Finding error messages returned from command line utilities

Products

• CA Harvest Software Change Manager - OpenMake Meister
• CA Harvest Software Change Manager

Issue/Introduction

I tried to use the following hco command to check out a file:

hco -b <brokername> -en <projectname> -st <statename> -p <packagename> -up -vp <viewpathname> -s "*" -prompt

However the file was not checked out and no error message was returned.  How can I find out why my checkout failed?

Environment

CA Harvest SCM all versions and platforms

Resolution

The CA Harvest SCM command line utilities were designed to run "silently".  The command output is directed to a log file instead of to the standard output stream (to the console).  By default this file will have the same name as the command, and a file extension of ".log", and will be found in the same current working folder from which the command was run.  Also, by default, this log file will only contain the results of the most recent execution of the command.

So, if you ran the command from the C:\ folder, look for a file named "C:\hco.log".  View this log file with notepad or the "type" command (on Linux or Unix you would use the "more" or "cat" command instead).

If you prefer to have the log files directed to a specific folder and file name, and/or if you would like the results of the command appended to the hco.log rather than replacing the results each time, you can add one of the following options to your command:

• "-o drive\path\logfilename" will direct the log to be written to the folder and name that you specify.  Results each time you execute the command will overwrite those of the last execution.
• "-oa drive\path\logfilename" will direct the log to be written to the folder and name that you specify.  Results each time you execute the command will be appended to those of the last execution.

Additional Information

If you do not find any log in the current working folder (or in the folder you specified with the "-o" or "-oa" option), check to make sure it's a folder to which you have permission to write (often on Windows systems, the root C:\ folder is locked down and files cannot be written there).

More information about the hco command can be found here: Get Started with CA Harvest SCM Commands