What the hell are all these files

[StuartHemming]

I noticed that Ad-Aware, that I use to scan my machine with every couple of weeks or so, was spending a lot longer doing the job than is normal. I noticed that it was hanging about here ...

c:\Documents and Settings\stuarth\Local Settings\Application Data\Sourcegear\Vault_1\Client\48D59B28-7965-47EC-B811-B9B104884587\admin\_sgvault\

A quick look showed hundreds of folders with names like "-1263858685" all with the hidden attribute set. The folders contain one or more files from the various projects I have in Vault. In total there are 9273 files in 404 folders

So, questions.

Why?

Can I delete them?

What can I (or better still you) do to stop this from happening?

[lbauer]

Files in the _sgvault folder are the baseline files for files you have retrieved to your working directories. These baselines are important for performance, as they allow Vault to only send diffs, not the entire file when doing a Get Latest or Checkin.

If you delete these files, the file status will be Unknown, since there are no baselines to compare to. You can reduce the amount of baselines by changing the setting in the Vault GUI Client under Tools->Options->Local Files->Cache Location->Limite number of Baseline files to . . .

Also, if you only Get files that you need to work on, you'll have fewer baselines.

Details here:
http://support.sourcegear.com/viewtopic ... ht=sgvault

[StuartHemming]

Linda,

Thanks for that. It seems I'm asked the wrong thing when I asked for a file count as I appear to have some 768Mb of files (26,956 in > 1,000 folders).

I appear to have folders for my user and admin (who I was initially logging in as). I guess it's safe to lose the admin ones now.

Related question, if I change the cache options to limit the number of base files to, say, 1 per file, what is the knock on effect to me? For that matter why would I want more than 1 baseline file per file?

[lbauer]

Older versions of the baseline files would be used for diffing versions of files in history, so that Vault client doesn't need to get the baseline for the diff. We'd recommend keeping 2 - 3 versions of the baseline.

But if you don't diff historical versions, you might be able to keep just one baseline version. Experiment with this, and see what works best for you.

[StuartHemming]

Thanks Linda.

[BSayatovic]

Can you clarify about having more or fewer baseline files? If you were to set it to 1, you could still diff your current changes to the baseline you started your changes from, right?

But what about diff'ing older versions of the files in history? Are more baseline files _required_, or just _faster_? That is, if I set my baselines to '1' can I still do historical diffs?

I assume yes, but I'm curious about that works. Does it just transiently grab the older versions for the historical diff, or does it dynamically store the additional baselines in the _sgvault folder from then on?

[lbauer]

if I set my baselines to '1' can I still do historical diffs?

Yes. When you diff historical versions, the files are retrieved from the repository into the logged in Windows user's temp directory and then compared. They are not added to the baselines.

On my machine, these are the folders that contained the files I diffed from history.