Microsoft Visual SourceSafe Tasks User Manual

Craig Cottingham
Andrew Everitt
Balazs Fejes 2
Glenn_Twiggs@bmc.com
Martin Poeschl (mpoeschl@marmot.at)
Phillip Wells
Jon Skeet (jon.skeet@peramon.com)
Nigel Magnay (nigel.magnay@parsec.co.uk)
Gary S. Weaver
Jesse Stockall

$Date: 2004/02/09 22:12:12 $

Introduction
The Tasks

Introduction

These tasks provide an interface to the Microsoft Visual SourceSafe SCM. The org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.optional.vss package consists of a simple framework to support vss functionality as well as some Ant tasks encapsulating frequently used vss commands. Although it is possible to use these commands on the desktop, they were primarily intended to be used by automated build systems.

If you get a CreateProcesss IOError=2 when running these, it means that ss.exe was not found. Check to see if you can run it from the command line -you may need to alter your path, or set the ssdir property.

The Tasks

vssget	Retrieves a copy of the specified VSS file(s).
vsslabel	Assigns a label to the specified version or current version of a file or project.
vsshistory	Shows the history of a file or project in VSS.
vsscheckin	Updates VSS with changes made to a checked out file, and unlocks the VSS master copy.
vsscheckout	Copies a file from the current project to the current folder, for the purpose of editing.
vssadd	Adds a new file into the VSS Archive
vsscp	Change the current project being used in VSS
vsscreate	Creates a project in VSS.

Task Descriptions

VssGet

Description

Task to perform GET commands to Microsoft Visual SourceSafe.

If you specify two or more attributes from version, date and label only one will be used in the order version, date, label.

Parameters

Attribute	Values	Required
vsspath	SourceSafe path which specifies the project/file(s) you wish to perform the action on.	Yes
login	username[,password] - The username and password needed to get access to VSS. Note that you may need to specify both (if you have a password) - Ant/VSS will hang if you leave the password out and VSS does not accept login without a password.	No
localpath	Override the working directory and get to the specified path	No
ssdir	directory where `ss.exe` resides. By default the task expects it to be in the PATH.	No
serverPath	directory where `ss.ini` resides.	No
writable	true or false; default false	No
recursive	true or false; default false. Note however that in the SourceSafe UI , there is a setting accessed via Tools/Options/GeneralTab called "Act on projects recursively". If this setting is checked, then the recursive attribute is effectively ignored, and the get will always be done recursively	No
version	a version number to get	No, only one of these allowed
date	a date stamp to get at
label	a label to get for
quiet	suppress output (off by default)	No
autoresponse	What to respond with (sets the -I option). By default, -I- is used; values of Y or N will be appended to this.	No
writablefiles	Behavior when local files are writable. Valid options are: `replace`, `skip` and `fail`; Defaults to `fail` `skip` implies `failonerror=false`	No
failonerror	Stop the buildprocess if ss.exe exits with a returncode of 100. Defaults to true	No
filetimestamp	Set the behavior for timestamps of local files. Valid options are `current`, `modified`, or `updated`. Defaults to `current`.	No

Note that only one of version, date or label should be specified

Examples

<vssget localPath="C:\mysrc\myproject"
        recursive="true"
        label="Release1"
        login="me,mypassword"
        vsspath="$/source/aProject"
        writable="true"/>

Does a get on the VSS-Project $/source/myproject using the username me and the password mypassword. It will recursively get the files which are labeled Release1 and write them to the local directory C:\mysrc\myproject. The local files will be writable.

VssLabel

Description

Task to perform LABEL commands to Microsoft Visual SourceSafe.

Assigns a label to the specified version or current version of a file or project.

Parameters

Attribute	Values	Required
vsspath	SourceSafe path which specifies the project/file(s) you wish to perform the action on.	Yes
login	username[,password] - The username and password needed to get access to VSS. Note that you may need to specify both (if you have a password) - Ant/VSS will hang if you leave the password out and VSS does not accept login without a password.	No
ssdir	directory where `ss.exe` resides. By default the task expects it to be in the PATH.	No
serverPath	directory where `srssafe.ini` resides.	No
label	A label to apply to the hierarchy	Yes
version	An existing file or project version to label. By default the current version is labelled.	No
comment	The comment to use for this label. Empty or '-' for no comment.	No
autoresponse	What to respond with (sets the -I option). By default, -I- is used; values of Y or N will be appended to this.	No
failonerror	Stop the buildprocess if ss.exe exits with a returncode of 100. Defaults to true	No

Examples

<vsslabel vsspath="$/source/aProject"
          login="me,mypassword"
          label="Release1"/>

Labels the current version of the VSS project $/source/aProject with the label Release1 using the username me and the password mypassword.

