VS 2005: very confusing project files and privacy issues!

Hi all,

I just installed VS 2005, and found something about the new project files confusing:

When you create a new project, a .sln file will be created, along with two project files .vcproj and . vcproj.<user' computer name>.<user name>.user

For example, in my case:

project1.sln
project1.vcproj
project1.vcproj.PRO1.Alex.user


My question: Before I distrubute the source code to others, can I delete the project1.vcproj.PRO1.Alex.user file?

I don't see any such file in VC#2005.  It could be only in the full VS, though.

It's the VS 2005 pro.

Open the file in notepad and see if it contains anything that you don't care about. It's probably just user/project specific configuration settings.

CannotResolveSymbol wrote:

I don't see any such file in VC#2005.  It could be only in the full VS, though.

They're specific to VC++ (I believe the other tools do create .user files, but only VC++ adds the machine and user name to the file name).

I'm not entirely sure what they contain (I just opened one up in notepad and it appears to be the project debug settings) but you can safely delete them; they won't be used on another computer anyway unless the user renames them or they happen to use the same computer and user name as you.

Another file you can safely delete is the .suo, which contains the solution user options (the .user contains project user options) which is mainly which files are open in the IDE. You can also delete the .ncb, which is the intellisense database (VS will automatically rebuild it if it's missing) which'll save you a few megabytes when distributing the source.

Sven Groot wrote:

but you can safely delete them; they won't be used on another computer anyway unless the user renames them or they happen to use the same computer and user name as you.

Another file you can safely delete is the .suo, which contains the solution user options (the .user contains project user options) which is mainly which files are open in the IDE. You can also delete the .ncb, which is the intellisense database (VS will automatically rebuild it if it's missing) which'll save you a few megabytes when distributing the source.

So, in other words, the only files I need to include are .vcproj and .sln, correct?

TheProgrammer wrote:

Sven Groot wrote: but you can safely delete them; they won't be used on another computer anyway unless the user renames them or they happen to use the same computer and user name as you. Another file you can safely delete is the .suo, which contains the solution user options (the .user contains project user options) which is mainly which files are open in the IDE. You can also delete the .ncb, which is the intellisense database (VS will automatically rebuild it if it's missing) which'll save you a few megabytes when distributing the source.

So, in other words, the only files I need to include are .vcproj and .sln, correct?

AFAIK, yes.