Re: Running SourceSafe on remote webserver

Unfortunately, it's been more than 5 years since this happened.
Here's what I recall:

- VSS 6.0 installed on a server.
- SOS server component installed on same server... don't recall the
version, but it was the latest at the time.
- VSS 6.0, SOS client, and Visual Studio 6.0 installed on client
machine. Server was Windows 2000 Server. My desktop was either NT
4.0 or XP... that was close to around the time we upgraded to XP, so I
don't recall which version for sure, but it was more likely XP.
- Working over a WAN from Chattanooga, TN to Portland, Maine.
- In SOS client, I had checked and confirmed a box like "Do not delete
local files on check in".
- Using SOS client, I checked in my project, while having Windows
Explorer opened to my local project folder.
- SOS started "checking in" the files and they were systematically
being deleted from my local machine.
- When it was all done, I don't recall exactly what happened on the
server... whether it deleted them on the server, or they never made it
to the server, but the end result is they were gone from my local
machine AND from the server.

The first time this happened, I thought I must have mistakenly
unchecked the box "do not delete local files on check in". From that
point forward, I double-verified all of my settings and opened Windows
Explorer (and backed up my files) before checking in and witnessed
this happen 2 extra times.

From that point forward, we never used it again. I've since upgraded
my career and no longer work at that company and have not used the
product since, so sorry that I cannot give any more information than
my 5 or 6 year old recollection.

Note that I'm not asking for support and that I don't need it, since
I'm not a customer. I will help you where I can though with my
recollections. I think it's great that you take this type of report
seriously. I see a later message that you created and subsequently
closed a ticket. You might want to try recreating the environment I
described above. I would also recommend having the developers take a
deep look into the code that deletes locally and all conditions that
could cause it to be called. I would also have them look at the logic
when "delete local" is enabled and to avoid deleting until it is
confirmed that the check in was successful. Have them look at what
the code does when the check in fails (regarding deleting locally).
Also, have them double-check that the server doesn't falsely report
success on check in when it fails, thereby triggering the client to
delete locally. It would probably be a good idea to not delete
anything locally until every file in the project is checked in
successfully. As a developer, a partially failed check in with a
partially deleted project would cause me a lot of headache.

I personally confirmed that these problems occurred and I would feel
very uncomfortable using or recommending SOS until I knew that they
verified and fixed the problem. As a matter of fact, I'd immediately
buy the product because other than that serious flaw, it was by far a
great solution for slow connections and over the internet
connectivity. I'm a developer, so I do understand that problems that
are difficult to reproduce are difficult to verify and hence to fix,
so that's why I'm recommending that your developers peer directly into
the code base, regardless of whether you're able to reproduce the
problem. I have fixed many problems that I was never able to
reproduce without ultimately searching in the code and finding where
it *could* happen and fixing it. Usually, after finding it in code, I
can then reproduce it because I know exactly what triggers it in the
code.

Of course, it's possible that the problem unintentionally got fixed as
a side effect of other code changes. So, it might be worth checking
out the version of your source that was publicly available in about
2000-2001.

Hope this information is helpful!
--------------------------
Owner/Operator of
www.MichaelsAttic.com

On Feb 18, 11:37 am, Jeff Clausius <je...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Mike:

I've checked with Tech Support, and from what I can tell there's never
been a bug logged for this? Did you contact our Tech Support
department? Did they ever come to a resolution?

You say you were able to reproduce the problem, although it was
difficult. I know it may have been a while since you have used
SourceOffSite (SOS), but we take reports of this kind very, very
seriously, as SOS should never cause anyone to lose data.

Since SourceOffSite has been in use by tens of thousands of people, I'm
sure I would have heard of something as sever as this. I'd be more than
happy to investigate further to see if we can help.

Jeff Clausius
SourceGear

Mike {0A6FF490-CF84-4d78-BD85-FF011A0C310C} wrote:
Be careful with SourceOffSite. Check their bug fix history and make
sure they've fixed the following bug:

I used it around 2002~2003 and I confirmed the following: My settings
were set to NOT delete my local data during check in. I checked in my
code while I had Windows Explorer open to my source folder. I saw my
files disappear one by one as they were checked in. Then I looked
into the server and it failed to check them in. So, I had nothing
checked in and it deleted my local copy. VERY Dangerous!

I do realize that a lot of people have had success with this product,
but I and my company stopped using it immediately after I was able to
reproduce that fatal flaw (it was difficult to reproduce as it didn't
do that every time). If it weren't for that, I'd highly recommend
that product. Aside from deleting any chance of recovery of my source
code, everything else about it was great, if you could afford the $350/
seat license fees. It was fast across our LAN and WAN and it worked
across the internet (I think). VSS HTTP is extremely tricky to set up
and is very very slow, but highly reliable and you don't have to spend
money on a 3rd party product.

Good luck with whichever product you choose to go with.

--------------------------
Owner/Operator of
www.MichaelsAttic.com

.

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