Checking Files In and Out
Home Page (Source-Code Control) | Overview | How Do I ... Topics
When you begin work on your project, normally you open the project in the project workspace and get the current versions of the project files to make sure that you are looking at the most up-to-date sources. Before you begin to modify the source files, you check them out; after you have completed the modifications, you check the files in.
When you have a file checked in, your local copy of the file is read-only, and you cannot save any changes to it. When you check out a file, you can make changes to your local copy of the file, and save those changes to the file. When you check the file in, you copy those changes to the master copy of the file in the source-code control project. This makes those changes available to your coworkers. Depending on the characteristics of your source-code control system, only one author can check out a file, or more than one author can check out a file simultaneously.
In Microsoft Visual C++, in addition to selecting files directly from the FileView pane, you can also check them in and out by selecting from the other panes. For instance, if you select a class to check out in the ClassView pane, Visual C++ prompts you to check out files associated with that class.
What do you want to do?
Check files in and merge changes
Check files in and ignore changes
Remove files from the source-code control system
Check files in and close the workspace
Get the current version of a file
View the history of changes made to a file
View the differences between a local copy of a file and a master copy