Auto Merge Code from Shelfset in TFS

Question

Was working on new functionality in a code file... ManageTime.cs. Had a bug fix request come in for a bug in the same file. Used Visual Studio TFS to Suspend My Work. Fixed bug in ManageTime.cs.

Now What? Do I Check in ManageTime.cs, then can I resume my shelf set and will it handle merging the shelfset with the new feature code?

Afraid to try without some direction for fear of losing code.

Answer 1

Yes, if your team's policies say that you check in the code after your bug fix, go ahead and do that. If you aren't ready to check in or don't want to check in at this time, but are worried about losing work, you can always create another shelveset just in case (keep the Preserve Pending Changes box checked so you keep your bug fix changes).

Once you are ready, find and unshelve the shelveset. Just like getting the latest version from source control, VS will try to automerge the changes. If there's a conflict that it can't resolve, you'll get the same Resolve Conflicts window that we're used to seeing from time to time to manually resolve the conflicts.

Answer 2

Your assumption appears to be correct. Suspending your code essentially shelves the code along with a few Visual Studio settings such as window location, open files, and similar things. As long as you shelved (suspended) your in process work, then checked in a different bug fix, you should be able to merge with your updated source code once you resume and get latest version.