INFO: Limitations of PVCS_SS.exe (231412)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Visual SourceSafe for Windows 5.0
  • Microsoft Visual SourceSafe for Windows 6.0
This article was previously published under Q231412

SUMMARY

There are two potential problems using the PVCS_SS conversion utility:
  • The utility does not work on PVCS databases later than version 5.2.1 that have Long File Names (LFNs). LFN's are file names that are longer than the 8.3 convention or contain spaces
  • The utility does not work when converting to a Visual Source Safe (VSS) 6.0 database format.

MORE INFORMATION

There is no consistent error that is returned when the conversion fails. Among the error messages/problems that have been reported are:

  • "Invalid / corrupted log file"
  • An unreadable series of binary characters
  • "PVCS Log File May be Corrupt"
In this case the possible workarounds are:
  • Convert the PVCS database to an earlier version
  • Rename all LFN's in the PVCS database
  • Manually convert the database by recursively getting all file versions and adding the versions to VSS
If the utility returns the following error:
Incompatible database version
To resolve this, try running DDUPD -undo on the target database. If the conversion still fails, you need to create a new VSS database, choosing not to create it in the new database format.

REFERENCES

For additional information about Visual SourceSafe, please see the following article(s) in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

140362 PVCS_SS Does Not Work with PVCS for Windows NT

153285 Will VSS 5.0 Be Able to Read a VSS 6.0 Database?

216115 HOWTO: Set Up Multiple Databases in Visual SourceSafe 6.0

Modification Type:MajorLast Reviewed:7/18/2001
Keywords:kbFAQ kbinfo KB231412
©2002 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.