Microsoft Visual Source Safe
(MVSS)
Presented By:
Rachel Espinoza
Microsoft Visual Source Safe 6.0
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WHAT IS MS VISUAL SOURCESAFE 6.0?
The version control system that enables you to manage
your individual and team projects easier than ever before!
Developer 1
Function A
Developer 2
Dependency
Function B
Developer 3
Dependency
Function C
Project
Microsoft Visual Source Safe 6.0
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VERSION CONTROL
• Team coordination — making sure, by
default, that only one person at a time is
modifying a file.
• Version tracking — archiving and tracking
old versions of source code and other files,
which can be retrieved for bug fixing and
other purposes.
Microsoft Visual Source Safe 6.0
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TRACKING VERSIONS OF FILES/PROJECTS
• Version numbers: These are internal numbers
maintained by VSS. The user has no control over these
numbers. The version number is always a whole number
and always increases.
• Labels: These are user-defined strings that can be
applied to any version of a project or file. A label is a
free-form string of up to 31 characters.
• Date/Time stamp: These tell when a file was last
modified, or when a file was checked in. VSS supports
both 12-hour format (with "a" or "p" suffix) and 24-hour
format.
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PURPOSE
• Don’t want to lose or overwrite files!
• Want to restore to an old version!
• Have to merge changes with another developer!
• Need to compare differences!
• Need to find out who’s been messing with your code!
• Have a shared component but it’s in several different
places!
Microsoft Visual Source Safe 6.0
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FEATURES
• Project Oriented
– Share files
– Synchronize changes
– Project history: view version info, comments, general
details
• Reverse Delta Storage: In VSS, the current version of
a file is used as the baseline, and changes from the
previous versions are saved.
– Restore past versions
• Any Type Content
– Source code
– Application components
– Web content
– Documents
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SOURCESAFE ADMINISTRATOR CONTD…
• Administrator tasks:
– Creating databases
– Creating and maintaining userlists
– Set Default Security Rights:
Read-Write, Read-Only
– Enable Project-Security: Rights
by Project, Rights by User, Copy
user rights (Read, Check Out,
Add, Destroy)
• Other tasks:
– Enabling / Disabling Exclusive /
Multiple Checkouts
– Archive / Restore/ Lock
Databases
– Creation of Web Projects
– Creation of Shadow Folders
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KEY SOURCESAFE COMPONENTS
• All files are stored in a centralized database on the
server
• Any kind of files can be stored in SourceSafe: code,
DLLs, graphics, documents, help files, icons, …
• Files are stored in projects in the VSS database
analogous to files stored in a windows folder.
• Each user is provided with a local copy of the file to read
or change in the user's working folder.
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SOURCESAFE EXPLORER
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FOUR KEY COMMANDS
• Get: Gives a local copy of a file or project in the working
folder (read-only) to view or to compile.
• Check Out: Gives a local copy of a file or project,
(writable) to edit. (*May or may not be exclusive!)
• Check In: Copies edited file back into database making
it available to other users. (Stores old versions with
reverse deltas)
• Undo Check Out: Cancels check out, voiding all the
changes made.
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OTHER IMPORTANT COMMANDS
• Create Project: Creates a new project
• Add Files: Adds files to a project
• Delete: Deletes a file or project
• Difference: Shows what changed in this file or project
• Share: Copies files from other projects into the current
project
• History: Shows all the versions of this file or project
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ADVANCED SOURCESAFE FEATURES
• Sharing
• Branching/Merging
• Shadowing
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SHARING
• Sharing is how you track
reusable files.
$/A
• Technically, sharing means
that one file is in multiple
projects at the same time
• All updates are
automatically propagated,
since there is only one file
$/B
5
Foo.cpp
4
3
2
• There is no “master
project”: all sharing projects
are peers
Microsoft Visual Source Safe 6.0
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BRANCHING
• Branching a file breaks the shared link, making the file in
that project independent of all other projects.
• The changes made in the file are not reflected
elsewhere, and vice versa.
• Once a branch is created; two files (the file in the project,
and its counterpart in other projects) have a shared
history up to a certain point, and divergent histories after
that time.
Release 1.0
Release 2.0
Release 1.1
(bugfix)
Microsoft Visual Source Safe 6.0
merge
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MERGING
• Merging is the process of combining differences in two or
more changed copies of a file into a single, new version
of the file.
• In VSS, a merge can occur in three different
circumstances: when using multiple checkouts, when
explicitly merging previously branched files, and when
getting a file.
• There are two methods that can be used for viewing and
resolving merge conflicts: visual merge and manual
merge.
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VISUAL MERGE
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SHADOWING
• Central, optional folder that contains
current versions of all the files in a project.
• The shadow folder does not contain the
master copy of a file or the local copy of a
file.
• It provides a central location from which to
view the overall structure of the project
and serves as a convenient place to build
or compile the project.
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INTEGRATION INTO EDITING
ENVIRONMENTS
• Integration means you can execute SourceSafe
commands directly inside your editing environment like
VC++/VB.
• SourceSafe commands are added to the application’s
menus.
• Developers can perform checkouts / checkins and other
operations without leaving the development
environment.
• Some less commonly used commands still require the
SourceSafe Explorer.
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SUMMARY
• Data are not lost in any case
• Any type of file can be protected
• Team productivity is increased
• Version control is transparent
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