Unshelving in TFS: What does this mean?

Question

Here is the part that I get: when you put it off in TFS, it makes a copy of the change server so that they are not lost, but it does not check them in the trunk / source code branch that you are working on.

Question: Under what circumstances would you use the unhelve function? Does this mean that it will remove the shelves from the TFS server? Can you do it off the shelf? Or is it really just a description of the diff between the shelves and the "real" source code?

Answer 1

Unshelving is how you restore shelves to your computer so that you can continue to work on it. It does not change the shelves on the server (for this you need to put things off again and use the same name in the shelves).

One example of how I use it is to move changes between machines while I work on them. I put it off on my desktop machine, and then do not open it on the laptop, and then continue to work on the laptop.

You can also use it to share changes with someone (to view the code or for other reasons). You put off your changes, and then another person can go and take it off to see what you have done.

Unshelving doesn't actually change shelves or anything on the server. This is just a receive operation.

Answer 2

Herms is in place. Read his answer.

One important caveat: if you did Get since the shelveset was created, Unshelve will only roll back the local version of the files on the shelf. Thus, it is likely that you will have an inconsistent workspace.

It is good practice to always rerun Get after Unshelve . This ensures that you don’t waste time on phantom build errors, which are actually just side effects of being half-full / semi-state. In addition, you will need to resolve any conflicts between the contents of the shelf and the latest versions of the server, and not just open their @Checkin time.

Answer 3

I use shelve to back up the code in the process, just when my hard drive crashes or something else. I don’t even have to worry about creating code without paying attention to the work, since the work will not be noticed by other developers in my team (if they are not looking for it).

Unshelve postpones changes to the workspace. Removing a shelf from the server is Delete.

Following what Richard Berg said, unhelve's power tools version actually includes getting and permission.