What issues can arise from checking in .vssscc and .vspscc files into source control?

Question

There seems to be some consternation about two file types that, in my case, TFS checks in when a new solution or project are created: .vssscc and .vspscc files.

I found a page that describes that these files are for, and yet another that recommends checking them in. I'm perfectly fine with this, but I have heard some grumblings in the internet that these files can cause issues with collaboration between projects, such as merge conflicts and project load errors.

I do recall having some issues in my own organization where the .vspscc file caused some issues, where a developer had caused some edits to it and didn't check it in with the rest of his changes. We were able to repair easily, however.

My question is: what issues should I be aware of, and in the case that issues exist, what precautions can I recommend to my organization to avoid any trouble?

Answer 1

The only issue I've ever come across is a minor annoyance- the .vssscc is included as a change with many checkins even though the .vssscc contents have not changed. I'm guessing the last modified date is being updated.

Apparently Microsoft was looking into fixing this in 2010.

It seems unlikely that these files contain anything of importance to the source code. As far as I can tell it's just cached data about the current code.

I opened an issue at https://github.com/dotnet/project-system/issues/1801, so go there and let them know how this affects you.