Performing Basic Visual SourceSafe Tasks

A Visual SourceSafe database is set up for use by two user groups, the Administrator group and the User group. Members of the Administrator group are database administrators who set up and maintain the database for a team. User group members are regular database users who do not need access to database maintenance utilities, for example, a developer on a software development team. Generally this type of user accesses the database using the Visual SourceSafe Explorer program or possibly the Visual SourceSafe command line utility.

This section is provided mainly for any user who accesses the database for daily tasks. The procedures assume that the database administrator for your group has already installed Visual SourceSafe and set up a database as described in Getting Started with Visual SourceSafe. It is also assumed that the database administrator has established the security mechanisms for your site, according to instructions in Managing Your Team Using Visual SourceSafe.

In This Section

  • How to: Enable Merging
    Tells how to enable merging for a multiple checkout team environment using the Copy-Modify-Merge work style.
  • How to: Merge File Versions
    Tells how to merge file versions when performing a get latest version operation, when checking a file into the database, or when combining branched file versions.
  • How to: Search for a File
    Provides procedures for searching for an item by name or checkout status, and for searching for all files checked out by you.
  • Introducing Visual SourceSafe
    Provides an introduction to Visual SourceSafe by describing how the product works and defining its main operations.