The data in here is compressed, what type of decompression is required to get the file?
+2
A:
The answer is that you shouldn't go there. The schema of the TFS database is un-documented as subject to change and querying it directly is not supported by Microsoft. It actually undergoes very heavy change between service packs not to mention releases.
That said. When storing the files, TFS uses a combination of zip compression as well as storing the deltas between file revisions using the same delta engine that is used by windows to handle windows updates etc.
To access files normally from TFS, you would want to use the .NET API or the tf.exe command line to talk to a valid server.
If you wanted to edit your question to explain why you need to access to table is may help to point you in the right direction. Are you trying to recover data from a TFS SQL backup or something?
Martin Woodward
2009-05-07 13:27:19
Martin, thanks for the advice. I am trying to retrieve data from a deleted shelveset from a backup. I guess my only options are to restore the backup temproarily on our prod server, or install another version temporarily.
ck
2009-05-07 15:29:49
Yup - doing a restore from a backup is the only supported way. You could restore the DB into a virtual machine though to save you taking out your production system.I talked with the product group at Microsoft about that exact scenario recently (April 30th) and they confirmed that the only way to get a shelveset back would be to restore a backup of the server that has the shelveset and then unshelve it.
Martin Woodward
2009-05-07 18:34:07