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Checkout (or Edit) command

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Azure DevOps Services | Azure DevOps Server 2022 - Azure DevOps Server 2019

Visual Studio 2019 | Visual Studio 2022

The TFVC checkout or edit command checks out a file and changes its pending change status to edit. You can call this command by using either checkout or edit.

You can also use Visual Studio to Check out and edit files.

Tips

  • If you're beginning a new task, it's a good idea to download the latest files from the server before you check out files and begin your work. See Get command.

  • When you begin editing a file in a local workspace, it's automatically checked out to you.

  • You can view a list of your pending changes at the command prompt by using the Status command.

  • You can work with related data such as comments and associated work items in the Check In dialog box by using the Checkin command.

  • When you're ready to check in your changes to the team's codebase on the server, use the Checkin command.

  • If you need to set aside changes or want to clean your workspace for another task, use the Shelve Command.

  • If you use a server workspace, files that you haven't checked out are read-only.

Prerequisites

Syntax

tf checkout [/lock:(none|checkin|checkout)] [/recursive] [/encoding:encoding] itemspec [/login: username,[password]]

Parameters

Parameter Description
/encoding Ignore this parameter.
<itemspec> Specifies the scope of the items to check out. For syntax, see Use Team Foundation Version Control commands.
/lock Applies or removes a lock. See Use Team Foundation Version Control commands.
/login:<username>[,<password>] Specifies the user account to run the command. See Use Team Foundation Version Control commands.
/recursive Recursively checks out items in the specified directory and any subdirectories.

Examples

The following examples assume that c:\code\SiteApp\Main is the main folder mapped to the project collection in the user's workspace.

Check out a single item

The following example checks out program.cs:

c:\code\SiteApp\Main\SolutionA\Project1\>tf checkout program.cs

Check out two items

The following example checks out program.cs and program2.cs:

c:\code\SiteApp\Main\SolutionA\Project1\>tf checkout program1.cs program2.cs