Compacting the database

Alessandro Ganna

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Jan 20, 2010, 9:03:52 AM1/20/10

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Hi all,

I'm trying to reduce the size and, chiefly, the number of files of a set
of Source Safe databases.
They're not particularly large (the biggest is 800MB and about 10000
files), but since there's a lot of them they're greatly slowing our backups.

I've run the ANALYZE utility with -C to compact free space, I've cleaned
the \Temp directory and I've used SS Purge on the root project to clean
deleted files.

I'm now trying to backup and delete the older versions using the SSARC
utility, to no avail.

Apart from the parameters to specify the db path and the admin username
and password, the command line is:

SSARC -D -VD"12/31/2007" "backuppath" $/

The command works fine, and the backup file is created. When I re-open
the db, the oldest versions are gone, but the size of the database and
the number of files is unchanged.
Looking around the files in the project folder, it seems that, even if
the version the file refers to is gone, source safe keeps it as a reference.

Is this the way SSARC is supposed to work or I'm missing something?
Are there different ways to reduce the number of files in the db?

TIA
Alex

Catherine Sea

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Mar 11, 2010, 7:03:59 PM3/11/10

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Hi Alex,

Archive utility should be able to serve your needs. How did you check
the size and file number? In the 'data' folder of VSS database?

You can also check the suggestions here for info on how to reduce the
size of VSS database:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/93ha4180(VS.80).aspx

Thanks,

---------------------
Catherine Sea
http://www.dynamsoft.com
http://www.scmsoftwareconfigurationmanagement.com

Alessandro Ganna

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Mar 17, 2010, 12:30:53 PM3/17/10

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Hi Catherine,

and thank you for your answer.

> Archive utility should be able to serve your needs. How did you check
> the size and file number? In the 'data' folder of VSS database?

Yes, since the goal is to reduce the files in the database, I checked
the properties of the 'data' folder.

Before and after running the Archive utility there are very little
differences in size, and none in the number of files.

Running Analyze after Archive makes no difference.

> You can also check the suggestions here for info on how to reduce the
> size of VSS database:
> http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/93ha4180(VS.80).aspx

Thanks, I tried them all, but to little or no a avail.

I can't understand why the Archive utility removes data from the
database, but leaves the file containing it.
I'm still not sure that I'm not missing something...

--
Alex

plo...@free.fr

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Mar 19, 2010, 12:15:20 PM3/19/10

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On 20/01/2010 15:03, Alessandro Ganna wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I'm trying to reduce the size and, chiefly, the number of files of a set
> of Source Safe databases.

> I've run the ANALYZE utility with -C to compact free space, I've cleaned
> the \Temp directory and I've used SS Purge on the root project to clean
> deleted files.

The -C option suppress unused space in the files. It does not suppress
files.

> The command works fine, and the backup file is created. When I re-open
> the db, the oldest versions are gone, but the size of the database and
> the number of files is unchanged.
> Looking around the files in the project folder, it seems that, even if
> the version the file refers to is gone, source safe keeps it as a
> reference.
>
> Is this the way SSARC is supposed to work or I'm missing something?
> Are there different ways to reduce the number of files in the db?

VSS keeps two physical files for each item in the database. As long as
one item is referenced in the history of another (after a branch) or is
linked to another project (after a share), VSS will keep the
corresponding physical files. You can have the name of the physical
files with the "ss phys" command line.
Removing history with ssarc could reduce the file size, but not their
number. You could try to analyze again with -C after archiving in case
the history has been blanked but not removed.
If you purged files (they no longer appear in the database), you may
need to run the analyze with option -D to remove the corresponding
physical files.

put\"@ here <""plodoc (put "@here

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Mar 19, 2010, 12:27:14 PM3/19/10

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On 20/01/2010 15:03, Alessandro Ganna wrote:

> I'm trying to reduce the size and, chiefly, the number of files of a set
> of Source Safe databases.

> I've run the ANALYZE utility with -C to compact free space, I've cleaned
> the \Temp directory and I've used SS Purge on the root project to clean
> deleted files.

The -C option suppress unused space in the files. It does not suppress

files.

> I'm now trying to backup and delete the older versions using the SSARC
> utility, to no avail.

> The command works fine, and the backup file is created. When I re-open
> the db, the oldest versions are gone, but the size of the database and
> the number of files is unchanged.

Removing history with ssarc could reduce the file size, but not their
number. You could try to analyze again with -C after archiving in case
the history has been blanked but not removed.

> Looking around the files in the project folder, it seems that, even if

> the version the file refers to is gone, source safe keeps it as a
> reference.

VSS keeps two physical files for each item in the database. As long as
one item is referenced in the history of another (after a branch) or is
linked to another project (after a share), VSS will keep the
corresponding physical files. You can have the name of the physical
files with the "ss phys" command line.

> Is this the way SSARC is supposed to work or I'm missing something?

> Are there different ways to reduce the number of files in the db?

You could purge unused files. Deleting them will not remove them. And
sometimes the purge is not completely done on the physical side, you may
need to run the analyze with option -D to finish it.

plodoc

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Mar 19, 2010, 12:48:00 PM3/19/10