TFS: Creating a patch file and applying to different tree

Question

This is what I am trying to do in TFS (a trivial operation in CVS)

Statements:

• There are 2 independent code trees in TFS, corresponding to:
  • HEAD development
  • STABLE version.

Something like this:

$/MyProduct/HEAD/<files>
$/MyProduct/STABLE/<files>

• I have a few changes in HEAD that I need to backport into STABLE.
• The changes are represented in a ChangeSet

Does you know if it is possible to do the following operation in TFS:

• Create a patch file from a TFS changeset number, which is based on the HEAD tree
• Apply the patch in a different TFS tree, in case STABLE
• Have the merge tool to merge the difference.

What I have now is a bunch of scripts that work outside TFS - but it would be much better to have this feature inside TFS.

This list seems to discuss this, Apply specific changeset from one TFS instance to another - But what it basically says is that there is NOT an internal way of doing my operation.

I wonder if someone know some other secret.

Answer 1

The way to do this in TFS is to use branches. HEAD and STABLE should both be branches with a branch relationship in place. Then you can simply merge from HEAD to STABLE whenever you desire, and the VS merge tool will help you with the merging.

If you don't have this setup as branches you should do this ASAP. What I would do is backup the files in HEAD somewhere on your local disk. Then delete the HEAD folder in TFS (and locally). Make STABLE a branch, then branch off of STABLE to create HEAD. Now HEAD is a branch with a relationship to the STABLE branch.

Then in your local workspace overwrite the files in the HEAD folder with the ones you backed up previously. So long as you are using VS 2012+ you can use the Local Workspace functionality, and VS will detect all the changes and allow you to check them into HEAD.

From this point on you can merge HEAD into STABLE whenever you wish.