Question

Is there a way to merge 2 elements in ClearCase that represent one actual element into one element?
for example, say I have a stream S1 in which I added the file foo.txt to source control, and stream S2 (where S1 and S2 are 2 child stream of the same stream) in which I also added foo.txt to source control (ofcourse, in the same relative path).
Clear case will create to elements for the foo.txt files. is there a way to combine them to one element?

Thanks

Answer 1

No, you cannot (as Paul R comments).

Adding an element twice is making an evil twin: see “IBM about Evil Twins“.

When you will merge those files (through, for instance, a cleartool findmerge), you will actually merge the parent directory first.
That means you will have to choose between one of the two files within that merged directory (for the merged parent directory to reference).

Then you can update the content of the chosen file by making a manual merge between the file of the other branch and the one present in the merged directory.
But that won’t be a ClearCase merge, only the result of a diff tool helping you to detect and include changes from the other file into the one currently referenced in the merged directory.

See also “Evil twin problem and subtractive merge“.