TFS Branching Only Subfolders

In TFS, we use a branching model which is pretty in-line with the normal branching models you’ll see out there. It looks like:

• $/
  • branches
  • releases
    • 1.0
    • 1.1
  • trunk
    • Database
    • Managed
    • Unmanaged
    • Test

This morning I was trying to create a branch for a release we did over the weekend. I wanted to take the contents of trunk and branch it to $/releases/2.0. I already had a folder called 2.0 in the releases folder, so I right-clicked on trunk, chose the branch option, and chose $/releases/2.0 as the target, and then let it go.

What I ended up with was: $/releases/2.0/trunk. It branched the subfolder trunk under the releases folder. I undid the branch, and tried again. I tried many things before finally stumbling on the solution:

You can’t use an existing folder.

Yep. If you want to end up with $/releases/2.0/Database, $/releases/2.0/Managed, etc., you can’t use an existing folder. In other words, you right-click on the folder you want to branch:

Then pick the releases folder:

Which shows up in the dialog like:

Now, you have to type in the folder name you want to use. So, since in our example case it was 2.0, the dialog would now look like:

Note that if you already have a folder called 2.0, you’ll have to delete the folder (right-click, choose delete, and then check it in). This only works if you don’t already have an existing folder.

Once you do that, your branch will correctly look like:

• $/releases
  • 2.0
    • Database
    • Managed
    • etc