Question

When ever I make a change, an .mvfs_xxxx file gets created in my ClearCase folder.
I’ve a dynamic view.

I tried to remove these files and my system always get stuck.

What is the purpose of this file and how can I control MVFS from creating files in my clearcase folder?

Answer 1

See “About dot files in the view storage“

.mvfsxxxxxx files

Q: There are also files named .mvfsxxxxxxx in my view. They show up as view private files when I run cleartool lsprivate in my dynamic view. How did they get there and can I delete them?

A: These are files that were removed when another process still had them open.
In order to allow the open process to continue reading the file after the file has been removed (UNIX semantics) the original file is renamed to some temporary unique name (just as in NFS).

The .MVFS files can be deleted using standard operating system remove commands (rm or del).

Example: cleartool lsprivate | fgrep '.mvfs' | rm"

In your case, a reboot might be in order before starting just the dynamic view and trying to remove them (without launching any other processes).

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Apprently, (from this thread), they are called “silly renames“:

has anyone ever seen view private files called something like

.mvfs_47e21162

with 0 byte size?

It is what is called a silly-renamed file.
You get these in the MVFS if you delete a file while someone has it open.

In local filesystems deleting an open file causes the name to go away but the data is maintained in memory. On a distributed filesystem like the MVFS or NFS this doesn’t work because the actual file is on a different system.
Both the MVFS and the NFS get around this problem by renaming the file to something “silly”
that is normally invisible and is unlikely to cause a naming conflict.

You get those also with ClearCase Multisite (for a different reason), where the term “silly rename” is (this time officially) mentioned.