Command Line Commands

This section defines the Visual SourceSafe command line commands.

• About (Command Line)
  Displays information about your copy of Visual SourceSafe.

• Add (Command Line)
  Adds new files to the Visual SourceSafe database.

• Branch (Command Line)
  Breaks a share link and creates a branch of a file in a project.

• Checkin (Command Line)
  Updates the database with changes made to a checked out file and unlocks the master copy.

• Checkout (Command Line)
  Checks out a file and makes the working copy of the file in the current project writable.

• Cloak (Command Line)
  Hides a project from recursive Get, Check Out, Check In, Undo Check Out, and Project Differences commands.

• Comment (Command Line)
  Changes the previously entered comment for a specific version of a file or project.

• Copy (Command Line)
  Copies one or more files in one project to another project.

• CP (Command Line)
  Sets the current project path.

• Create (Command Line)
  Creates a new subproject.

• Decloak (Command Line)
  Removes the cloaked attribute from a project.

• Delete (Command Line)
  Removes files and projects from the database, and marks them as deleted.

• Deploy (Command Line)
  Deploys a project to a server or FTP location.

• Destroy (Command Line)
  Permanently removes a file or project.

• Diff (File) (Command Line)
  Shows the line-by-line differences between a Visual SourceSafe database master copy of a file and the corresponding file in your working folder.

• Diff (Project) (Command Line)
  Shows the differences between a Visual SourceSafe database master copy of a project and the corresponding project in your working folder.

• Dir (Command Line)
  Shows a list of all the files and subprojects in the specified project, or in the current project.

• Filetype (Command Line)
  Sets the file type for one or more files.

• FindinFiles (Command Line)
  Shows all occurrences of a specified string in one or more files, or in an entire project (all files).

• Get (Command Line)
  Retrieves read-only copies of the specified Visual SourceSafe files or projects to your working folder.

• Help (Command Line)
  Displays general help for using Visual SourceSafe in a Microsoft Windows Help file.

• History (Command Line)
  Shows the history of a file or project in Visual SourceSafe.

• Label (Command Line)
  Assigns a label to the specified items (files or projects).

• Links (Command Line)
  Shows the projects that share the specified file(s).

• Locate (Command Line)
  Searches Visual SourceSafe projects for the specified files or projects.

• Merge (Command Line)
  Combines the contents of two file copies that have the same name but are part of different projects.

• Move (Command Line)
  Relocates a subproject from one parent project to another.

• Password (Command Line)
  Sets the password for the current user.

• Paths (Command Line)
  Shows all share links for files that have been branched.

• Physical (Command Line)
  Determines the physical location of a Visual SourceSafe-encrypted file in a Visual SourceSafe database.

• Pin (Command Line)
  Marks files at a specific version number in the current project.

• Project (Command Line)
  Displays the current project path.

• Properties (Command Line)
  Shows the properties of a Visual SourceSafe file or project.

• Purge (Command Line)
  Permanently removes previously deleted files and projects from a Visual SourceSafe database.

• Recover (Command Line)
  Recovers files and projects that have been deleted.

• Rename (Command Line)
  Changes the name of a file or project.

• Rollback (Command Line)
  Undoes all changes since an earlier version of a file.

• Share (Command Line)
  Makes the specified file or project part of the current project.

• Status (Command Line)
  Shows checkout information on files.

• Undocheckout (Command Line)
  Cancels a Check Out operation, voiding all changes.

• Unpin (Command Line)
  Undoes a Pin operation, ignoring files that are not pinned.

• View (Command Line)
  Displays the contents of the specified file.

• Whoami (Command Line)
  Shows your current Visual SourceSafe user name.

• WorkFold
  Sets the working folder.

All commands can be abbreviated, as long as the abbreviation resolves to a unique supported command. For example, the following commands are equivalent:

ss find $/a.txt
ss FindInFiles $/a.txt

Many of the previous commands have alias commands that perform the same function. The following table lists these alias commands:

• CP
  CD, ChPro

• Diff
  Difference

• Dir
  LD, Directory

• Create
  MD, MP, MkPro

• FindinFiles
  Grep, Scan

• Delete
  Remove

• Branch
  Separate

• Undocheckout
  Uncheckout

• Recover
  Undelete

• Checkin
  Update

• Locate
  WhereIs

You can also define your own aliases by adding commands to your ss.ini file under the [Commands] section as follows:

alias=command

For example, if you included the following in your ss.ini file:

WF=Workfold

Then the following commands would be equivalent:

SS WF $/ C:\Folder
SS WF $/ C:\Folder

Note   The aliases you enter in your ss.ini file change the aliases supported for you only.

Command Line Reference
Command Options