Accurev Promotion order

Question

We are using Accurev 5.6. We run into a weird issue during promotion. One of our developers defuncted a file abc.txt in his workspace and promoted it to the backing stream under an issue. Then after a few days, he realized that he needed his file. He created a file with the same name and promoted it up under the same issue. Before the release, we tried to promote this issue to a parent stream. The Accurev complained saying the file abc.txt existed in the parent stream and prevented us from promoting it.

It looks like the Accurev promotion got the order wrong. It tried to promote the activity of creation of abc.txt first instead of defunct of abc.txt first. What Accurev should have done is to promote activities based on time of the activities: first, defunct the abc.txt in the parent stream and then create the abc.txt file again under a different element ID.

Is this an Accurev bug? Is there anyway to configure Accurev to promote based on time of the activities within one single issue?

Answer 1

This is not a bug in Accurev. This is a nuance of Accurev. Accurev gives each new element an id. This id is unique to that element and stays with that object as it gets defuncted, renamed, moved, etc. This is just how Accurev works, which makes it a blessing and a curse.

Steps to Resolve:

1. Rename the 2nd element the developer promoted.
2. Defunct this element.
3. Undefunct the 1st element.
4. Promote up both changes.
5. At this point, you can promote up abc.txt.
6. You can then purge (Revert to Backed) the defuncted (2nd element). a. You would want to Revert to Backed in this instance because you probably don't care about that version and so it doesn't sit in the default group of your stream forever.

Search the online documentation for twin for more detailed information. Sorry I couldn't get a direct link.

Twins are a pain, but it looks like Accurev has been slowly improving detecting and fixing them. See the latest release (5.7).