AccuRev users sometimes confuse the two commands Populate and
Update. These commands seem similar because they both bring new data into your workspace. But they are quite different, both in their usage pattern — most people use
Update far more often — and in what they accomplish. Understanding the difference between these two commands will enable you to choose the right command at the right time (always useful!), and will deepen your knowledge of how AccuRev really works.
This chapter starts with a brief statement of the difference between Populate and
Update, along with a few examples. Then, we present a full discussion of the data structures and mechanisms involved in these commands.