Rationale for maintaining 3rd party products in vobs

There are many reasons for controlling under ClearCase 3rd party products:

• Dependency control during builds: we want to control the reproducibility of our builds
• Safety with updates: we may easily switch back and forth between successive versions; note that this requires that they are saved on top of each other, so that we don't need to change our software or makefiles
• In most cases, this allows simultaneous use of different versions
• Configuration control: we can configure, or even correct or modify products of which we have the sources; this is better done in specific branches, leaving the /main branch for official updates. We should always report or publish such modifications, in the hope that they are being integrated into the next official versions
• Tracking the indirect dependencies: 3rd party components may themselves use chains of other components, which we may use in different contexts. We want to be able to detect such conflicts.
• Replication via MultiSite: we can share the installed products (and maintain different local configurations).