ...... 14-24
    14.15 Sample Installation Configuration Files .... 14-25
    14.16 Runtime Package Release Promotion Control
          Security ................................... 14-36
    14.17 Runtime Package Promotion Security
          Disclaimer ................................. 14-36

15. Software Engineering with /BriefCase, an
    Introduction ...................................... 15-1
    15.1  How to Start Working on a /BriefCase
          Project ..................................... 15-1
    15.2  Named Releases ............................. 15-13
    15.3  How Make benefits from /BriefCase .......... 15-13
    15.4  ANSI C Software Development ................ 15-14
    15.5  Automatic Generation of C Function
          Prototypes ................................. 15-17
    15.6  How to Make Code More Readable ............. 15-19
    15.7  How To Make Your Code More Robust .......... 15-19

16. Makefile Basics ................................... 16-1
    16.1  Makefile Structure and How make Works ....... 16-1
    16.2  The Makefile Language ....................... 16-3
    16.3  How to Build A Working Oracle/Pro*C
          Makefile .................................... 16-3
    16.4  Adjustments to the Prototype ................ 16-3
    16.5  Project Makefile Trees ...................... 16-7
    16.6  Top-Down Build With Make ................... 16-15

17. An Automated Regression Test Methodology .......... 17-1
    17.1  Automated Test Cases ........................ 17-1
    17.2  Programming Considerations .................. 17-1
    17.3  Test Suites, Test Cases, scripts and
          Programs .................................... 17-1

18. /BriefCase and the GPL ............................ 18-1

For Technical Details about /BriefCase see
/BriefCase Intro Seminars/Training Release 3.5 Installation Release 3.5 README Support Download