Merging discontinous changesets in TFS 2008 Version Control

Question

I have moved from subversion to tfs for version control, and it is my understanding that you cannot merge discontinuous change-sets in tfs.

For example, say I have a file baseline.txt that looks like this:

line one

Then, I branch the file to a new file called branch.txt, and then do two check-ins on baseline.txt so that it finally looks like this:

line one
line two //checked-in change-set A
line three //checked in change-set B

Now, I want to merge only change-set B into branch.txt. In other words, I expect branch.txt to look like this after the merge:

line one
line three //checked in change-set B

Basically, I want to skip change-set A and merge change-set B. It is possible in subversion, but in tfs if I want to get changeset-B, I have to also get all change-sets up-to B. Is this true? That's what my experiments show, but this article seems to indicate differently.

Answer 1

That article is confusing, and I don't believe it is accurate. When the second change is checked in, it should generate a merge conflict. At that time, you would need to resolve the conflict in one of three ways:

1. Merge the changes
2. Overwrite with the new changeset, or
3. Keep the old, and discard the new changes.

No matter what, when you get ready to merge back to baseline.txt, you have a "point-in-time" version of the file that you're going to check in.

Answer 2

Not sure, but this question about baseless merges might have the answer you are looking for.