Folder pins allow you to pin an entire folder at the current version or an earlier version of the folder (primary pin), secondarily pinning all of its files and subfolders (secondary pin). This prevents you from adding, deleting or performing any operation on any file or folder within the pinned folder. To activate or deactivate, click on Pin/Unpin on the Action menu on the History Explorer menu.
The folder primary pin takes precedence over the subfolder or file primary pin. You cannot pin a file or folder that currently has a secondary pin on it, even if it also has a primary pin. Since pinning increments version numbers of folders, you can safely pin a folder that currently has a file or subfolder with a primary pin.
If a folder is pinned to a previous version, the folder will appear in your folder and file list exactly as it did in the previous version. Files that existed but have since been deleted will be displayed. Items that did not exist at that version are not displayed.
Status
If a folder is pinned at a previous version, the pin status of every file is reverted to its pin status at the version the folder was pinned. Unpinning the folder reverts back to the current pin status of the files. For example, if a file is pinned in folder version 8 but not in folder version 5, and the folder is pinned to version 5, the file appears unpinned in the newly pinned folder. Unpinning the folder will revert the file to pinned (its current state). Once the folder is pinned you cannot pin or unpin any files within the folder.
After a folder pin, the tree state gets refreshed, but no files themselves are retrieved, so the status of the files will be newer if you pin a folder to a previous version. Unpinning the folder will again refresh the tree state, but not re-get anything. If you pin a folder to a previous version, do a Get Latest, unpin it, then files that have changed since that version will have a status of Old after the unpin.
Shares
Pinning a folder at a previous version causes all shares within the folder to be temporarily broken until the folder is unpinned. This is true regardless of whether the file was shared in the current version or in the version being pinned.
Commit Pin
You can only Pin from the History Explorer. It is placed in its own change set (which is independent of any other pending changes), and always happens immediately, regardless of the Auto-Commit option.