Viewing Changes by Username

[mattatmilsoft]

In the process of advancing from Visual Source Safe, we're evaluating a bunch of different version control systems - Vault is one.

There is one teeny weeny feeture that we'd like to see in Vault: Before we do a Get Latest from the repository, we want to be able to review the changes we're getting, and see who made them.

However, this isn't a deficiency particular to Vault. None of the version control systems we've looked at allow us to do this.

So are we just unique in wanting this feature? Or is there something intrinsically difficult about getting or displaying this information?

(Eric, If you have the opportunity, I'd appreciate your insight on this question.)

Matt Lowe

[dan]

There are a couple ways to do this:

1. Go to the Status Search pane, and search on Old files, and then do a Show Differences from the context menu there. Actually, you would probably want to do a search on every status, but in 2.0, you have to search each status seperately. In 2.1, there will be a "search by any status" option.

2. Invoke the history explorer on the folder you are doing the Get on, and view differences from there. The problem with this approach is that you have to know when you did your last Get to know which actual changes are coming down.

Hope this helps,

[ericsink]

In the process of advancing from Visual Source Safe, we're evaluating a bunch of different version control systems - Vault is one.

There is one teeny weeny feeture that we'd like to see in Vault: Before we do a Get Latest from the repository, we want to be able to review the changes we're getting, and see who made them.

However, this isn't a deficiency particular to Vault. None of the version control systems we've looked at allow us to do this.

So are we just unique in wanting this feature? Or is there something intrinsically difficult about getting or displaying this information?

(Eric, If you have the opportunity, I'd appreciate your insight on this question.)

Matt Lowe

I may not understand the question, but are "Show History" and "Show Differences" not sufficient for this?

[mattatmilsoft]

Both of Dan's solutions *almost* get us what we want. But the status search doesn't tell us who made the changes (or even who made the latest changes), and the history search requires us to know the last time we did a Get.

I may not understand the question, but are "Show History" and "Show Differences" not sufficient for this?

I think your response implicitly answers my questions: we must just use version control differently than some people.

Because we allow any part of the code to be changed by any developer, we tend to scan through the changes before we do a get latest. This way, all the developers can maintain the picture of the code that they carry around in their heads. It's also sort of a "desk check" that helps catch bugs.

This is why we need to be able to see what we're about to Get, and to be able to organize that information by the user who made the changes.

Matt Lowe

[GregM]

After you do the status search, you can use the history to see who has made changes. Unfortunately, the search pane doesn't show the local version, or allow you to see the history. If it did both of these, then you'd be all set.

You can't use "Show Blame" from the status search either. Ideally, you should be able to do everything from status search that you can do from the file's entry in the tree/list view.