MadCap Software Forums

How do you find and remove deleted files?

If someone else deletes a file from a project, it is removed from their PC and source control, but it is not removed from your PC. Although the file icon is marked with a red X, you have to find and delete these files manually to remove them from your copy of the project.

This can cause some real problems as deleted files can very easily be included in a build unknowingly. For example, say another author deletes 5 topics from a project that I've already got from source control. If I then build the project on my PC, I'd normally run a 'get latest version all' to get the latest files, and then run the build. However, that build would still include the 5 deleted topics (and in every subsequent build, unless I manually delete the files from my PC).

I think Flare needs an option to find and remove deleted topics, as there is no way of knowing if they're included in your build.

Not the best answer, but have you tried forcing a rfresh of the project using the source control program itself?

When I had to use source control I was working from home as well so I was using VSSs power toys to synchronise my stuff and it worked very well.

I use the Pending Check-ins view to delete multiple files from my machine that were deleted from the project by other authors.

The only problem we have is that sometimes files that are deleted from Source Control show as "Add" on developer's machines, rather than "Deleted". Our rule is then to delete, but uncheck the "Remove from Source Control" option, just to be safe.

SusanNicholson wrote:I use the Pending Check-ins view to delete multiple files from my machine that were deleted from the project by other authors.

Ah, so that will tidy up the files that need to be deleted?
I can't actually use the Pending Check-Ins window as it doesn't work on any of our PCs (we get a load of error messages if it switched on in the view menu).

You could also use the Show Differences option on the Source Control menu. It does a comparison of the files on your machine and the source control db.

SusanNicholson wrote:You could also use the Show Differences option on the Source Control menu. It does a comparison of the files on your machine and the source control db.

Thanks, but the Show Differences option just compares individual files, and I need something to compare the whole project.
I'll have a look at VSS power toys mentioned by SteveS.