PRB: <filename> is Already Open

ID: Q167263

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Visual SourceSafe, 16-bit and 32-bit, for Windows, versions 4.0, 4.0a
Microsoft Visual SourceSafe, 32-bit, for Windows versions 5.0, 6.0

SYMPTOMS

When trying to perform some action in the Visual SourceSafe Explorer you receive the following message:

c:\src_server\src_share\data\<a-z>\<filename> is already open

where filename is a file in the Visual SourceSafe database.

CAUSE

This error can occur if another user or process has the file locked, or if the network has not released its lock on the file.

RESOLUTION

The file that the error message is referring to is one of the many files stored in your Visual SourceSafe database, specifically in the DATA subdirectory. Visual SourceSafe uses its own naming scheme to track these files and their history of changes.

You can get this message if another user has this file locked. One way to fix it is:

Log out from Visual SourceSafe.

On the Visual SourceSafe command line, type the following:
ss status $/project/filename

This should close the file handle and fix the problem.

This error may also be caused by running memory resident anti-virus programs. If you are running an anti-virus program, close it and then retry the SourceSafe operation.

NOTE: To get the actual filename from the Visual SourceSafe filename, use the PHYSICAL command.

For additional information about the PHYSICAL command, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q131447 Use PHYSICAL Command to Find SourceSafe Database File

If the above method does not correct the problem you may have to use the server utilities for your server operating system to manually break the users connection to close the file handle.

If problems like this persist you may need to enable SourceSafe locking.

For additional information on file locking, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q124525 INFO: How SourceSafe Locks Files in the DATA Directory

STATUS

This behavior is by design.

Additional query words:

Keywords : kbSSafe400 kbSSafe500 kbSSafe600
Version :
Platform :
Issue type : kbprb