Placeholder item revisions represent versioned files that have no content in a Dimensions item library; a placeholder item revision has no storage at all. Typically, you use placeholder item revisions to represent intermediate targets and made-of relationships, avoiding the overhead in Dimensions of preserving every build output generated as a result of a build job.
Physically, a placeholder item revision is represented as a zero-byte file in the item library, and can be created for any build output inside or outside a build area. You can deploy placeholder item revisions between stages. However, since a placeholder item revision does not refer to any files, no build areas are updated; instead, deployment is reduced to a stage change. The AUDIT command ignores placeholder item revisions.
You cannot fetch or extract placeholder item revisions. If you use the UI command in a Dimensions client to revise a placeholder item revision, a normal item revision is created. You can only create placeholder item revisions from build output collections.
For details about creating preservation rules and policies see the Process Configuration Guide.
NOTE The preservation policy for a build area is the same as the first stage of the GSL.