Best way to configure Vault options merge failing frequently

[cac123]

I am an independent developer and use Vault believe it or not to manage my source code. I am the only developer and would like to know the best way to configure Vault to work in the following environment. I do most of my development on a machine at home and sometimes access Vault remotely on another machine. I find myself having to delete the local project folders on the remote machine otherwise I end up with a failed merge status scenario. I always do a check in on the home machine before attempting to access Vault remotely. Several times the resolve merge status hosed the current source with old source which resulted in me having to back out the change, etc. While I didn't lose any code it resulted in a mild panic at the time and consumed time which I would rather not spend everytime I launch VS 2005 and retrieve source from Vault. Is there a way to configure Vault to automatically delete the local copy before it retrieves the latest copy from the Vault server? I would like to configure things this way on the remote machine to eliminate the merge scenario.

If there is a better way to run or configure Vault or if I can do something to help eliminate the failed merge status scenario any insight would be appreciated.

[lbauer]

It's not clear why you're getting the Needs Merge status on the other machine. Needs Merge generally means that, since the last checkout, files in the database have changed and the files in the working folders have been modified. You can also get a Needs Merge status if something happens to the baseline files in the hidden state folder, _sgvault.

You might be able to avoid this if you always check in your changes on one machine before you use the other, then do a "get latest" with the Overwrite option from the next machine you use. In VS 2005, this setting is in Tools->Options->Source Control->Plug-in Settings->Advanced->Vault Options->Local Files->Modified working copy->Overwrite.

Make sure your changes have actually been checked in to the database before you overwrite your local files.

[cac123]

Thanks for the assistance... The more I fiddle with the options and discuss the problem the more I think the issue has to do with exclusive locking issues that are causing the merge failures, etc. If I check something in and attempt to check it out remotely there are times when it won't allow me to check out. If I launch the full blown Vault client I can see that in fact the objects in question still have an exclusive lock against them that is preventing the check out. I am running Vault and VS 2005 with all defaults with regards to source control options.

[lbauer]

If I check something in

If the item still has an exclusive lock, was it actually checked in?

You can look at the folder or file history to determine this. If the file is still checked out, what's the file status in the file list? Edited? Needs Merge?

Do you have "keep checked out" as a checkin option?