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Use labels to take a snapshot of your files in Azure Repos

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

Visual Studio 2019 | Visual Studio 2022

Team Foundation Version Control (TFVC) labels provide a way for you to take a snapshot of your files. Later, you can refer back to that snapshot. By using your label, you can view, build, or even roll back a large set of files to the state they were in when you applied the label.

Prerequisites

  • To apply a label, you must have the Label permission set to Allow.
  • To find, list, or view labels, you must have the Read permission set to Allow.
  • To modify or delete a label, you must own the label or have the Administer Labels permission set to Allow.

Use labels

In many software projects, when the code has reached a reasonable level of quality and stability, the team builds and releases a new version of the product. The team needs to mark the current version of each file. Even as the files continue to change, the team can still get and build the new version of every file in their project.

Theoretically, you could record the ID of each changeset for each file manually. But this kind of process isn't practical. TFVC makes the job easy. Apply a label to the folder, branch, or project that contains the files. You can give the label a name that follows whatever naming convention you prefer. Some examples of label names include: "Sprint 5," "M1," "Beta2," and "Release Candidate 0."

After you apply the label, you can use it to qualify operations such as building, branching, merging, comparing, and getting specific versions of files and folders.

Sometimes after you apply a label, you decide that you need to change it. TFVC provides a way for you to apply a label to additional files, remove a label from certain files, and modify which version of a specific file a label applies to.

Tip

Applying a label provides many of the same benefits as creating a branch, but typically with lower cost and complexity. The tradeoff is that for large databases, operations such as merging might take much longer than usual when running against a label.

Apply a label

Note

When you use Visual Studio to apply a label that already exists, the operation removes the label from all file versions and then applies the label. From the command prompt, however, the label operation is additive. See Label command (Team Foundation Version Control).

  1. In Visual Studio, on the View menu, select Other Windows > Source Control Explorer.

  2. In Source Control Explorer, right-click the collection, project, branch, folder, or file that you want to apply a label to, and then select Advanced > Apply Label. The New Label dialog box appears.

  3. In the Name box, enter a name for the label.

  4. (Optional) In the Comment box, enter a comment.

  5. In the Version list, Latest Version is selected by default. This option is the one that's most typically used. If you need the label to target a specific version, select one of the following options:

    • Changeset: Specify the number of the changeset in the Changeset box. Alternatively, select the ellipses (...) to open the Find Changesets dialog box. For more information, see Find and view changesets.

    • Date: Specify a date in the Date box or select a date from the calendar on the dropdown menu.

    • Label: Specify an existing label to base the new label on. Either enter the label name in the Label box, or select the ellipses (...) to open the Find Label dialog box. For more information, see Find, edit, and remove labels.

    • Workspace Version: Create the label for the version in your workspace.

  6. When you're satisfied with your settings, take one of the following steps:

    • To apply the label, select Create.

    • To apply the label and then modify it after it has been applied, select Create and Edit. This action applies the label and then displays the Label window. For more information about using the Label window to edit a label, see Use the Label window to work with labels.

Note

When you apply a label that uses a name that already exists, the system warns you and asks whether you want to continue. If you select OK to continue, TFVC removes that label from any items that aren't in the path that you're applying the label to.

Rename a label

You can't modify the name of an existing label. But you can easily apply a new label to exactly the same files and same versions that another label applies to.

  1. In Source Control Explorer, right-click the project collection node (the root node), and then select Advanced > Apply Label. The New Label dialog box appears.

  2. In the Name box, enter a name for the label.

  3. (Optional) In the Comment box, enter a comment.

  4. In Version list, select Label. The Label box appears.

  5. Take one of the following steps:

    • Enter the name of the existing label.

    • If you aren't sure of the name of the existing label, select the browse button with the ellipses (...) next to the Label box. The Find Label dialog box appears. Use the options in the Find Label dialog box to filter the list of labels and find the existing label that you want to apply the new label to. For more information, see Find, edit, and remove labels.

  6. Select Create.

  7. (Optional) After you've created the new label, you can remove the old label. For more information, see Find, edit, and remove labels.

List, find, view, edit, and remove labels

There are two ways to list and find labels: the Find Label dialog box and the Label tab in the History window. After you find the label that you're interested in, you can view, edit, or remove it. You can also work with the files that the label applies to.

Find and work with labels by using the Find Label dialog box

  1. In Source Control Explorer, on the menu bar, select File > Source Control > Find > Find Label. The Find Label dialog box appears.

  2. (Optional) Refine your search by performing one or more of the following steps:

    • In the Name text box, enter the name of the label.

