Getting Unbound Solution from TFS

Question

I have an open source project that I want to package into a .zip file containing the binaries and the source. The project is hosted on CodePlex and uses TFS as the source control. I am not sure how to export the project to remove all source control bindings. That way people can easily open the solution locally without getting a login prompt. This functionality is called Export in Git, but I'm not sure how to do the same thing in Team.

Shivaree

Answer 1

This blog post contains the following powershell script which can be run on your source control folder and will remove the source control bindings from the files:

# Remove unnecessary files  
get-childitem . -include *.vssscc,*.user,*.vspscc,*.pdb,Debug -recurse |   
%{   
    remove-item $_.fullname -force -recurse   
}  

# Remove the bindings from the sln files  
get-childitem . -include *.sln -recurse |   
%{   
    $file = $_;   
    $inVCSection = $False;  
    get-content $file |   
    %{   
        $line = $_.Trim();   
        if ($inVCSection -eq $False -and $line.StartsWith('GlobalSection') -eq $True -and $line.Contains('VersionControl') -eq $True) {   
            $inVCSection = $True   
        }   
        if ($inVCSection -eq $False) {   
            add-content ($file.fullname + '.new') $_   
        }   
        if ($inVCSection -eq $True -and $line -eq 'EndGlobalSection') {   
            $inVCSection = $False  
        }  
    }  
    mv ($file.fullname + '.new') $file.fullname -force   
}  

# Remove the bindings from the csproj files  
get-childitem . -include *.csproj -recurse |   
%{   
    $file = $_;   
    get-content $file |   
    %{   
        $line = $_.Trim();   
        if ($line.StartsWith('<Scc') -eq $False) {  
            add-content ($file.fullname + '.new') $_   
        }  
    }  
    mv ($file.fullname + '.new') $file.fullname -force   

}

Fernery

Woot Woot! I used this script to get me off TFS source control for good. – Goosestep

The following criticism is aimed at MS: this ought to be a built-in feature. There's no need for such lock-in. – Tours

Answer 2

The source control binding information is part of the VS Project and Solution files, and is difficult to remove. However, there are two options I know of:

If you "get" the project, copy/move the source folder to a different location, and then re-open the solution, VS will offer to remove the source control bindings.

Alternatively, to do this in-place, you can open the source-controlled solution in VS and then click File/Source Control/Change Source Control. This dialogue has an "Unbind" button that will remove bindings for each project.

(Caveat: tested on VS2010; not sure what version you're using.)

Onestep

I am using TFS 2010. One of the problems with just unbinding is that I want to avoid copying generated obj/ and bin/ folders. – Shivaree

Well, you could Get and not build before you unbind. It's possible to set up a second workspace on a single machine, and then use that just for the unbinding. (A bit of clever scripting would probably automate that easily enough, too.) – Onestep

you can always clean those out before you copy. Do a Clean in Visual Studio will get some of the files, but if you want to be sure, you can add this command which will add a right click option in File Explorer to do a recursive delete on bin and obj. This example is for the .svn folders, but you can easily adapt it to your needs. weblogs.asp.net/jongalloway//shell-command-remove-svn-folders – Warrantable

Answer 3

Here's an alternative answer.

I copied and pasted a solution with its projects from one location to another and I am not getting prompted to connect to source control when I try to open it in the new location.

When I go to the File->Source Control->Advanced->Change Source Control, I do not have the ability unbind. So I opened the solution file in a text editor and removed the following section:

GlobalSection(TeamFoundationVersionControl) = preSolution
....
EndGlobalSection

Seems to be working; I hope it helps someone.

Laurelaureano

Answer 4

TFS does not support exporting source code without binding. As Dan Puzey mentioned, you can just create a copy of the source control and remove the source control bindings.

For my particular project, I simply copied the files and deleted anything associated with TFS. I was doing this as part of the deployment configuration I was using with TeamCity for an open source project.

I plan on switching this project to Git as soon as it makes sense.

Shivaree