PRB: Branching Files in SourceSafe Causes Lost Disk Space (133017)
The information in this article applies to:
- Microsoft Visual SourceSafe for Windows 5.0
- Microsoft Visual SourceSafe for Windows 6.0
- Microsoft Visual SourceSafe, 16-bit, for Windows 4.0
- Microsoft Visual SourceSafe, 32-bit, for Windows 4.0
- Microsoft SourceSafe for Windows 3.04
- Microsoft SourceSafe for Windows 3.1
- Microsoft SourceSafe for Windows NT 3.04
- Microsoft SourceSafe for Windows NT 3.1
- Microsoft SourceSafe for MS-DOS 3.04
- Microsoft SourceSafe for MS-DOS 3.1
- Microsoft SourceSafe for Macintosh 3.04
- Microsoft SourceSafe for Macintosh 3.1
This article was previously published under Q133017 SYMPTOMS
Destroying projects and/or files from SourceSafe does not free disk space
in SS\DATA subdirectories.
CAUSE
Once a file is branched in SourceSafe, there are four associated files
that are not deleted from the disk at this point. The reason this occurs is
so the reference between the branch and original file is maintained.
There is no way to undo this behavior after the branching has occurred.
RESOLUTION
Use the branching sparingly.
One common practice is to use share and branch to perform a file copy. A
better alternative is to share the file or project and destroy the old
copy. This preserves the history and allow disk space to be recovered at a
later time.
When the history is not needed, get the desired version to a disk location
and add the files to the desired project. This gets a clean copy and
preserves the ability to recover the disk space at a later time.
| Modification Type: | Major | Last Reviewed: | 5/7/2003 |
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| Keywords: | kbprb KB133017 |
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