How to retrieve checkout comments for an element on a branch?

Question

After entering detailed checkout comments before checking out my files on a development branch, I inadvertently overlooked the fact that while checking in the files, . would preserve the checkout comments as my checkin comments, and entered some minimal comments as part of checkin, thus getting my checkout comments overwritten.

Now, when I do a ct describe -l on the same branch for the checked in elements, I can only see the minimal check in comments.

Is there a way to retrieve the original comments that I had entered as part of my checkout process for these elements?

Answer 1

Not sure if this is possible, but I would still check the cleartool ls-history -min -bra brtype:type-name[@vob-selector output, for any minor event history which might have recorded your original checkout (and its comment message).

You would look for an event_ccase, an event recorded in the VOB database.

A checkout does generate an event, and the object to which the event record is attached is the checked-out branch.
However, that event gets deleted automatically at checkin or uncheckout, so I wouldn't get my hopes up.

Answer 2

I'm sorry, the checkout comment is gone.

It happens that ClearCase reuses the "checkout" event AS the checkin event. So any checkout comments are lost when replaced by checkin comments. I even checked the oplogs for a replicated VOB. My checkout oplog doesn't seem to have the checkout comment. It is possible that the comment is hidden in an internal data structure, but at this point, I think not.