Managing parallel versions

IBM® Rational® Synergy shows parallel versions in two ways: parallel notification and membership conflict detection. The membership conflicts can be broadly classified as merge candidates and objects in parallel.

Merge candidates

When a common node (file or directory version) is modified multiple times and they are static, they can be termed as merge candidates. Before the check-in of a new version, Rational Synergy informs the user about merge candidates.

Objects in parallel

When a common node is modified multiple times and these new versions are either static or non-static, they are referred to as objects in parallel. During check-out Rational Synergy informs the user about the objects in parallel.

Parallel notification

Parallel notification shows all unmerged static and non-static parallel versions of objects, except for the versions that are excluded with the parallel_exclude_rules setting.

Parallel notification displays a wide range of parallel versions. However, these versions are often not conflicts. The process that your development team is using determines whether parallels need to be merged and when they need to be merged.

Membership conflict detection

Membership conflict detection shows many kinds of conflicts, which include parallel conflicts, and occurs during the following operations:

Parallel conflicts that are displayed as a part of membership conflict detection include only objects that are members of the project, or are candidate versions as defined in the update properties of the project.

You can use the conflict_exclude_rules setting to exclude membership conflicts from conflict detection.

Because conflicts can affect the integrity of a project, examine all conflicts found with membership conflict detection. These conflicts usually need to be resolved right away, but there might be some cases where they do not. Consider them as warnings of potential problems.


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