Equivalent for 'Clone in git' in ClearCase

Question

I am new to ClearCase (just started Today), I used GIT and SVN before for version control.
In Git, I generally 'clone' the repository to fetch the code to my local and do the 'checkout'

What is the equivalent for it in ClearCase?
I read the document (https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/rational-clearcase/9.0.1?topic=software-cleartool) but there is no clear definition for 'clone' and 'checkout'

Any help on this is appreciated and will be helpful for many!

Answer 1

First, I detailed general equivalences between Git and ClearCase in "What are the basic ClearCase concepts every developer should know?" (2009)

Second, there is no direct equivalent for git clone, since a clone would get (with default settings) the full history of a remote repository, which is never done with ClearCase: you don't get the full copy of a VOB (Versioned Object Base). Said Vob can be as large as many terabyte!

In ClearCase:

• you create a view (snapshot, dynamic or web view)
• you configure its config spec in order to select the versions of each file/folder you want to see in this view.
  • automatic configuration through UCM views, which derives their selection rules from the stream foundation baselines of each UCM components, meaning of each VOB root component folder,
  • or manual configuration for non-UCM view, where you specify whatever path and rules you want through config spec.

Note: the term checkout is a loaded one.

• in Git, it has been judged too confusing, and replaced with:
  • git restore, to restore files at a certain version
  • git switch (to switch branches, which is done in ClearCase by modifying the config spec of an existing view, or by creating another view alltogether)
• in ClearCase, cleartool checkout is used to mark a file for modification, and lock its state, before releasing the lock with a cleartool checkin.
  There is no need for such a pessimist lock with Git: you modify and commit locally whatever you want, and push later to the remote repository.