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Object Classes

Rational Apex provides an object-oriented interface to the UNIX directory structure. Each UNIX file or directory has an associated subclass that defines the operations that can be applied to it. The Apex subclass is based on the name or extension of the object as well as the UNIX file type (for example, file or directory).


Fundamental Classes

The fundamental Apex classes correspond to the different UNIX file types. All Apex objects are associated with one of the classes, which include the following:


File Subclasses

Listed below are the subclasses of the fundamental File class. An object of any of these subclasses is a UNIX file with the designated extension or name. In addition, the object must satisfy any restrictions on its location.

Objects with the correct extension or name but an incorrect location are treated as ordinary files. For example, files with the .ada (Ada) or .h (C/C++) extension are treated as ordinary files if they are not nested within a library context which is a Summit/CM view (for Apex/Summit) or Rational subsystem (for Apex/ClearCase).

UNIX files that have neither a name nor an extension of a File subclass are treated as ordinary files.


Directory Subclasses

Listed below are the subclasses of the fundamental Directory class. An object of any of these subclasses is a UNIX directory with the designated extension or name, and it satisfies any restrictions on its location. Objects with the correct extension or name but an incorrect location are treated as an object of the special class Broken. For example, Summit/CM views (Apex/Summit) that are not nested within subsystems have the Broken subclass.

Directories that have neither a name nor an extension of a Directory subclass are treated as ordinary directories.

There is an additional Directory subclass used for special purposes:


Symbolic Link Subclasses

Listed below are each of the subclasses of the fundamental Symbolic_Link class. An object of any of these subclasses is a UNIX directory with the designated extension or name and satisfies any restrictions on its location. Objects with the correct extension and/or name but an incorrect location are treated as ordinary symbolic links.

Symbolic Links with neither the name nor the extension of a subclass are treated as ordinary Symbolic Links.


Abstract Subclasses

A number of abstract subclasses can be mentioned in Apex messages. Because these subclasses are abstract, they have no name or extension associated with them. The abstract subclasses include the following:


Temporary Object Management Files

A number of special files are created by the object management system to support safe updates and locking. (See Object Management System for more details.) These files do not have a designated subclass. However, the name of each file follows a given pattern:

where the components of the pattern have the following meaning:


Temporary Object Management Directories

The object management system also creates or renames some directories during various operations. For example, when the storage of an Apex/Summit view is moved, the name of the directory containing the old storage is changed to contain the string "GARBAGE". If the operation is successful, the renamed directory is deleted. However if the operation is aborted or if deletion is prevented in some way, the renamed directory continues to exist and must be manually deleted.


Context Switches

The following context switches can be used to control object class characteristics:


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