Adding Visual Studio Project references to SVN

Question

I checked in a project to SVN with about 15 references from one dev box then checked out the same project on a second dev box but most of the reference files are missing. Is it possible to checkin the reference files automatically?

Answer 1

Version control will only keep track of the actual files underneath the working folder. If the third party libraries are installed elsewhere on the machine, they will not be included in the source control at all. You'll have to do one of these:

1. Ensure that the 3rd party libraries (eg, nunit, enterprise libraries) are installed on all required development machines.
2. Don't install the libraries using the normal installers at all, instead, add the individual dll's and other resources to source control as Vendor Branches, then bring them under your project by either branching them into your project location, or by adding an svn:externals definition.
3. Copy the required reference files under into your source locations, add them to source control and reference them from there.

Answer 2

I think it's hard for Visual Studio SCC tools to determine wether or not these files should be automatically added. If you're using the first scenario Jim T described, you definitely don't want that to happen.