Migrating source from VSS 6.0d to Fortress 2.03

[hutch619]

The company I work for recently acquired another company and we are currently wanting to bring their source code over to our own system (currently Fortress 2.0318802). Their using Visual Source Safe so I figured the best way to go about doing this would be to use the Handoff feature provided by Fortress. I asked the other company to create and send a backup of their source to us which they will be sending to us shortly. Unfortunately, they are using VSS 6.0d which evidently is NOT supported by the Handoff feature.

Any suggestions on how I should proceed?

[lbauer]

The VSS database format is pretty much the same for all versions of VSS 6.x and Visual SourceSafe 2005. What matters is the version of the VSS automation component the Vault Server uses to communicate with the VSS database.

A Visual SourceSafe client needs to be installed on the same machine as the Vault Server. The client supplies the automation component (the ssapi.dll).

You need a copy of a supported version of the Microsoft Visual SourceSafe client installed on the Vault Server machine. A lot of developer teams with a MSDN subscription have SourceSafe available to them, especially if you're using Visual Studio.

If you only have the SourceSafe 6.0d client, you can actually turn it into a VSS 6.0c client using the hot fix that you download from:

http://download.sourcegear.com/files/vss_60c_hotfix.zip

Just replace the contents of the VSS win32 directory with the contents of this archive, which contains the proper automation component and associated files.

[hutch619]

So as long as I install SourceSafe 6.0c (or 6.0d turned INTO 6.0c using the hot fix) then I should be fine? Restoring a backup created in VSS 6.0d (and not 6.0c) shouldn't pose a problem there?

[lbauer]

Yes. Make sure you use the hotfix contents. VSS 6.0d and 6.0c (non-hotfix) both had concurrency issues that cause a hang in the app using the SourceSafe automation component.

[hutch619]

Thanks! Everything seems to be working as expected since the handoff. One question I have now, though, is how to remove a Handoff Source once I've added it. I did a test handoff from a test db I created (VSSHandoffTest) and have already removed the repository from Fortress. I know in the documentation it states that a Handoff source cannot be deleted (for various reasons) but none of those reasons apply to my situation (it was just for testing). I guess it's not that big of a deal if I can't remove it, I just like to keep things tidy.

[lbauer]

At the present time, you can't delete any External Sources. We do have feature request to allow this.

[hutch619]

That's fine. In hindsight I guess I should have just modified my test handoff source instead of creating a second one and then trying to delete the first.

[Beth]

A change has been applied to Vault 7.2 that should fix this issue.