BUG: Deploying Shadow Files to a Live Web Site Fails

• Microsoft Visual SourceSafe, 32-bit, for Windows versions 5.0, 6.0
• Microsoft Internet Information Server 4.0

SYMPTOMS

Files shadowed to a live Web site don't get updated.

You may not get any error messages or you may get:

Error "File <path being shadowed to> is already open"

CAUSE

IIS 4.0 caches files to speed up Web requests. This caching keeps the file open for a period of 30 to 60 seconds. During this time, if a shadow occurs, that file is locked and cannot be updated.

RESOLUTION

This issue will be resolved in the next major release of IIS version 5.0.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a bug in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article.

MORE INFORMATION

This problem occurs because IIS 4 locks the file open in the Web browser. The shadow command cannot write to the file because the file has a handle already open. If the shadow command is attempted 60 seconds later, it will succeed.

Steps to Reproduce Behavior

1. In the Visual SourceSafe Administrator, create a shadow folder for any Visual SourceSafe project that is a Web site on an IIS 4.0 server. Select the Set read-only flag for all files checkbox.



2. Shadow files to the Web site.



3. Open one of the shadowed files in a Web browser through the URL, like "http://webserver/test.htm".



4. Check out and edit that file in Visual SourceSafe using any editor, such as Microsoft Notepad.



5. Check the file back in.

REFERENCES

Q184956 Problems Deleting Files Under Internet Information Server

Q138344 HOWTO: Set Up a Shadow Dir in Visual SourceSafe Administrator

Additional query words:

Keywords : kbinterop kbInternet kbSSafe500bug kbSSafe600bug kbIIS kbGrpSSafe kbiis400bug
Version : WINDOWS:5.0,6.0; winnt:4.0
Platform : WINDOWS winnt
Issue type : kbbug