Get pinned version of VSS through automation

I have a script that searches through a release branch of our software, and detects the difference from the branch to the common dev dir (diff on all files)

so i get the file... try to figure out the pinned version to diff it with the one in the other directory. There the problem starts. I cant figure out the pinned version. There is a MSDN KB article, but they say that the Action of the version starts with "Pinned" or "Unpinned".. this does not fit to our situation here. Those texts never appear in the Version.Action .

Can someone help

VSS 6.0d (Build 31222)

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Get pinned version of VSS through automation

Timdog68

In VSS 2005 a new property has been added to IVssItem: VSSItem.IsPinned.
You can find if an item is pinned and the version to which is pinned at like this:

        Dim db As New SourceSafeTypeLib.VSSDatabase
        db.Open("\\server\vss_database_share\", "alinc")
        Dim x As SourceSafeTypeLib.VSSItem
        x = db.VSSItem("$/item.txt")

        MsgBox("IsPinned = " + x.IsPinned.ToString)
        If (x.IsPinned) Then
            For Each x1 As SourceSafeTypeLib.VSSItem In x.Links
                If (x1.Parent.Spec = x.Parent.Spec) Then
                    MsgBox("Pinned in " + x.Parent.Spec + " at version " + x1.VersionNumber.ToString)
                End If
            Next
        End If

With VSS 6.0d where you don't have the IsPinned property, you can still use the Links collection to find out the version number to which an item is pinned, but you won't be able to distinguish between an item that's unpinned and an item that's pinned at a last databse version.

Alin

Barry Lewis
This is a marvelous hack of VSS data files, but is WRONG.
Please do not use such code!

The function's intent is to scan the files in data folder, starting from the root, like this
$/Folder1
$/Folder1/Folder2
$/Folder1/Folder2/Folder3/Item
until it locates the physical file for the item ($/Folder1/Folder2/Folder3/Item in this case).
Then, it gets 2 bytes of this file which it ANDs between them, and conclude that is the pinned version

Here are a couple of issues with the function I can see at a first look:

a) The test "InStr(1, Mid(line, 15, Len(spath(i))), spath(i), vbTextCompare)" will incorrectly match longer entryies that have same beginning characters as the searched folder. For instance it will match "$/Folder12" with the searched "Folder1"
b) Folder with long file names (longer than 32 charactes) have the names stored in names.dat, not in the data files.The attempt to locate the physical file of a folder named "$/A very long name for this folder that have more than 31 characters/" will incorrectly match the folder with "$/A very long name for this folder too/", producing incorrect results.
c) When a file or folder is deleted in a database, it is not actually deleted from the parent file, so you may actually have 2 entries in $/Folder1's physical file for 2 children named 'Folder2' (one of them deleted and one not). The function is incorrectly picking the deleted entry, giving incorrect results.
d) The function may gives incorrect results on a database with orphanes files. It may be possible that both physical.a and physical.b files exists on disk (one orphan) and your function may pick the wrong one.
e) The function concludes (lPinnedVersion = byte53 & byte54), which can only have max. 256 values. You surely can pin versions of files bigger than 256! What you probably wanted there was (256 * byte54 + byte53)...

I'd strongly advise against using hack code like this, as it's likely you don't have a full understanding of proprietary VSS database structures, and will likely write code that apparently works but will eventually yield incorrect results. And, if the database structure will change in the future, your code will break again.

Btw, to identify the physical file name of an item you could have used easier the "ss.exe physical" command line (in VSS 6.0), or the VssItem.Physical property in VSS2005.

Alin
Jerry West
thx for your responses. however, i just wanted a better overview what changed since the last "pinned" version. So i will not use one of those "hacks". So i wait till someone here wants to upgrade the vss :)

someone was sleeping from the ms vss team
Danny Yoder
Not every company has VSS2005 nor will move to VSS2005.

Stoober

There is a better way!

Public Function PinnedVersionNumber(oVSSItem As VSSItem) As Long
    Dim fso As FileSystemObject
    Dim ts As TextStream
    Dim line As String
    Dim sDataFileNameA As String
    Dim sDataFileNameB As String
    Dim spath() As String
    Dim i As Long
    Dim sletter As String
    Dim sKey As String
    Dim sLogFileName As String
    Dim lPinnedVersion As Long
    Dim ch1 As Byte
    Dim ch2 As Byte
    Dim fFound As Boolean
    Dim lRecordOffset As Long

    On Error GoTo Error_Handler

    ' set Pinned Version = -99 as default;
        lPinnedVersion = -99
    'Set the default start of the tree. This is the "$" file;
    sletter = "a"
    sKey = "aaaaaaaa"

