Delete command (Team Foundation Version Control)
TFS 2018
Visual Studio 2019 | Visual Studio 2022
The delete
command removes files and folders from the Azure DevOps server and deletes them from the disk.
Note
The results of this command aren't visible in other workspaces until you perform a check-in operation. For more information, see Develop code and manage pending changes.
Prerequisites
To use the delete
command, you must have the Check out permission set to Allow. If you include the /lock
option with a value other than none
, you must have the Lock permission set to Allow. You must also own the workspace or have the global Administer workspaces permission set to Allow. For more information, see Default TFVC permissions.
Syntax
tf delete [/lock:(none|checkin|checkout)] [/recursive] [/login:username,[password]] itemspec
Parameters
Arguments
Argument
Description
<itemspec>
Identifies the file or folder to delete from the Azure DevOps server. For more information about how TFVC parses an itemspec
to determine which items are within scope, see Use options to modify how a command functions.
Note
You can specify more than one itemspec
argument.
<username>
Provides a value to the /login
option. You can specify a username value as either DOMAIN\username
or username
.
Options
Option
Description
/lock
Prevents other users from checking in or checking out the specified items. For more information, see Understanding Lock Types.
Lock options:
none
Default. No lock is applied. If you have placed a lock on the specified file, this option removes it. It doesn't remove a lock placed by someone else.checkin
Other users can check out the specified items, but they can't check in revisions to locked files until you release the lock by performing a check-in. If any other users have locked any one of the specified items, the lock operation fails.checkout
Prevents other users from checking in or checking out any one of the specified items until you release the lock by performing a check-in. If any other users have locked any one of the specified items, the lock operation fails.
/recursive
Deletes all files and/or folders and subfolders that match the itemspec
from the specified directory.
tf delete <folder1>\<folder2> /recursive
deletes all the files and subdirectories contained by <folder1>\<folder2>, and <folder1>\<folder2> itself.tf delete <folder1>\<folder2> <filespec> /recursive
deletes all files and subdirectories matching thefilespec
contained in <folder1>\<folder2> and each of its subdirectories, as well as all files and subdirectories contained within any directory that matches thefilespec
.
For example, in a workspace containing:
Folder1\AVeryLongDirectoryName with some files inside, and Folder1\Folder2\AVeryImportantFile.txt,
tf delete Folder1 AVer* /recursive
deletes Folder1\AVeryLongDirectoryName and all its files, and deletes Folder1\Folder2\AVeryImportantFile.txt because it matches the wildcard character.
/login
Specifies the user name and password to authenticate the user with Azure DevOps.
Remarks
The delete
command records a pending change of type delete
in your workspace for the items that you specify. When you commit a pending change of type delete
to the Azure DevOps server by using the checkin
command, TFVC removes the item from the Azure DevOps server but doesn't delete it permanently. You can locate deleted items in the Azure DevOps server by using the dir
command, and you can restore deleted items by using the Undelete command.
If you've deleted an item in your workspace but haven't checked in the change, you can restore the item to your workspace and remove the deletion from your list of pending changes by using the Undo command.
You can't delete an item for which another pending change exists. For example, a checked out file can't be deleted. To delete such items, you must undo the current pending change by using the undo
command.
When you check in a pending deletion, TFVC marks the file as deleted in the Azure DevOps server. Subsequently running a get
of the item from other workspaces, either by you or other users, deletes the item from those workspaces.
When your itemspec
specifies a folder, TFVC deletes all its files and subfolders and the files they contain, by default.
For more information on how to use the tf
command-line utility, see Use Team Foundation version control commands.
Examples
The following example deletes 314.cs on disk in the specified local workspace folder and then, when you check in the change, removes 314.cs from the version control system non-permanently.
tf delete 314.cs