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Q124530: INFO: Visual SourceSafe Project Oriented Version Control

Article: Q124530
Product(s): Microsoft SourceSafe
Version(s): 
Operating System(s): 
Keyword(s): kbSSafe400 kbSSafe500 kbSSafe600 kbSSafe304
Last Modified: 11-DEC-2001

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The information in this article applies to:

- Microsoft Visual SourceSafe for Windows, versions 5.0, 6.0 
- Microsoft Visual SourceSafe, 16-bit, for Windows, version 4.0 
- Microsoft Visual SourceSafe, 32-bit, for Windows 4.0 
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SUMMARY
=======

SourceSafe is a project-oriented version control system. It does not write your
code for you, but takes care of the maintenance and tracking responsibilities,
freeing you to concentrate on programming.

MORE INFORMATION
================

Using SourceSafe, you can enhance your development productivity by enabling you
to coordinate team programming efforts, track file and project histories, share
code, and provide a single data source across multiple platforms.

Team Coordination
-----------------

In SourceSafe, users check out files when they want to make modifications to
them. All other users can see who has a file checked out and when it was checked
out. When the developer is finished modifying a program, he or she can update
SourceSafe to make the changes viewable to everyone.

File and Project Histories
--------------------------

Version control is the ability to obtain current and recent versions of files.
SourceSafe uses Reverse Delta technology to store only the latest version of a
file, with the information to re-create older versions of the file when needed.

SourceSafe also tracks the history of the project, allowing you to label a
project when you have reached a certain level of development (for example,
version 3.05.234). Later on, you can refer back to the files in the project as
they existed at the time you labeled the project.

Shared Code
-----------

You can share a file or files between several projects. Unlike having the same
file in several directories on a hard drive, sharing files in SourceSafe places
them equally in all projects. Any changes made in one project will be reflected
in all projects where the file is shared.

Multi-Platform Support
----------------------

SourceSafe can share a common data location across many platforms. It is
currently available for the Windows, Windows NT, MS-DOS, Unix, and Macintosh
platforms. It will also keep track of both short and long filenames, using the
appropriate name for the file system you are currently using. Visual SourceSafe
4.0 is available for the Windows, Windows NT, Windows 95 and MS-DOS platforms.
Visual SourceSafe version 5.0 and 6.0 are 32-bit only, running on Windows NT and
Windows 95.

REFERENCES
==========

There are many additional features in SourceSafe. The Microsoft SourceSafe
Concepts and Configuration Manual gives an overview of these and other features
in greater detail.

For additional information on Visual SourceSafe features, please see the
following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

  Q157718 VSS 5.0 Readme: Sec. 3, New Features in Visual SourceSafe

Additional query words:

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Keywords          : kbSSafe400 kbSSafe500 kbSSafe600 kbSSafe304 
Technology        : kbSSafeSearch kbAudDeveloper kbSSafe600 kbSSafe400 kbSSafe500 kbSSafe16bitSearch kbSSafe32bitSearch
Issue type        : kbinfo

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