s/w versions:
TFS2008 server, VS2010, windows xp
I have the following branch structure in TFS
$/Root/Main Branch
$/Root/Dev/Project1
Project1 was branched off the Main Branch, few months ago. Now I need to merge the latest code in the Main Branch to the Project1 branch. During that time, some new folders were added to the Main Branch.(Main Branch/CoreDataClasses/..). So when I try to merge this new folder into the Project1 branch using the merge wizard, I don't see the Project1 branch in the list of target branches. Why is TFS not showing me my dev branch in the target branches list?
Do your merge from the root (where you branched), not the individual folder(s). Remember that merges aren't destructive until you check in, so you can choose to only check in the new folders if you want to hold off other changes.
With Tfs I've had much better experience merging from branch to the trunk and I think this might be the case here. Of course this might take a rethink of your strategy but it's doable.
I know this may be way offside but if you're doing cross branch merging a lot then definitely consider a distributed version control system like mercurial. I've used Tfs lots and really like it but when it comes to branching and merging it is a distant second to hg merge (mercurial command)
The folder structure between source and target have to be the at least 80% the same. If there was too many restructuring of the folder layout then I suggest you use the cmd line Merge with the force switch when doing the merge. See "Merge Command".
Related
I recently started working on a different branch of my repository, but I noticed that I had not merged my work from an earlier branch yet. I figured I could copy and paste the missing pieces over from one branch to the other but I'm not sure if I can open them in parallel in two separate instances of Visual Studio.
I believe you can still merge your previous branch into the one you are working on?
If you really really need to have both versions open at the same time, you could clone the same repository into another, seperate, folder and have the previous branch there and open that version of the project.
TFS: What are the consequences of converting a source folder to a branch?
I want to create a branch from a folder in which we have our source code and I see the following option in "Branch" dialog in VisualStudio:
"Immediately convert source folder to branch (enables visualizations)"
Do I loose any information (e.g. file history etc.).
Are there any disadvantages to do it?
Thanks and appreciate your help.
Lerner.For.Ever
The release of Team Foundation Server 2010 began a distinction between branches and folders. The following illustration shows the top-level of the folder structure in Source Control Explorer：
As the illustration shows, you can still use folders to organize
branches within a team project's version control hierarchy. However,
folders and branches have a different appearance and different
capabilities. When you right-click a folder or branch and click
Properties, you display different information and different
functionality.
When you perform branch operations, branches have important
advantages over folders. Branches support version control features
that provide extra visibility into your branch structure and into
where your changesets have merged. (For more information, see these
wonderful links: Visual Studio TFS Branching Guide)
Although you can still branch and merge among folders, the best practice for your team is to branch and merge only among branches.
Above points are all related to the difference in TFS and VS, something about Trunk and main, you could take a look at the answer from Jesse Chisholm in Folder converted to branch?
We have very large project and we have to branch some of the sources. Branched sources should be stored in a different location (within the same TFS server).
The problem is that due to active development of the main project we have to merge changes from trunk every day.
So the question is: how should I branch sources to provide the easiest merging from trunk.
The desired scenario is:
pull changes from trunk. Resolve conflicts and merge changed sources.
push merged changes to branch (that is stored in different location - not as a branched version in the same location)
Is this possible without any complex scripts?
I am using Visual Studio 2013 for work with TFS source control.
You can have branch relationships been different locations in TFVC. You can branch from one team project to another and maintain the relationship.
If you currently have two locations that do not have a branch relationship you need to create one by doing a baseless merge first. One you have some a baseless merge you can then merge s normal As if they are in the same team project.
I would however recommend that you fix the problem that has lead to this situation. If you are going a single product then you should all be in the same team project.
http://nakedalm.com/one-team-project/
Merging whole projects is a pain in VSS as the IDE only wants to let you do individual files. I have a situation where we created a new project (in both the VSS and VC++ sense) in a branch, and I then merged/copied this into trunk. All active development is still going on in the branch, the trunk version has no independent changes and this is likely to continue for some time as changes are made in the branch and then merged into trunk.
I wodnered if the easiest solution is simply to delete the trunk version of the project and re-copy the branch version each time, since it avoids the need to do any fiddly stuff and makes sure the trunk version is exactly the same as the branch at time of copying.
Does that seem reasonable or does it introduce problems I hadn't foreseen?
You may also try this: check out the trunk and use Reconcile All in Project Difference dialog box to reconcile the changes in the branch. Here is an article on VSS Project Diff.
When we create a branch from our main trunk in TFS we also change the web.config to point to different databases, web services, etc. When we make a bug fix we do it in the release branch and merge back to the trunk. I'd like a way to click on the root node for the branch and merge the whole thing back to the trunk except for the web.config which has release-branch-specific settings which should not be merged back.
Is there a way to break the branch link for this file or is there some other method to permanently exclude the release web.config when merging back to the trunk?
You have two options to do this today:
Use "tf merge /discard". When performed on a file across branches it tells the merge engine that you do not want this specific change merged between these two branches. The downside of this approach is that you will need to run tf merge /discard each time you check in a change to the file. Here is what the syntax would look like if you wanted to discard the change from moving from releasebranch to trunk:
tf merge $/releasebranch/.../web.config $/trunk/.../web.config /discard
The second option is to cloak the web.config in the target branch when you are performing the merge. That is if you are merging into trunk, cloak the web.config file in the trunk branch in your workspace. When you perform the merge, since the target of the merge is cloaked, the change will not flow over the branch. The downside here of course is that you have to remember to perform the merges in workspaces with this configuration each time.
Bonus: I created this uservoice suggestion to improve this experience. Vote for it if this is something you would like to see improved.