Should .sdcs files be in VCS?

mattjharper

In the data folder under the SQL Scripts folder there are a number of .sdcs files that haven't been added to my Git repo. Should they be under source control?

RichardL

Hi @mattjharper

Thanks for your post. 

Yes, these are created by Source Control. 
If you'd like further information the product documentation site is linked below. You can search for key words there. 

https://documentation.red-gate.com/soc6

If you are having any issues and have a support contract then please send in a support ticket to support@red-gate.com 

Kind regards

Richard Lynch. 

modernuniverse

@RichardL

How about "Should they be under source control?"

I assume since these are binary files, we should not source control them. Also, it looks like they are generated each time I run sqlcompare or sqldatacompare.

Could you please clarify whether these files need to be tracked in our versioning system? If yes, what wiould be the harm not doing it - would it break sqlcompare?

SamTouray

No, they should not be in source control, I've excluded them from source control and it still works fine.

modernuniverse

These are binary files. In general, binary files are not tracked in source control because when you change a binary file, you cannot really see meaningful textual differences when you compare two versions. By the same logic, sdsc should not be tracked in source control. I advise you add them to the ignore settings of your source control software. For git, for instance, you add them to .gitignore file.