azure-devopstfstfvc

Does Microsoft TFS (or Azure Devops, you name it) support branching?


I work with senior developer on a project. But when we work on same files, merge conflicts are happening. We use Microsoft TFS (or Azure DevOps) (that's a Version Control system created by Microsoft) to quickly share changes. Does it support branching and merging workflow, like Git?

We won't switch to Git, that was discussed earlier.


Solution

  • Yes. Team Foundation Version Control, or TFVC for short, supports branching and merging as well as passing Shelvesets (similar to a git stash) between users.

    The "feel" is a lot less lightweight though, since TFVC can't switch branches in-place. You'll need to either setup 1 really big TFVC workspace, multiple workspaces or reconfigure workspaces.

    There is also a utility called git-tfs with which you can locally use git, have multiple branches and sync changes against a central TFVC repository.

    Whether working in Git or in TFVC, when working in the same files, you'll end up having to merge changes and resolve conflicts. That's just the nature of editing the same file with more than one user on separate machines. TFVC does have an exclusive lock feature, but it only works when all users have configured their environment with the Server/Remote TFVC workspaces.

    See also: