Check In and Check Out other than to working directory

GregM · Post by **GregM** » Sat Mar 13, 2004 9:03 am

Any idea when the ability to Check In and Check Out to a directory other than the working folder, as we can do in VSS, will be added to Vault?

This is a very important feature. There are times that I'm in the middle of a project, and need to make an unrelated change to a source file that I'm editing. I do this by checking it out to a temporary folder, making the changes and then checking it back in. I don't want to have to change my working folder just to do this.

dan · Post by **dan** » Sat Mar 13, 2004 10:20 am

In order to do a checkin, Vault needs to have a baseline file with which to compute a delta for the file, and therefore, state information needs to be saved so the client knows what version the file was at when it was retrieved, as well as a copy of the baseline file.

We don't save this state information when doing a Get to a non-working folder, which is why we don't support Checkout to a non-working folder. In fact, whether we save state information is the primary differentiating factor between a working folder and a non-working folder, and it is doubtful we will change this design.

However, note that you can easily switch between working folders, and all the state information remains valid in both working folders. So, you can work in your temporary working folder, checkin your changes from there, and then switch back to your normal working folder, and the previous state of your regular working folder remains valid.

GregM · Post by **GregM** » Sat Mar 13, 2004 10:30 am

dan wrote:However, note that you can easily switch between working folders, and all the state information remains valid in both working folders. So, you can work in your temporary working folder, checkin your changes from there, and then switch back to your normal working folder, and the previous state of your regular working folder remains valid.

Okay, so how about making the Vault client handle temporarily setting the working folder to the temporary folder, checking out the file, and setting the working folder back. Then, when I check in the file, it can again temporarily set the working folder to my temporary folder, check in the file, and set it back again.

dan · Post by **dan** » Sat Mar 13, 2004 10:48 am

GregM wrote: Okay, so how about making the Vault client handle temporarily setting the working folder to the temporary folder, checking out the file, and setting the working folder back. Then, when I check in the file, it can again temporarily set the working folder to my temporary folder, check in the file, and set it back again.

To be honest, this seems like a lot of work for a feature that has an easy work around (resetting the working folder). We'd probably need a lot of customers asking for this before adding it to the product. That, or someone willing to pay for the feature

GregM · Post by **GregM** » Sat Mar 13, 2004 1:25 pm

I'd think the fact that you have to list "Check In and Check Out only function from and to the working folder." in the "Miscellaneous Differences" section of the "Tips for SourceSafe Users" section of the help file would be enough motivation to remove this limitation, but that's just me.

GregM · Post by **GregM** » Sat Mar 13, 2004 3:46 pm

I just found another thing to add to the list of differences between VSS and Vault, that's related to the ability to check out and check in to a different directory, the ability for the same user to check out multiple times on the same machine. Vault is apparently restricted to a single check-out per user per machine. I guess if you want to do more than that, you need to use the CVS model instead of the VSS model.

It does let you check out the same file on different machines, which is a step up from SOS 3.5, and it shows you which machine you used to check it out if you go into the properties for the file. However, it doesn't show you in the check out directory column, as VSS does, and there isn't a button on the toolbar for properties.

All of these would be good things for future releases.

dan · Post by **dan** » Sat Mar 13, 2004 4:12 pm

Thanks Greg - yes, you'd currently have to use CVS mode to edit the same file in two locations on the same machine. I believe allowing checkout to two locations on the same machine is on our list, but if not I'll add it.

There is a way to show the checkout location, although it is off by default. Go to Options->File List Columns->Checkout location and it will add checkout location to the list of columns. We eventually want to add a nice way to do this from the file list itself.

GregM · Post by **GregM** » Mon Mar 15, 2004 12:27 pm

I had the checkout column displayed, didn't have my window wide enough to see the machine name listed after the filename in the checkout column. Having it before the filename, as is done in VSS, might be better, since it won't be hidden by long filenames.