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Cascade provides a Windows Explorer shell extension that allows you to manipulate Cascade trees from the Windows GUI by right-clicking on any file or directory on the Cascade File System drive. The Cascade shell extension also provides "icon overlays" to show you which files and directories you've made changes to.
The shell extension provides a subset of the functionality exposed through
the command line client—some lesser-used functionality (such as the
low-level csc mount command for setting up a CFS tree manually,
instead of cloning a tree from Cascade Manager) has been omitted from the shell
extension.
Just like with the command line client, you will sometimes be asked to enter a username and password to access a repository. See the documentation on the command line client for more information.
The context menu will appear when you right-click inside any CFS tree. This includes your own local CFS drive, but it may also appear in a CFS tree shared over a network file system from some other computer.
Depending on where you right-click, Cascade will offer you an appropriate subset of these commands:
The "Clone Last Known Good" command clones a Cascade tree from the last-known-good revision—that is, the most recent revision where all tasks have completed and passed. Instead of allowing you to choose the name of the tree, this command will automatically select the name of the tree for you, pickingthe first unique unused name "tree1", "tree2", "tree3", etc. (If you want to call the tree something else, you can always rename it.)
The "Clone Latest" command is similar to "Clone Last Known Good", but clones the tree from the latest revision, regardless of its testing status.
The "Clone..." command brings up a dialog box asking what sort of tree you'd like to clone, providing more control than the Clone Last Known Good command. You can enter the name of the tree here, as well as select what revision you want to clone. You can select Last Known Good (the most recent revision where all tasks have completed and passed), Latest (the most recent revision, regardless of its testing status), or an explicit numeric revision.
The "Update to Last Known Good" command updates an existing (previously cloned) tree to the last known good revision.
The "Update to Latest" command updates an existing (previously cloned) tree to the latest revision.
The "Update..." command brings up a dialog box asking what revision you'd like to update your existing (previously cloned) tree to. The options have the same meaning as in the "Clone..." command.
The "Delete Tree..." command destroys an existing tree. Deleting a tree with this command is much more efficient than the normal Windows Explorer "Delete" command.
The "Diff..." command shows what changes have been made to a file in a Cascade tree.
This command relies on an external diff program specified in the
CSC_DIFF configuration variable. CSC_DIFF contains a
template for a command line used to launch that program, where %B
is replaced by the path to the "baseline" file and %Y is replaced
by the path to "your" file. If CSC_DIFF is not set, its default
value is diff -u %B %Y.
The Windows installer for Cascade sets CSC_DIFF to launch the
TortoiseMerge diff program.
The "Merge..." command merges your changes to a file in a Cascade tree with other people's changes to the same file. This is often required after an "Update" command.
This command relies on an external diff program specified in the
CSC_MERGE configuration variable. CSC_MERGE contains
a template for a command line used to launch that program, where %B
is replaced by the path to the "baseline" file, %Y is replaced by
the path to "your" file, %T is replaced by the path to "their"
file, and %O is replaced by the path to the output file. If
CSC_MERGE is not set, its default value is diff3 -m %Y %B %T
>%O.
The Windows installer for Cascade sets CSC_MERGE to launch the
TortoiseMerge diff program.
The "Revert..." command backs out unwanted changes to a Cascade tree, rolling the file in question back to its original state in the repository. If you select a directory rather than a file, the revert is recursive, applying to all files and subdirectories underneath it as well.
The "Checkpoint/Commit..." command both shows you the current state of the tree and allows you to create a checkpoint or commit your changes.
The Checkpoint/Commit dialog shows what files and directories have been modified in the this Cascade tree, including information on which ones the user needs to merge to make the tree consistent. It also shows all the mount points in the current tree. Each row in the table has three fields: the path to the mount point, the URL of the repository the mount point refers to, and the revision that mount point is set to.
If you click the Cancel button to close the dialog, no action will be taken. Otherwise, if you click OK, you can select whether you want to create a checkpoint only; create a checkpoint and launch the tasks affected by your changes; or attempt to commit your changes.
Before checkpointing or committing, you can also write up a human-readable description of your change here.
The "Cascade Manager..." command brings up Cascade Manager in your web browser.
The "Help..." command brings up this manual in your web browser.
The "About..." command displays a brief dialog box showing what version of Cascade you are running.
The Cascade shell extension adds "icon overlays" to Cascade trees in Windows Explorer. These icon overlays indicate what state a file is in. There are four possible states:
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The green checkbox icon indicates that a file has not been changed from its original state in the repository. |
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The red exclamation point indicates that a file or directory tree has been modified in some way from its original state in the repository. |
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The blue plus sign indicates that a file or directory did not exist in the repository and has been added in the local tree. |
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The yellow exclamation point indicates that a file has been modified in both the local tree and the repository and the two sets of changes need to be merged. For a directory tree, it indicates that at least one file under the directory tree needs a merge. |
Comments or questions about the manual? Please email info@conifersystems.com with your feedback.
Copyright © 2008 Conifer Systems LLC. All rights reserved.
Cascade contains valuable trade secrets and other confidential information belonging to Conifer Systems LLC. This software and its associated documentation may not be copied, duplicated or disclosed to third parties without the express written permission of Conifer Systems LLC.