    'set the path for our VSSItem;
    spath = Split(Replace(oVSSItem.Spec, " ", "_", , , vbTextCompare),"/")

    'Parse through each data file to move through the VSS Tree;
    For i = 1 To UBound(spath)
        'Data files may end in .a or .b;
        'Make sure we are pointing to the current VSSDatabase;
        sDataFileNameA = "SouceSafe_Database\Data\" & sletter & "\" & sKey & ".a"
        sDataFileNameB = "SouceSafe_Database\Data\" & sletter & "\" & sKey & ".b"

        Set fso = New FileSystemObject
        'Find out if our data file ends in .a or .b;
        If fso.FileExists(sDataFileNameA) Then
            Set ts = fso.OpenTextFile(sDataFileNameA, ForReading)
            sLogFileName = sDataFileNameA
        Else
            Set ts = fso.OpenTextFile(sDataFileNameB, ForReading)
            sLogFileName = sDataFileNameB
        End If

        fFound = False
        lRecordOffset = -1 'Reset the number of records so we have a count of the "last" file
        Do While Not ts.AtEndOfStream
            line = ts.Read(64) 'Each record is 64 bytes
            lRecordOffset = lRecordOffset + 1 'Count the number of records
'            Debug.Print Mid(line, 15, Len(spath(i)));
            If InStr(1, Mid(line, 15, Len(spath(i))), spath(i), vbTextCompare) Then 'Look at the the "Child" record;
               ' Debug.Print line;
               'Set the keys for the next file;
                sKey = Mid(line, 55, 8)
                sletter = Mid(line, 55, 1)
                fFound = True
                Exit Do
            End If
        Loop
        ts.Close

        'Check to see if our parsing worked;
        If Not fFound Then
     '       MsgBox "Parsing Failed";
            GoTo Exit_Routine
        End If
    Next

    'Open the Data file and look at specific bytes;
    'We wants bytes 54 and 53 for our record.;
    If fso.FileExists(sLogFileName) Then
        Open sLogFileName For Binary Access Read Lock Read As #1
                Get 1, (lRecordOffset * 64) + 54, ch1 'We wants bytes 54 and 53 for our record.;
                Get 1, (lRecordOffset * 64) + 53, ch2
        Close #1
        lPinnedVersion = ch1 & ch2
    End If

Exit_Routine:
    PinnedVersionNumber = lPinnedVersion
Exit Function
Error_Handler:
    Call Err.Raise(Err.Number, Err.Source, Err.Description, Err.HelpFile, Err.HelpContext)
End Function

You may have to modify this code. Another great ref to all of this is
http://www.ezds.com/html/ssi_log_data_files.html That is where I got some of the information that helped me write the above. Also thanks goes to Dave Goodall. Hope this will help everyone

nigeldude
I ran into the same problem. Still don't know how to "fix" it but there is a work around. Here is the work around in my VB code

Public Function PinnedVersionNumber(oVSSItem As VSSItem) As Long

Dim oVSSTestItem As VSSItem

Dim oVSSVersion As VSSVersion

On Error GoTo Error_Handler

PinnedVersionNumber = -99

Set oVSSTestItem = PinnedItem(oVSSItem)

Call oVSSTestItem.Checkout(, , VSSFlags.VSSFLAG_GETNO)

Call oVSSTestItem.UndoCheckout(, VSSFlags.VSSFLAG_DELNOREPLACE)

Exit_Routine:

Exit Function

Error_Handler:

Select Case Err.Number

Case PineedToSpecificVersionError '<file> is pinned to a specific version

Err.Clear

PinnedVersionNumber = oVSSTestItem.VersionNumber

Exit Function

Case FileCheckedOutError '< > is currently checked out by < >

Err.Clear

Exit Function

Case Else

Err.Raise Err.Number, Err.Source, Err.Description, Err.HelpFile, Err.HelpContext

End Select

End Function

As you can see and I'm sure you've found there is no "pinned" property that is documented in the Object Model. However if you try to check a file out that is pinned you should recieve an error that "You may not check out a file that is pinned to a specific version". The wording might not be the exact same. But based on the error you recieve you may be able to tell if the file is pinned. If you get the pinned file error then when you try to get the VersionNumber on that file it should be the pinned version. However if you are able to check the file out then you will have to undo a checkout and you will know that the file is not pinned.

If anyone finds a better way to find out if a file is pinned or what version it is pinned at please let me know.

Steve H
mbothmer
It would also be nice if this functionality was built into VSS 6. Then we wouldn’t need to write “HACK” code to find out simple information. < xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
Get pinned version of VSS through automation

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