How important is Visual Studio.vsmdi?

Question

Here's the script:

User A created unit tests through Visual Studio 2010. The test project and unit test source code were verified in version control. "User B" gets the test project and unit test source code from version control. Then, “User B” opens the test project and receives the message “Error loading blah.blah.blah.vsmdi: input file not found: blah.blah.blah.vsmdi”. However, User B can successfully perform unit tests.

Now, regardless of whether "User A" should be installed in the .vsmdi file, there are no negative effects other than an error message.

Is there any harm in the absence of a .vsmdi file? Or, conversely, what is the advantage of a .vsmdi file?

Answer 1

Well, from what I compiled, there is no harm in that it does not have a .vsmdi file when using VS 2010.

Answer 2

The following link gives some useful information * .vsmdi files

http://notgartner.wordpress.com/2011/02/10/what-is-a-vsmdi-file/

In short, the contents of the link are useful here:

Initially, the use of the * .vsmdi file required that the MSTest integration with MSBuild work on the TFS build server, however, this requirement has since been removed with the removal of the file utility.

Assuming you just use Test View to run tests, these files are completely safe to delete. If you want to try to solve this problem, there is an imperfect solution. Just delete all files from your disk and in version control (if you use TFS here or any version control system that is integrated with Visual Studio), then instruct the version control system to perform an exclusive check.

Answer 3

Using VSMDI files in VSTS 2005 is known to have many maintainability issues. Although it may have potential in future versions of VS, it currently seems better to stay away from it.

Check out the following MSDN block for a detailed workaround. Please note that this applies only to VS2005. VSTS 2008 now uses test containers.

How to run tests in an assembly without test metadata files and test lists (.vsmdi files)