<vsslabel vsspath="$/source/aProject/myfile.txt"
          version="4"
          label="1.03.004"/>

Labels version 4 of the VSS file $/source/aProject/myfile.txt with the label 1.03.004. If this version already has a label, the operation (and the build) will fail.

VssHistory

Description

Task to perform HISTORY commands to Microsoft Visual SourceSafe.

Parameters

Attribute	Values	Required
vsspath	SourceSafe path which specifies the project/file(s) you wish to perform the action on.	Yes
login	username[,password] - The username and password needed to get access to VSS. Note that you may need to specify both (if you have a password) - Ant/VSS will hang if you leave the password out and VSS does not accept login without a password.	No
ssdir	directory where `ss.exe` resides. By default the task expects it to be in the PATH.	No
serverPath	directory where `srssafe.ini` resides.	No
fromDate	Start date for comparison	See below
toDate	End date for comparison	See below
dateFormat	Format of dates in fromDate and toDate. Used when calculating dates with the numdays attribute. This string uses the formatting rules of SimpleDateFormat. Defaults to DateFormat.SHORT.	No
fromLabel	Start label for comparison	No
toLabel	Start label for comparison	No
numdays	The number of days for comparison.	See below
output	File to write the diff.	No
recursive	true or false	No
style	brief, codediff, default or nofile. The default is default.	No
user	Name the user whose changes we would like to see	No
failonerror	Stop the buildprocess if ss.exe exits with a returncode of 100. Defaults to true	No

Specifying the time-frame

There are different ways to specify what time-frame you wish to evaluate:

Changes between two dates: Specify both fromDate and toDate
Changes before a date: Specify toDate
Changes after a date: Specify fromDate
Changes X Days before a date: Specify toDate and (negative!) numDays
Changes X Days after a date: Specify fromDate and numDays

Examples

<vsshistory vsspath="$/myProject" recursive="true"
            fromLabel="Release1"
            toLabel="Release2"/>

Shows all changes between "Release1" and "Release2".

<vsshistory vsspath="$/myProject" recursive="true"
            fromDate="01.01.2001"
            toDate="31.03.2001"/>

Shows all changes between January 1st 2001 and March 31st 2001 (in Germany, date must be specified according to your locale).

<tstamp>
  <format property="to.tstamp" pattern="M-d-yy;h:mma" />
</tstamp>

<vsshistory vsspath="$/myProject" recursive="true"
            numDays="-14"
            dateFormat="M-d-yy;h:mma"
            toDate="${to.tstamp}"/>

Shows all changes in the 14 days before today.

VssCheckin

Description

Task to perform CHECKIN commands to Microsoft Visual SourceSafe.

Parameters

Attribute	Values	Required
vsspath	SourceSafe path which specifies the project/file(s) you wish to perform the action on.	Yes
login	username[,password] - The username and password needed to get access to VSS. Note that you may need to specify both (if you have a password) - Ant/VSS will hang if you leave the password out and VSS does not accept login without a password.	No
localpath	Override the working directory and get to the specified path	No
ssdir	directory where `ss.exe` resides. By default the task expects it to be in the PATH.	No
serverPath	directory where `srssafe.ini` resides.	No
writable	true or false	No
recursive	true or false	No
comment	Comment to use for the files that where checked in.	No
autoresponse	'Y', 'N' or empty. Specify how to reply to questions from VSS.	No
failonerror	Stop the buildprocess if ss.exe exits with a returncode of 100. Defaults to true	No

Examples

<vsscheckin vsspath="$/test/test*"
            localpath="D:\build\"
            comment="Modified by automatic build"/>

Checks in the file(s) named test* in the project $/test using the local directory D:\build.

