Caution on Reusing the Name of a Renamed Element

The ability to reuse the name of a renamed element provides significant flexibility for project refactoring tasks. But it also introduces a complication: what happens if you rename an element, create a new element at the same pathname, then invoke the Revert to Backed command on the renamed element?

The renamed element cannot revert to its old pathname, because there’s a new element at that pathname. The original element simply disappears from your workspace. [why not (stranded) status? The Revert to Backed command makes an element inactive in the workspace. The (stranded) status An element has 'stranded' status in a workspace or stream if it’s currently active, but there is no pathname to the element. This occurs when the element’s directory (or a higher-level directory) is removed from the workspace or stream. See defunct. applies only to active An element is said to be active in a workspace or stream if a new version of the element has been created there, and that version has not been either (1) promoted to the parent stream or (2) purged from the workspace or stream. See default group, backed, passive. elements.]

At this point, your workspace contains a new element at the given pathname, and the parent stream contains the original element at that pathname. Attempting to promote the new element would produce a 'name already exists in parent stream' error. Use one of the following procedures to return this pathname to a consistent state: