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Export files that created merged output of file

There are some odd lines in the latest version of config.json and I need to analyze the content before merge, to see what went wrong with latest merge.

Assume I have $/A and $/B branches with common ancestor in changeset 1. When merging changed branches at later changeset, the common ancestor is still from changeset1.

Is there a simple tf command that will export config.json versions that created merged end result, meaning: config.json from both branches + common ancestor config.json file?

Actually I need this for specific changeset not only for latest. Sometimes I need to analyze past merge why it merged lines together as it did.

TFS 11.

Solution

  • I previously wasn't aware of this extension, but it looks like it'll be very helpful in your quest:

    enter image description here

    You'll need to dig into the client object model to access the details to understand this, I'm guessing all the data is there...

    It contains which changeset numbers were merged and which items in that changeset were merged. From there you can find the source and target items of the merge.

    But you'll need to traverse the history graph to find the common base to see where these two histories diverged originally and whether it got merges since (which would update the common parent).

    You can replay a merge by creating a workspace with the source version and try merging the changeset (range) into the workspace.

    (GetStatus status = workspace2.Merge(source, this.m_arguments.FreeArguments[1], versionRange[0], versionRange[1], this.ParseLockOption(), mergeOptions);

    There is no command line tool for it and Visual Studio isn't really capable of visualizing the history of a single file.

    tf vc merges A A-branched

    Will show which changeset ranges got merges into a new changeset. This can be used to recompose the branch/merge graph.