Rcheckin

Summary

Checkins path of commits from last found TFS-commit to HEAD with comments provided for corresponding git commits. Preserves merge commits.

Features

Special actions in commit messages can be inserted, to associate or resolve TFS work items or override checkin policies.

Synopsis

Usage: git-tfs rcheckin [options]
where options are:

    -i, --tfs-remote, --id, --remote
        (Type: Value required, Value Type:[String])
        An optional remote ID, useful if this repository will track multiple TFS repositories.

    -d, --debug
        (Type: Flag, Value Type:[Boolean])
        Show lots of output.

    -h, -H, --help
        (Type: Flag, Value Type:[Boolean])
        ShowHelp

Examples

Simple

Suppose you have

A [tfs/default, C1] <- B <- C [master, HEAD]

After executing git tfs rcheckin you would have

A [C1] <- B [C2] <- C [master, HEAD, tfs/default, C3]

Comments to B and C in TFS are preserved (same as in git excluding git-tfs-id markings).

Merge preserving

Suppose you have

A [tfs/default, C1] <- B <- C <- D <- E [master, HEAD]
 \                              /
   M <------------------------ N

So that M and N were commits on some branch and C is first parent of D which is merge-commit. After executing git tfs rcheckin you would have

A [C1] <- B [C2] <- C [C3] <- D [C4] <- E [tfs/default, master, HEAD, C5]
 \                           /
   M <--------------------- N

Comments on B, C and E are preserved. Comment on D will have following structure:

Comment from D
  Comment from M
  Comment from N

TFS can't see M and N, so in order to preserve commit messages in its history rcheckin formats messages in this way.

Rcheckin on a branch

To checkins commits on the myBranch branch:

git tfs rchekin -i myBranch

Internals

Internally rcheckin takes from rev-list --ancestry-path --first-parent tfs/default..HEAD commit which is the closest derivative of tfs/default, checkins it to TFS, fetches newly checkined commit back and rebases HEAD's tail onto it. Then it repeats this process until no more commits in the ancestry-path. So, technically speaking you'll have new line of commits with same changes. It is important to know if you have some work based on some of commits being rcheckin-ed.

Known problems

Suppose you have situation similar to described in 'Merge preserving' section earlier but branching takes place from one of commits being rcheckin-ed, for example from B:

A [tfs/default, C1] <- B <- C <- D <- E [master, HEAD]
                        \       /
                         M <-- N

Due to nature of rebase and workflow described in 'Internals' section after B will be checked in to TFS we got back new commit, say B'. And B' is not parent of M. So, when rcheckin will finish you'll have

A [C1] <- B' [C2] <- C' [C3] <- D' [C4] <- E [tfs/default, master, HEAD, C5]
 \                             /
   B <---------- M <--------- N

Thus, commit B will stay in history as parent of M and equivalent commit B' will be fetched from TFS. It is confusing and hopefully will be fixed someday.

See also

• checkin
• checkintool