In this article, we introduce the notion of the uniquely $I$-clean ring and show that, if $R$ is a ring and $I$ is an ideal of $R$ then $R$ is uniquely $I$-clean if and only if ($R/ I$ is Boolean and idempotents lift uniquely modulo $I$) if and only if (for each $a\in R$ there exists a central idempotent $e\in R$ such that $e- a\in I$ and $I$ is idempotent-free). We examine when ideal extension is uniquely clean relative to an ideal. Also we obtain conditions on a ring $R$ and an ideal $I$ of $R$ under which uniquely $I$-clean rings coincide with uniquely clean rings. Further we prove that a ring $R$ is uniquely nil-clean if and only if ($N(R)$ is an ideal of $R$ and $R$ is uniquely $N(R)$-clean) if and only if $R$ is both uniquely clean and nil-clean if and only if ($R$ is an abelian exchange ring with $J(R)$ nil and every quasiregular element is uniquely clean). We also show that $R$ is a uniquely clean ring such that every prime ideal of $R$ is maximal if and only if $R$ is uniquely nil-clean ring and $N(R)= {\mathrm{Nil} }_{\ast } (R)$.

We classify semigroups in the title according to whether they have a finite or an infinite number ofℒ-classes or ℛ-classes. For each case, we provide a concrete construction using Rees matrix semigroups and their translational hulls. An appropriate relatively free semigroup is used to complete the classification. All this is achieved by first treating the special case in which one of the generators is idempotent. We conclude by a discussion of a possible classification of 2-generator completely regular semigroups.