What happens when moving unneeded files out of a TFS branch

Question

I want to clean up our mainline branch by moving many files to an "Archive" folder outside the branch. These files still exist in the branches that are branched from mainline. What will happen the next time I merge to these other branches? Will the files I moved be deleted out of the target branches? Will they be moved somewhere? Or left alone?

Also, will the files I archived still have a link to the files in the other branches?

Answer 1

When you move a file to another folder (say Archive), it will delete the file from your Main branch and then do a "Source Rename" operation to point it to the new location (Archive folder). The change that happens in your Mainline branch is the "Delete" operation, so the next time you merge your Main branch to the other chid branches it will "delete" the file from that child branches as well.