FOX CONSULT

Frequently Asked VSS Questions

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1. The following functions in StarTeam result in equivalent operations in VSS:

• Adding a file. If a deleted file of the same name exists in VSS, then that file is undeleted.

• Adding a folder.

In both of these case, if the file or folder is added under StarTeam, then the file or folder is native and not assessable through VSS. (To add files select the file, perform a secondary mouse click and select add files) On the other hand, if the file or folder is added under VSS, it will be assessable to both VSS and StarTeam.

2. The following changes to the VSS database are recognized/reproduced in StarTeam:

• Checking out a file (setting a lock).

• Unchecking out a file (removing the lock).

• When keyword expansion is enabled, VSS modifies the working file following an add or check-in operation. These changes are relayed to StarTeam.

3. The following functions when performed in VSS are not currently represented/reproduced in StarTeam. Performing some of these operations can cause StarTeam to generate errors when accessing VSS:

• Deleting folders. However, you can delete the folder from StarTeam as well.

• Recovering deleted folders or files.

• Renaming projects or subprojects. StarTeam treats the renamed project/folder as a new folder, resulting in two copies of that folder in StarTeam, one with the old name and one with the new name.
  As a work-around, you can delete the folder with the old name from the StarTeam folder hierarchy.
  Never rename folders in StarTeam because VSS will continue to use the previous name.

• Moving projects. StarTeam classifies a moved project/folder as a new folder, resulting in two copies of that folder in StarTeam. Attempts to access the original folder in StarTeam results in errors from VSS because the folder is no longer in that location.
  As a work-around, you can delete the folder at the old location from the StarTeam folder hierarchy.

• Adding labels to revisions.

• Sharing files and folders. The VSS COM API does not provide any mechanism for detecting shared files. Therefore, StarTeam recognizes shared files as independent files. Usually this is not harmful.

• Branching. StarTeam does not read the action records in a file in order to re-create the branching hierarchy. Therefore, StarTeam classifies branched files as totally separate files that happen to have the same history up until they were branched.

• Historical changes to the folder hierarchy are not visible in rollback views in StarTeam.

• Changes to working folder paths in VSS are not recognized by StarTeam. In addition, the working folder paths are not stored per user. Currently StarTeam forces working folder paths to be relative to the root folder for the view.

• Renamed files are recognized by StarTeam as new files. Operations on the original files will result in errors in StarTeam.

• Rolling back revisions is not currently implemented in StarTeam. If performed in VSS, you must delete the files that have been rolled back from StarTeam, then press F6 to re-synchronize with VSS. The deleted files will reappear, but with fewer revisions in their history.

• Recognizing pinned revisions. A pinned revision is a revision that has been specified as the only revision of a file that can be checked out. If revision 10 of 12 revisions is the pinned revision, StarTeam thinks this file has the status Out-of-date, even though you cannot check out any revision other than 10.

• None of the database options in VSS are used in StarTeam. For example, the ?Delete Working File on Check-in? option in VSS has no effect on StarTeam clients accessing the VSS database. However, each StarTeam user can set some equivalent workstation options in StarTeam.

• Of course, options such as those set in the VSS Administrator project do affect the way in which data is added and retrieved from the VSS database. These can be referred to as server, rather than client or workstation, options. For example, the filter for keyword expansion is used to determine which files are processed for keyword expansion.

4. Another question regarding VSS and StarTeam: "When I create a new change request, is it possible to link that request directly to a specified version source or sources in VSS?" In other words: In Track Record it is possible to assign Related Program Units (Source files, but not linked to VSS), what I want is to have Related Program Units links to a specified version in VSS.

• You can link a file or change request within StarTeam using VSS as the native archive. Linking benefits only work under StarTeam not VSS (such as linking files to files, to change request, task or topics). StarTeam linking is not supported under VSS.