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i have a solution(exe) that consists of 3 projects and is under visual sourcesafe sourcecontrol. Now i need a copy because i have to make some major changes that should not affect the original application. So what is the simpliest and safest way to achieve this and avoids conflicts? I also want the new solution to be under sourcecontrol as different project too.

Thank you in advance.

Edit: I have followed your instructions to create a new branch in source safe. I had to remove some conflicts manually(f.e. references). But now its working. In these moments i know why people suggest to use other version controls than MS VSS. Thank you all for your help.

Tim Schmelter
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    As all your answers state, this is branching/merging, which all good modern VCS support and should make easy. This is neither easy nor all that useful in sourcesafe however. If this sort of thing is to be required, you may need to look into changing your VCS. You won't be sorry... – Paddy Jan 11 '11 at 10:39

4 Answers4

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The way i would tackle this is to branch the project under sourcesafe. This other question might provide the answer What's the right way to branch with Visual Source Safe?

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Mike Miller
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  • Make sure you do branch and not just share though. I'd setup a play project first to ensure you get what you need. – Mike Miller Jan 11 '11 at 10:10
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Create a branch of it.

this is a short explanation of how you can do that.

You should note however, that Visual Sourcesafe is not the best tool to create branches and merge changes accross branches. There are better tools out there, which have better support for this like Sourcegear Vault, TFS, etc..

Frederik Gheysels
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You could Share then Branch the project. However the MS docs advise caution:

Microsoft Visual SourceSafe Best Practices

Sharing and Branching

Use the Sharing and Branching features of Visual SourceSafe with discretion. Avoid Sharing or Branching across top-level projects because it complicates the process of archiving a project and restoring it into another database. Moreover, when you branch files and then delete them, the space is not recovered until all copies of the branched file in the database are destroyed.

Personally I'd "Get Latest Version" then xcopy to a new folder, strip the existing source control bindings then add under a new folder in SourceSafe. You can't be too careful with Source Safe from past experience.

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Kev
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I'm not too familiar with Visual SourceSafe, but in other flavors of source control, you can branch your repository and create an identical copy. You can modify this copy independently.

http://geekswithblogs.net/VROD/archive/2006/11/22/97817.aspx

Yoh Suzuki
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