Chapter 3. Checking Out Source Control

In This Chapter

  • Setting up source control

  • Adding and retrieving source code

  • Performing daily integration tasks

  • Using source control on a team project

Whether you're on a team of hundreds or a team of one, you need some way to manage your source code. You use source code control software to

  • Provide a central repository for storing source code.

  • Create a new version of source code every time changes are made.

  • Track the history of your source code.

The standard and Professional versions of Visual Studio don't provide source code control features. However, they provide menus and windows that you can use to access some third-party, source-code control products, such as Perforce by Perforce Software or Microsoft's Visual Source Safe. Any source code control software that implements the Visual Studio Integration Protocol can provide source control services to Visual Studio. In this chapter, you explore using Perforce source code control with Visual Studio.

You can install Perforce source code control from www.perforce.com. You can use Perforce free of charge for up to two users and five client connections. Perforce installation and configuration is beyond the scope of this text.

Microsoft Visual Source Safe is a deprecated product from Microsoft and is no longer available for download. You can use existing installations of Visual Source Safe with Visual Studio 2010.

Using Source Code Control with Visual Studio

Visual Studio provides menu commands that you can use ...

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