VssCheckout

Description

Task to perform CHECKOUT commands to Microsoft Visual SourceSafe.

If you specify two or more attributes from version, date and label only one will be used in the order version, date, label.

Parameters

Attribute	Values	Required
vsspath	SourceSafe path which specifies the project/file(s) you wish to perform the action on.	Yes
login	username[,password] - The username and password needed to get access to VSS. Note that you may need to specify both (if you have a password) - Ant/VSS will hang if you leave the password out and VSS does not accept login without a password.	No
localpath	Override the working directory and get to the specified path	No
ssdir	directory where `ss.exe` resides. By default the task expects it to be in the PATH.	No
serverPath	directory where `srssafe.ini` resides.	No
writable	true or false	No
recursive	true or false	No
version	a version number to get	No, only one of these allowed
date	a date stamp to get at
label	a label to get for
writablefiles	Behavior when local files are writable. Valid options are: `replace`, `skip` and `fail`; Defaults to `fail` `skip` implies `failonerror=false`	No
failonerror	Stop the buildprocess if ss.exe exits with a returncode of 100. Defaults to true	No
filetimestamp	Set the behavior for timestamps of local files. Valid options are `current`, `modified`, or `updated`. Defaults to `current`.	No
getlocalcopy	Set the behavior to retrieve local copies of the files. Defaults to true.	No

Examples

<vsscheckout vsspath="$/test"
             localpath="D:\build"
             recursive="true"
             login="me,mypass"/>

Does a recursive checkout of the project $/test to the directory D:\build.

VssAdd

Description

Task to perform ADD commands to Microsoft Visual SourceSafe.

Parameters

Attribute	Values	Required
localpath	Specify the local file(s) to add to VSS	Yes
login	username[,password] - The username and password needed to get access to VSS. Note that you may need to specify both (if you have a password) - Ant/VSS will hang if you leave the password out and VSS does not accept login without a password.	No
ssdir	directory where `ss.exe` resides. By default the task expects it to be in the PATH.	No
serverPath	directory where `srssafe.ini` resides.	No
writable	true or false	No
recursive	true or false	No
comment	Comment to use for the files that where checked in.	No
autoresponse	'Y', 'N' or empty. Specify how to reply to questions from VSS.	No
failonerror	Stop the buildprocess if ss.exe exits with a returncode of 100. Defaults to true	No

Examples

<vssadd localpath="D:\build\build.00012.zip"
            comment="Added by automatic build"/>

Add the file named build.00012.zip into the project current working directory (see vsscp).

VssCp

Description

Task to perform CP (Change Project) commands to Microsoft Visual SourceSafe.

This task is typically used before a VssAdd in order to set the target project

Parameters

Attribute	Values	Required
vsspath	SourceSafe path which specifies the project you wish to make the current project.	Yes
login	username[,password] - The username and password needed to get access to VSS. Note that you may need to specify both (if you have a password) - Ant/VSS will hang if you leave the password out and VSS does not accept login without a password.	No
ssdir	directory where `ss.exe` resides. By default the task expects it to be in the PATH.	No
serverPath	directory where `srssafe.ini` resides.	No
failonerror	Stop the buildprocess if ss.exe exits with a returncode of 100. Defaults to true	No

Examples

<vsscp vsspath="$/Projects/ant"/>

Sets the current VSS project to $/Projects/ant.

VssCreate

Description

Task to perform CREATE commands to Microsoft Visual Source Safe.

Creates a new project in VSS.

Parameters

Attribute	Values	Required
login	username,password	No
vsspath	SourceSafe path of project to be created	Yes
ssdir	directory where `ss.exe` resides. By default the task expects it to be in the PATH.	No
quiet	suppress output (off by default)	No
failOnError	fail if there is an error creating the project (true by default)	No
autoresponse	What to respond with (sets the -I option). By default, -I- is used; values of Y or N will be appended to this.	No
comment	The comment to use for this label. Empty or '-' for no comment.	No

Examples

<vsscreate vsspath="$/existingProject/newProject"/>

Creates the VSS-Project $/existingProject/newProject.

Microsoft Visual SourceSafe Tasks User Manual

Contents

Task Descriptions

Description

Parameters

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Specifying the time-frame

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