    • In the Project list, select the project that contains the label that you want to find.

    • In the Owner text box, enter the name or alias of the owner of the label.

  3. Select Find. The Results list displays labels that match the search criteria that you entered.

  4. (Optional) Take one of the following steps:

    • To view or edit a label, select it and select Edit. The Label window appears. For more information, see Use the Label window to work with labels.

    • To delete a label, select it and select Delete.

    • Select Close.

List and work with labels that apply to a specific item

Sometimes you might not be sure of the name of a label, but you know that the label was applied to a particular item under version control. The following procedure explains how to find and work with a label in this situation.

  1. In Source Control Explorer, right-click an item that the label was applied to, and then select View History. The History window appears.

  2. Select the Labels tab to display the list of labels that apply to this item.

  3. (Optional) Take one of the following steps:

    • To view or edit a label, right-click the label, and then select Edit Label. The Label window appears. For information about how to use this window, see Use the Label window to work with labels.

    • To delete a label, right-click the label, and then select Delete Label.

    • Right-click the label, and then select another action such as Get This Version or Compare.

For more information about how to use the label tab in the History window, see Get the history of an item.

Download labeled versions of files to your workspace

Labeling a set of files is like taking a snapshot of how they existed at a certain point in time. Weeks or months after you've taken this snapshot, you might need to view or work with the files as they existed in that snapshot. The following procedure explains how to download the labeled versions of a set of files to your workspace.

  1. In Source Control Explorer, right-click the project collection, project, branch, or folder that contains the items that you want to download, and then select Advanced > Get Specific Version. The Get dialog box appears.

  2. From the Type list, select Label, and then either enter the label name in the Label box, or select the ellipses (...) to open the Find Label dialog box. For more information about how to use this dialog box, see Find, edit, and remove labels.

  3. Select any other appropriate options in the Get dialog box.

  4. Select Get.

Use the Label window to work with labels

After you open the Label window by using one of the preceding procedures, you're ready to begin working with the label. At the top of the window, a box displays the comment, which you can edit.

You can use the Label window to perform the following tasks:

  • Add an item to the label
  • Remove an item from the label
  • Change the version of a file
  • Perform other actions on an item

Add an item to the label

  1. In the Label window, select Add Item. The Choose Item Version dialog box appears.

  2. In the Choose Item Version dialog box, navigate to the item that you want to add and then select it.

    Tip

    You can select and hold the Ctrl or Shift keys and then select multiple items.

  3. (Optional) If you need the label to target a specific version, from the Version list, select a version:

    • Latest Version: Apply the label to the latest version that's in version control.

    • Changeset: Specify the number of a changeset in the Changeset box. Alternatively, select the ellipses (...) to open the Find Changesets dialog box. For more information, see Find and view changesets.

    • Date: Specify a date in the Date box or select a date from the calendar on the dropdown menu.

    • Label: Specify an existing label to base the new label on. Either enter the label name in the Label box, or select the ellipses (...) to open the Find Label dialog box. For more information, see Find, edit, and remove labels.

    • Workspace Version: Create the label for the version in your workspace.

  4. Select OK.

  5. Select File > Save.

Remove an item from the label

  1. In the Label window, locate the collection, project, branch, folder, or file that you want to remove from this label.

  2. Right-click the item and select Remove from Label. The label is removed from the item. If the item is a project collection, project, branch, or folder, the label is also removed from all the items it contains.

  3. Select File > Save.

Change the version of a file

  1. In the Label window, locate the file that you want to modify.

  2. Right-click the file and select Change Labeled Version. The Change Labeled Version dialog box appears.

  3. Select one of the following values:

    • Latest Version: Apply the label to the latest version that's in version control.

    • Changeset: Specify the number of the changeset in the Changeset box. Alternatively, select the ellipses (...) to open the Find Changesets dialog box. For more information, see Find and view changesets.

    • Date: Specify a date in the Date box or select a date from the calendar on the dropdown menu.

    • Label: Specify an existing label to base the new label on. Either select the label name in the Label box, or select the ellipses (...) to open the Find Label dialog box. For more information, see Find, edit, and remove labels.

    • Workspace Version: Create the label for the version in your workspace.

  4. Select File > Save.

Perform other actions on a labeled item

When you right-click an item in the Label window, you can also select one of the following commands:

Work from the command prompt

  • Use the labels command to list labels. For more information, see Labels command.

  • Use the label command to apply or remove a label. For more information, see Label command (Team Foundation Version Control).

    Tip

    When you use the label command to apply a label, you can specify a scope other than the project.

Next steps