Now and then in my life as a lead developer/architect, I have to cope with TFS the ‘hard’ way: the user interface is not always as complete as one would want it to be. One of the greatest tools Microsoft has delivered us is tf.exe, a command line tool to do almost everything impossible with the user interface. However, tf.exe comes with one big draw-back. It does not offer a complete help. Just minutes ago I discovered the documentation I need at one Microsoft guy’s (Noah Coad’s) blog (http://blogs.msdn.com/noahc/archive/2007/01/22/real-tfs-command-line-help.aspx).

 

Just to be sure the help will never disappear, I printed the entire help file below, as well as did I include the help documents as text files.

 

I hope this helps you too.

 

tfhelp.txt (120 characters)

tfhelp.txt (80 characters)

 

COMMANDS

Add        tf add itemspec [lock:none|checkin|checkout] [/type:filetype]

              [/noprompt] [/recursive]

Branch     tf branch olditem newitem [/version:versionspec] [/noget] [/lock]

              [/noprompt] [/recursive]

Branches   tf branches [/s:servername] itemspec

Changeset  tf changeset [/comment:comment|@commentfile] /s:servername

              [/notes:("NoteFieldName"="NoteFieldValue"|@notefile)] [/noprompt]

              ([/latest]|changesetnumber)

Checkin    tf checkin [/author:authorname] [/comment:("comment"|@commentfile)]

              [/noprompt]

              [/notes:("Note Name"="note text"|@notefile)]

              [/override:reason|@reason] [/recursive] filespec …]

Checkout   tf checkout|edit [/lock:(none|checkin|checkout)] [/recursive]

              [/type:encoding] itemspec

Configure  tf configure pathtoproject /server:servername

Delete     tf delete [/lock:(none|checkin|checkout)] [/recursive] itemspec

Difference tf difference itemspec [/version:versionspec] [/type:filetype]

              [/format:(visual|unix|ss)] [/ignorespace]

              [/ignoreeol] [/ignorecase] [/recursive] [/options:"options"]

           tf difference itemspec itemspec2 [/type:filetype]

              [/format:(visual|unix|ss)] [/ignorespace] [/ignoreeol]

              [/ignorecase] [/recursive] [/options:"options"]

           tf difference [/shelveset:[shelvesetowner;]shelvesetname]

              shelveset_itemspec [/server:serverURL]

              [/type:filetype] [/format:(visual|unix|ss)] [/ignorespace]

              [/ignoreeol] [/ignorecase] [/recursive] [/options:"options"]

           tf difference /configure

Dir        tf dir [/s:servername] itemspec [/version:versionspec] [/recursive]

              [/folders] [/deleted]

Get        tf get itemspec [/version:versionspec] [/all] [/overwrite] [/force]

              [/preview] [/recursive] [/noprompt]

Help       tf help commandname

History    tf history [/s:servername] itemspec [/version:versionspec]

              [/stopafter:number] [/recursive]

              [/user:username] [/format:(brief|detailed)] [/slotmode]

Label      tf label [/s:servername]  labelname@scope [/owner:ownername]

              itemspec [/version:versionspec]

              [/comment:("comment"|@commentfile)] [/child:(replace|merge)]

              [/recursive]

           tf label [/s:servername] [/delete] labelname@scope

              [/owner:ownername] itemspec [/version:versionspec]

              [/recursive]

Labels     tf labels [/owner:ownername] [/format:(brief|detailed)]

              [/s:servername] [labelname]

Lock       tf lock itemspec /lock:(none|checkout|checkin)

              [/workspace:workspacename] [/server:serverURL] [/recursive]

              [/noprompt]

Merge      tf merge  [/recursive] [/force] [/candidate] [/discard]

              [/version:versionspec]

              [/lock:none|checkin|checkout] [/preview] [/baseless] [/nosummary]

              source destination

Merges     tf merges [/s:servername] destination [/recursive]

Permission tf permission [/allow:(* |perm1[,perm2,…]]

              [/deny:(*|perm1[,perm2,...])]

