AccuRev Workspaces and Reference Trees : Getting Only the Files You Need: the Include/Exclude Facility

Getting Only the Files You Need: the Include/Exclude Facility
In some development situations, it makes sense to configure your workspace to contain a specified subset of the depot’s elements, rather than all the elements. The benefits can be quite significant:
faster AccuRev processing of your workspace, especially during the Update command
See The Include/Exclude and Cross-Link Facilities on page 19 for more information.
Historical Note: Sparse Workspaces
Prior to Version 3.5, AccuRev supported a feature similar to include/exclude mode, called sparse workspaces. A sparse workspace started out empty; you added certain elements to the workspace using the Populate command. Those elements were maintained in the regular manner, using Keep, Promote, and Update. Other elements in the depot were ignored.
This scheme was satisfactory for many purposes, but there were some drawbacks. For example, an Update would not bring newly created elements into your workspace, just new versions of the elements that you had already Populate’d.
The include/exclude facility has significant advantages over sparse workspaces:
Include rules and exclude rules are official attributes of the workspace, maintained in the AccuRev repository. Since AccuRev knows that a directory is included in the workspace, it “remembers” to bring newly created elements in that directory into the workspace during updates.
You can use include rules and exclude rules to configure streams as well as workspaces. The rules are inherited down the stream hierarchy. For example, to make the marketing directory invisible to all developers, you can exclude that directory from a stream that all developers’ workspaces are based on (either directly or through multiple stream levels).
AccuRev no longer supports the creation of sparse workspaces.

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