How to "clone" a complete .Net solution

Question

I have a solution (exe) consisting of 3 projects and located under the visual source code sourcecontrol. Now I need a copy, because I have to make some significant changes that should not affect the original application. So, what is the easiest and safest way to achieve this and avoid conflicts? I also want the new solution to be under initial control as another project.

Thanks in advance.

Change I followed your instructions to create a new branch in a safe source. I had to manually remove some conflicts (e.g. links). But now his job. At these moments, I know why people suggest using other version control tools than MS VSS. Thank you for your help.

Answer 1

Create its branch.

this is a brief explanation of how you can do this.

However, you should note that Visual Sourcesafe is not the best tool for creating branches and merging branch changes. There are better tools that have better support for this, such as SourceGear Vault, TFS, etc.

Answer 2

The way I will do this is to fork the project in sourcesafe. This other question may provide an answer. What is the right way to work with Visual Source Security?

Answer 3

You can share later with the project branch. However, MS documents recommend caution:

Best Microsoft Visual SourceSafe Recommendations

Exchange and forking

Use Visual SourceSafe’s sharing and forking features as you wish. Avoid sharing or forking projects at the highest level, as it complicates the process of archiving a project and restoring it to another database. Moreover, when you files and then delete them, the space is not restored until all copies of the branched file in the database are destroyed.

Personally, I would “get the latest version” and then xcopy into a new folder, split the existing source control bindings, and then add to the new folder in SourceSafe. You cannot be too careful with Source Safe from past experiences.

Answer 4

I'm not very familiar with Visual SourceSafe, but in other version control options, you can branch out your repository and create an identical copy. You can change this copy independently.

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