              [/remove:(* |perm1[,perm2,...])]

              [/inherit:yes|no] [/user:username1[,username2,…]] [/recursive]

              [/group:groupname1[,groupname2,...]]

              [/server:servername] itemspec

Properties tf properties [/recursive] itemspec

Rename     tf rename [/lock:(none|checkout|checkin)] olditem newitem

Resolve    tf resolve itemspec [auto:(AcceptMerge|AcceptTheirs|AcceptYours)]

              [/preview]

              [(/overridetype:overridetype | /converttotype:converttype)]

              [/recursive]

Shelve     tf shelve [/move] [/replace] [/comment:(@commentfile|"comment")]

              [/recursive] shelvesetname[;owner] filespec

           tf shelve /delete [/server:serverURL] shelvesetname[;owner]

Shelvesets tf shelvesets [/owner:ownername] [/format:(brief|detailed)]

              [/server:serverURL] shelvesetname

Status     tf status itemspec [/s:servername]

              ([/workspace:workspacename[;workspaceowner]] |

              [/shelveset:shelvesetname[;shelvesetowner]])

              [/format:(brief|detailed)] [/recursive] [/user:(*|username)]

Undelete   tf undelete [/noget] [/lock:(none|checkin|checkout)]

              [/newname:name] [/recursive] itemspec[;deletionID]

Undo       tf undo [/workspace:workspacename   [;workspaceowner]]

              [/s:servername] [/recursive] itemspec

Unlabel    tf unlabel [/s:servername] [/recursive] labelname itemspec

Unshelve   tf unshelve [/move] [shelvesetname[;username]] itemspec

View       tf view [/s:servername] [/console] [/noprompt] itemspec

              [/version:versionspec]

WorkFold   tf workfold localfolder

           tf workfold [/workspace: workspacename]

           tf workfold [/s:servername] [/workspace: workspacename]

              repositoryfolder

           tf workfold [/map] [/s:servername] [/workspace: workspacename]

              repositoryfolder|localfolder

           tf workfold /unmap [/s:servername] [/workspace: workspacename]

              [/recursive] (repositoryfolder|localfolder)

           tf workfold /cloak (repositoryfolder|localfolder)

              [/workspace: workspacename] [/s:servername]

           tf workfold /decloak (repositoryfolder|localfolder)

              [/workspace:workspacename] [/s:servername]

Workspace  tf workspace /new [/noprompt]

              [/template:workspacename[;workspaceowner]]

              [/computer:computername] [/comment:("comment"|@commentfile)]

              [/s:servername]

           tf workspace /delete [/s:servername]

              workspacename[;workspaceowner]

           tf workspace [/s:servername] [/comment:comment]

              [/newname:workspacename] workspacename[;workspaceowner]

Workspaces tf workspaces [/owner:ownername] [/computer:computername]

              [/s:servername] [/format:(brief|detailed)]

              [/updateUserName:oldusername]

              [/updateComputerName:oldcomputername] workspacename

 

ITEMSPECS

  Can contain wildcards *, ? and #

  Can contain relative path parts . and ..

  Can reference file system or UNC paths mapped to a workspace or server

  paths (which start with $/). You can usually specify more than one

  file separated by spaces for an itemspec (useful for edit, add, delete

  commands)

 

VERSIONSPECS

  Date/Time         Dmm/dd/yyyy

  Changeset number  Cnnnnnn

  Label             Llabelname

  Latest version    T

  Workspace         Wworkspacename;workspaceowner

 

ALIASES

  /changeset  /G     /noprompt   /I

  /comment    /C     /owner      /O

  /computer   /M     /recursive  /R

  /delete     /D     /server     /S

  /force      /P     /slotmode   /X

  /format     /F     /template   /T

  /help       /?,/H  /user       /U

  /lock       /K     /version    /V

  /login      /Y     /workplace  /W

  /newname    /N