INFO: VSS 5.0 Readme: Sec. 2, General Notes and Tips (157717)

SUMMARY

The Visual SourceSafe Readme.wri file should be located in the SourceSafe root directory. It contains important information, some of which is not available in the printed documentation or the Help files. This article covers Section 2, GENERAL NOTES AND TIPS, of the Readme.wri file. Please see REFERENCES section for information on the other sections.

The Readme.wri file includes:

1.0  SOFTWARE INSTALLATION INFORMATION

  1.1  (Administrator) Creating a Visual SourceSafe Installation on a
       Server
  1.2  (Each User) Using NETSETUP to Create a Personal Installation
  1.3  Using the Custom Setup Option
  1.4  Upgrading a Previous SourceSafe Installation
  1.5  Using the Installation Maintenance Program
  1.6  Uninstalling Visual SourceSafe
  1.7  WININET and MFC DLLs
  1.8  SourceSafe on RISC

2.0  GENERAL NOTES AND TIPS

  2.1  Back Up Your Visual SourceSafe Database, and run ANALYZE
  2.2  Installing Two or More Visual SourceSafe Databases on One Computer
  2.3. Loss of Network Connection Produces Numerical Error Message
  2.4  Canceling a Client Setup
  2.5  System Date/Time

3.0  NEW FEATURES IN VISUAL SOURCESAFE 5.0

  3.1  Archive Utility
  3.2  Visual Merge
  3.3  Project Diff
  3.4  "Edit" Command
  3.5 Open Databases3.6 Web Features
  3.7 Exclusive Check Out

4.0  NOTES FOR USERS OF VISUAL SOURCESAFE 4.0

  4.1  No 16-bit Support
  4.2  Get --> Get Latest Version
  4.3  Results Display
  4.4  Multiple Project Support in Visual Basic/Visual C++ Integration

5.0  VISUAL SOURCESAFE HOME PAGE

MORE INFORMATION

2.0 GENERAL NOTES AND TIPS

2.1 Back Up Your Visual SourceSafe Database, and run ANALYZE

Before installing an upgrade to Visual SourceSafe, it is very advisable to back up your previous Visual SourceSafe database. The upgrade process may involve major data conversion, which is irreversible in the case of problems.

Once Visual SourceSafe is installed, it is still advisable to back up your database on a very regular basis. Note that all Visual SourceSafe backups should be full backups, not incremental or differential.

In addition to regular backups, it is advisable to run the ANALYZE program periodically, to check your Visual SourceSafe database for corruption. If corruption is found, the ANALYZE program can often be used to repair the problem. Updates to the ANALYZE tool are posted periodically to the Visual SourceSafe web site at:

http://www.msdn.microsoft.com/ssafe

You may wish to check that site to see if there is a version of ANALYZE more recent than the one shipped with this product.

2.2 Installing Two or More Visual SourceSafe Databases on One Computer

The Visual SourceSafe installation was designed for one installation per computer. There might be occasions when you want to have two or more copies of Visual SourceSafe installed on your computer. This is difficult, however, since the second time you run SETUP to create a second server setup, the program goes into maintenance mode!

The solution is the REGEDIT program in Windows NT or Windows 95. Go to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\MS SETUP (ACME)\TABLE FILES. You see two entries for Visual SourceSafe: SSADMIN.EXE, for the server installation from the CD-ROM, and SSEXP.EXE, for the network client setup. Delete these two entries and run SETUP again.

2.3 Loss of Network Connection Produces Numerical Error Message

If you are in the middle of a Visual SourceSafe session and lose your connection to a server over the network, the only message you see is a numerical message informing you of an unknown error. When you see, "unknown error - 20038," or something similar, you have lost your network connection. Restart Visual SourceSafe and continue your work.

2.4 Canceling a Client Setup

When you choose the Client Setup option to install Visual SourceSafe, you must type a path for the Visual SourceSafe server directory. If you click Cancel in the Database Location dialog box, setup displays the following message in error, "Microsoft Visual SourceSafe 5.0 Setup was completed successfully." Disregard this message: the setup was not completed. Although a directory tree was created on your hard disk for the client, you cannot connect with the database on the server.

To correct this situation, edit the SRCSAFE.INI file in the local installation that you have just created. Add a line including the path to the SRCSAFE.INI file for the Visual SourceSafe database server in a #include statement. You can include a UNC path, for example:

   #include \\SRCSERVR\PUBLIC\VSS\SRCSAFE.INI

Alternatively, you can include the path to a mapped drive. For example:

   #include R:\VSS\SRCSAFE.INI

2.5 System Date/Time

Visual SourceSafe uses the date/time which your local computer stores. If your computer is out of sync with another computer, unpredictable results may occur. For instance, you may check in a file after someone else, but SourceSafe may think your check-in happened first, because your system clock was off!

The best solution for this problem is to synchronize your local date/time with the network on a regular basis. This will ensure that all users are in sync.