The Visual SourceSafe database contains all the files that Visual SourceSafe
maintains. Visual SourceSafe stores the files in a proprietary, compressed format.
You will find the Visual SourceSafe
database under the main Visual SourceSafe directory
(usually named VSS) in a folder named Database.
You will see several files under
this folder and a lot of other folders containing
many other files. You should never try to manipulate
the contents of the Visual SourceSafe database
manually, because Visual SourceSafe has its own
internal scheme for managing the database.
It is possible to have multiple
Visual SourceSafe databases set up in the same
environment. When administrators or developers
open the Visual SourceSafe Administrator or the
Visual SourceSafe Explorer (as mentioned in the
following sections), they have a choice of Visual
SourceSafe databases.
Figure in the section titled "Using Visual
SourceSafe Explorer" illustrates the choice of databases for a user in Visual
SourceSafe Explorer. A Visual SourceSafe administrator can also archive and restore
Visual SourceSafe databases, as discussed further in the section titled "Archiving
and Restoring Visual SourceSafe Databases."
