Visual Studio 2015 Database Project directory contains a file with extension jfm

Question

Assuming we have a database project called MyDatabase then a file called MyDatabase.jfm appears in the root of the project directory.

Answer 1

This is an issue caused by the ESENT engine relied on by SQL Projects adding in a new file. This is a new feature in Windows 10 Anniversary Edition to avoid data loss, but the fact SQL Projects store the .dbmdl cache file under the project root means this locked file is added to the Git source control.

Notes:

• A pull request to fix this in GitIgnore has been accepted and the Visual Studio team is working to include this in future updates. This will ensure that for new projects the .gitignore file includes .jfm and the problem will not occur
• The core SSDT team is working to provide a solution to this in a future update, but for now the best solution is to manually add as discussed in the comments.

Disclosure: I work on the SSDT team for Microsoft.

Answer 2

The takeaway from others is...

• Add *.jfm to your .gitignore

(In powershell, Add-Content .\.gitignore *.jfm)

• You may need to run git rm --cached *.jfm