Should I add the Visual Studio .suo and .user files to source control?

Visual Studio solutions contain two types of hidden user files. One is the solution .suo file which is a binary file. The other is the project .user file which is a text file. Exactly what data do these files contain?

I've also been wondering whether I should add these files to source control (Subversion in my case). If I don't add these files and another developer checks out the solution, will Visual Studio automatically create new user files?

Solution 1:

These files contain user preference configurations that are in general specific to your machine, so it's better not to put it in SCM. Also, VS will change it almost every time you execute it, so it will always be marked by the SCM as 'changed'. I don't include either, I'm in a project using VS for 2 years and had no problems doing that. The only minor annoyance is that the debug parameters (execution path, deployment target, etc.) are stored in one of those files (don't know which), so if you have a standard for them you won't be able to 'publish' it via SCM for other developers to have the entire development environment 'ready to use'.

Solution 2:

You don't need to add these -- they contain per-user settings, and other developers won't want your copy.

Solution 3:

Others have explained why having the *.suo and *.user files under source control is not a good idea.

I'd like to suggest that you add these patterns to the svn:ignore property for 2 reasons:

1. So other developers won't wind up with one developer's settings.
2. So when you view status, or commit files, those files won't clutter the code base and obscure new files you need to add.

Solution 4:

We don't commit the binary file (*.suo), but we commit the .user file. The .user file contains for example the start options for debugging the project. You can find the start options in the properties of the project in the tab "Debug". We used NUnit in some projects and configured the nunit-gui.exe as the start option for the project. Without the .user file, each team member would have to configure it separately.

Hope this helps.