Terminology in Clear Case

About elements and views

Your project manager places items such as files and directories under Rational® ClearCase® version control (or source control). Such items are generally categorized as elements. However, files and directories placed under source control are called elements. Each checked-in revision of an element is called a version.

Elements (and their versions) are stored in data repositories called VOBs (versioned object bases).

A view provides a directory tree of one version of each file in one or more components. In the view, you modify source files, compile them into object modules for testing purposes, format them into documents, and so on.

Two types of view are offered.

• Snapshot views, which copy files from VOBs to your computer.
• Dynamic views, which provide immediate, transparent access to the data in VOBs.

Product note: Dynamic views are not available on Rational ClearCase LT systems.