Installing Vss2 Svn

NOTE: This wiki page was converted from the [Google Code Repo Wiki] (https://code.google.com/p/vss2svn/wiki/Welcome). Some formatting may not have survived, and some links may be broken. See the README page for more info.

Downloading and Installing Vss2Svn

The latest released Win32 version of vss2svn can always be downloaded from [This program is released as a zipfile containing vss2svn.exe (the main Perl script contained in an executable format) and ssphys.exe (a helper program which will be called by vss2svn.exe). You do not need to have Perl or any other libraries installed in order to use a released zipfile.

The current recommended release is master.zip.

Nightly Builds

Nightly builds are uploaded to the [directory. These builds are automatically built each day from the latest checked-in code. Although there are no guarantees that a given nightly build will work correctly, it may contain fixes that are not yet available in the release. Please join the http://www.pumacode.org/projects/vss2svn/wiki#MailingList Mailing List if you have any questions regarding a nightly build.

Getting the files from Subversion

You only need to download the source code if you want to hack on the script.

You can use the Subversion command-line tool to checkout the latest code:

#!html
<pre class="wiki">svn checkout <a href="http://svn.pumacode.org/repos/vss2svn/trunk/">http://svn.pumacode.org/repos/vss2svn/trunk/</a> vss2svn</pre>

Building on Linux

Because vss2svn reads the VSS backend files directly without using any vendor APIs, it is possible to build and run vss2svn and its required ssphys binary on Linux. The easiest way to do this is to use the Module::Build install. You can use this to install it:

#!html
<pre class="wiki">
cd vss2svn
perl Build.PL
./Build
./Build install
</pre>

The invocation of perl Build.PL will complain if you don't have the right Perl modules installed, so you should install whatever it says it needs.

It'll invoke the autotools to configure and build ssphys, and install the modules, vss2svn.pl, and ssphys. See InstallingSsPhys for more information on building ssphys.

Getting the required perl modules

Before actually running vss2svn.pl, make sure you have all of the required modules. Run the following piece of code (under Cygwin on Windows or a basic Linux shell) to install them:

for m in Module::Build XML::Simple Time::CTime DBD::SQLite2 DBI Tie::IxHash Text::Glob Data::UUID; do
   perl -MCPAN -e "install $m"
done

# SQLite2 failed to install, even with "force install ...", so:
cd ~/.cpan/build/DBD-SQLite2-0.33
# May need to create the makefile...
# perl Makefile.PL
make install

# the Config:Ini module is not in CPAN, so:
wget http://backpan.perl.org/authors/id/A/AV/AVATAR/Config-Ini-1.08.tar.gz
tar xzf Config-Ini-1.08.tar.gz 
cd Config-Ini-1.08
perl Makefile.PL
make
make install

On Debian Etch, the following command will install the modules as Debian packages:

aptitude install libmodule-build-perl libxml-simple-perl libdbd-sqlite2-perl libtie-ixhash-perl \
 libtext-glob-perl libtime-modules-perl libossp-uuid-perl

The same command line should work with "apt-get".

On Gentoo, the following command will install the modules:

emerge -n module-build XML-Simple Time-modules DBD-SQLite2 DBI Tie-IxHash Text-Glob Data-UUID

Running Vss2Svn on Windows with Activestate perl

get activestate perl(http://www.activestate.com/Products/activeperl/download.mhtml) and install it.

Getting the required perl modules

you will need to install some perl modules that are not installed by default in order to run the script(vss2svn). some of these modules are not installable via the activestate package manager. so you will have to use the cpan shell(this comes with the activestate perl distribution) to install these. btw i am assuming that you have some vc++ compiler installed on your box(ie: vs2005 with vc++). you will need this when you use the cpan shell. as it compiles perl modules from source(and some perl modules have source code written in c...).

in a command shell, go to perl install directory(ex:- cd C:\perl) and type cpan. now you should be in the cpan shell. you can install all the dependencies of the script(vss2svn) at once by using...

force install DBI DBD::SQLite2 Time::CTime Config::INI Text::Glob Digest::MD5 Data::UUID

please check whether these modules are already installed or not in your activestate perl distribution. you can do this via the activestate package manager.(accessible via the start menu....).

i have use the force key word above because some tests failed during the installation of perl modules. using the force key word will ignore test failures and install the packages anyways.

although the devnotes.txt(that comes with the source code of the script. in the vss2svn directory of the main source tree. get it through svn...) says 'Config::Ini is needed', its really Config::INI. note the letter case. you will have to use Config::INI when you are installing it through cpan or else cpan would say there is no such package(or something similar...)