Unable to determine VOB for pathname

Question

I'm a new ClearCase user (woe is me...), on a Linux machine; I've been told to create a new branch time (to check my changes into), as preparation to creating my own view in which I'll make edits.

So, I ran

$ct mkbrtype foo -c "this is my new branch type"

to create my branch type. But - this gives me:

ct: Error: Unable to determine VOB for pathname ".".

My questions:

1. Why is this happening?
2. Do I need to create the view first? create and ct setview into it? Or - something else?

Answer 1

Try moving to the folder where your VOBs are mounted, e.g.

$ cd /path/to/vobs/
$ ct mkbrtype foo -c "this is my new branch type"
Created branch type "foo".

Hopefully that should be sufficient.

Answer 2

Hopefully that should be sufficient.

In addition of mkbrtype,here is what a dedicated view (dynamic if you want) would look like.
Simply modify your config spec for that new view with the right rules using your new branch: any new checkout will create the branch (mkbranch) automatically at the next checkout within that view.

element * CHECKEDOUT
element * .../myBranch/LATEST
element * /main/LATEST -mkbranch myBranch
element * /main/0 -mkbranch myBranch
element * /main/LATEST

Since you will do the checkout within /path/to/vobs/viewtag/path/to/file, you will be in the right vob for the branch to be created.