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Altair FlowTracer Developer Guide
Files, Equivalences, Exclusions
The files used in a project reside in one or more directories spread all around your filesystems. Each logical name defined in the equiv.tcl file implicitly declares the root of a workspace. You can browse the workspaces using the browser interface.
Taskers: Mixed Windows NT and UNIX Environment
It is common to run VOV in a mixed network of UNIX and Windows NT workstations. Following is a set of guidelines to facilitate the deployment in such a network.

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An advanced mission critical dependency management platform for developing and executing flows.
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Altair FlowTracer User Guide
FlowTracer is a complete system to create, manage, and execute design flows.
Altair FlowTracer Administrator Guide
This manual is aimed at the person who will be the administrator for FlowTracer. This person will be responsible for configuring the network resources, setting up the licensing, and establishing security and access rules for the system.
Altair FlowTracer Developer Guide
- FlowTracer Roles
  When using FlowTracer in large deployments, three main roles emerge: Administrator, Developer and User. In smaller organizations, a given person may have multiple roles, but the duties of each role still exist.
- Environment Management
  To ensure the correct and repeatable behavior of the tools, the environment must be controlled. This chapter explains how VOV supports multiple reusable environments.
- Execute Jobs From the Command Line
- Flowbuilding
  The trace is built using a combination of techniques.
- Flow Description Language (FDL)
- Tool Integration
- Integrate Difficult Tools
- Runtime Change Propagation Control
  The patented technique of Runtime Change Propagation Control (RCPC) provides the ability to stop the propagation of insignificant changes through the flow.
- Flow Library
  FlowTracer captures your design in design flows described by Flow.tcl files. The Flow Library is meant to help users locate and deploy instances of packaged flows bound to their specific design data.
- Files, Equivalences, Exclusions
  The files used in a project reside in one or more directories spread all around your filesystems. Each logical name defined in the equiv.tcl file implicitly declares the root of a workspace. You can browse the workspaces using the browser interface.
  - Files and File Names
    The files used in a project reside in one or more directories spread all around your /filesystems.
  - Canonical and Logical File Names
    VOV clients and server exchange dependency information by using file names; each file needs a single name that is valid on both the client and the server.
  - Databases
    Design files may reside in different databases. The most common database is the filesystem. VOV offers a generic database interface in the sense that it traces dependencies between named entities residing in persistent databases.
  - The LINK Database
    To establish dependencies with symbolic links, the LINK database must be used.
  - The JOBSTATUS Database
    Places in the JOBSTATUS database represent the status of jobs.
  - Define Equivalences for File Names
    There are multiple methods to define the equivalences used to compute the canonical names of files and directories.
  - Equivalence Cache
  - Use vovequiv to Check Equivalences
  - Taskers: Mixed Windows NT and UNIX Environment
    It is common to run VOV in a mixed network of UNIX and Windows NT workstations. Following is a set of guidelines to facilitate the deployment in such a network.
  - Exclude Files From the Graph
  - Change the exclude.tcl File
  - Automatic Zipping and Unzipping Files
- Makefile Conversion
- Advanced Tasker Topics
- Resource Management
  The Resource Map Set represents the collection of resource maps that have been assigned to a project and the constraints associated with such resources.
- CGI Interface
- Events
  Every change in the trace is recorded as an event, which is then sent to all clients that subscribe to them.
- Miscellaneous

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Taskers: Mixed Windows NT and UNIX Environment

It is common to run VOV in a mixed network of UNIX and Windows NT workstations. Following is a set of guidelines to facilitate the deployment in such a network.

To avoid case-based ambiguities with file names, use only lowercase names in your design.

Define all appropriate equivalences in the equiv.tcl file. For example, if a project directory is mounted as /projects/local/top in UNIX and as p:/local/top on Windows NT, you can define the following equivalences:

vtk_equivalence TOP /projects/local/top
vtk_equivalence TOP p:/local/top

In the taskers.tcl file, be explicit about specifying the directory of the VOV installation as seen from the Windows NT machines as well as the working directory of the server as seen from the Windows NT machines. Example:

vtk_tasker_set_default  -vovdir           v:/vov/winnt  -serverdir        p:/local/top/vovadmin
vtk_tasker_define nthost1vtk_tasker_define nthost2

The tool vovtaskermgr normally uses a remote shell (either rsh, remsh or ssh) to start taskers on remote UNIX machines. Windows NT does not offer an effective equivalent to the UNIX remote shell, so you can either start taskers manually on each Windows NT workstation, or you can use vovtsd.