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Why isn't it standard behavior for Accurev to automatically run an "Update" upon opening the program? "Update" updates a user's local sandbox with the latest files from the building/promoted area.

It seems like expected functionality that the most recent files should be synchronized first.

I'm not claiming that it should always update, but curious as to why an auto-Update wouldn't be correct.

Kevin Meredith
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2 Answers2

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Auto-updating could produce some very unwanted results.

Take this scenario: you're in the middle of a development task, but you've made a mistake and need to revert a file that you just modified. So you open AccuRev, but before you have a chance to "revert to most recent version", you are bombarded with 100 files that have been changed upstream including the one you want to revert. You are now forced into the position of resolving all the merge conflicts before your solution will build, including the merge of your (possibly unstable) code in progress.

Requiring the user to manually update keeps a protective 'bubble' around the developer, allowing them to commit (keep) changes within their own workspace without bringing down code changes that could destabilise the work in their sandbox. When the developer gets to a point where his code is ready to share with others, that is the appropriate time to do an update and subsequently build/retest the merged codebase before promoting.

However there is one scenario that I do believe auto-updating could be useful: after a workspace is reparented. i.e. when a developer's workspace is moved from one part of the stream hierarchy to another. Every time we reparent we have to do a little dance:

  1. Accept the confirmation dialog that reminds us (rather verbosely) that we need to update our workspace before we can promote any changes.
  2. Double-click the workspace to view its files.
  3. Wait for AccuRev to do a "Pending" search, to determine whether any file changes are waiting to be committed.
  4. And finally, perform the Update.

Instead of just giving us a confirmation dialog, it would be nice if AccuRev could just ask us if we want to Update immediately.

Dan Nolan
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I guess it depends on preference. I for one wouldn't like the auto-update feature. Imagine you have a huge project and you don't want to build it every time you start Accurev. But you also can't debug because the source files and debugging info no longer correspond.

Luchian Grigore
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  • Why would you need to re-compile all of your DLLs whenever you do an update? – Kevin Meredith Sep 02 '11 at 14:51
  • Off the top of my head... a class structure changes - you'll need to compile all projects that include that header. Maybe not the whole project, but if the change is in a very basic component, that will add up to quite a few. – Luchian Grigore Sep 02 '11 at 15:00