By default, UNIX work areas contain symbolic links into a secure directory structure that contains the controlled files. However, you can set up your UNIX work areas with local file copies, if necessary. Consider the following advantages and disadvantages before changing the default:
For large software teams, the performance associated with building across a file server can make this type of build prohibitive. This feature enables you to have your files on the local disk when you build, bypassing the expense of accessing files through a file server.
You can use local copies to speed local builds, but other daily operations, such as check out, check in, and update, will be a little slower. This is because they need to copy the file back and forth across the network between your database and work area.
With local copies, if a developer has the same working object version in two projects, there are two copies of that file; each work area has its own copy. The copies of the file have no knowledge of each other.
During Rational Synergy operations, Rational Synergy keeps all copies of the file up-to-date in all visible work areas. (A visible work area is one in which the Rational Synergy client performing the operation can see the file system location for the work area. As long as the Rational Synergy client can see all of the work areas that a file is in, it will update each of the work areas with any changes during Rational Synergy operations.) However, if you work directly in your work area (for example, in FrameMaker™), your change is made to the one file in which you are working.