Accessing Previous Versions of Files

Most SCC systems automatically maintain previous versions of files. This is helpful if you need to retrieve an older version of a file. It also is useful if you give a version of a file to a customer, continue development, and subsequently need to retrieve the same version you sent the customer so you can reproduce the system they have.

The built-in SCC system supports maintaining previous versions of files. The system administrator can enable this feature, but might choose to disable it for disk storage reasons. Maintaining older versions of files can dramatically increase storage requirements. The administrator also can configure the SCC system so that it maintains a limited number of previous versions of each file. In this case, as you check in a newer version of a file, the system deletes the oldest copy.

With the SCC system, use the File History and SCC View System History dialog boxes to access previous versions of files. Use the File History dialog box to retrieve a previous version of a single file.

Complete the following steps to access a previous version of a file from the File History dialog box.

  1. Open the VI of which you wish to retrieve a previous version.
  2. Select Tools»Source Code Control»Show History to display the File History dialog box.
  3. Click the Retrieve Version button to retrieve the file from the project.
  4. Click Done.

Click the Delete Version button to delete that version of the file from the project.

The SCC View System History dialog box allows you to scan the file system for all versions of a file with a specific label and allows you to retrieve those versions. This can be useful in taking a snapshot of a project that you can retrieve easily. For example, you can label the current version of all files in a project or multiple projects as release1 for the first release.

Complete the following steps to access a previous version of a file with a specific label from the SCC View System History dialog box.

  1. Select Tools»Source Code Control»Launch SCC Provider to display the Source Code Control dialog box.
  2. Select Tools»System History to open the SCC View System History dialog box.
  3. Click the Manage Groups of Labeled Files button to open the SCC Manage Labeled Groups dialog box.
  4. Select a label from the Labels in system listbox to display the group of labeled files in the Files with selected label listbox.
  5. Click the Retrieve Group button to retrieve the group from the project.
  6. Click Done.

Click the Delete Group button to delete that group of files from your project.