When you check in one or more of the pending changes in your workspace, Team Foundation creates a changeset in the source control server. A changeset is a group of source file revisions, check-in notes, a comment, and links to associated work items. Similarly, a shelveset is a group of source file revisions, check-in notes, comments, and a list of associated work items. However, a shelveset does not contain a collection of committed and versioned file changes. Both shelvesets and changesets are stored on the Team Foundation server and can be retrieved into a workspace by any user who has sufficient permissions.

Other differences between changesets and shelvesets:

• Unlike a changeset, a shelveset is a non-versioned entity. If you or another user unshelve the items of which a shelveset consists, edit several files, and reshelve the shelveset, Team Foundation does not create a new version of the items for future comparison and maintains no record of who revised the items, when, or in what manner. The original shelveset is completely replaced.

• You can delete a shelveset but you cannot delete a changeset.

• You can link a changeset to a work item so that when a user clicks the changeset link on the Links tab of the work item form, the changeset is automatically retrieved to the current workspace. This functionality is not supported for shelvesets.

• You can prevent or at least, strongly discourage users from creating changeset that do not comply with established team standards by creating and enforcing check-in policies. This functionality is not supported for shelvesets.

Shelve your pending changes when you are not ready to or cannot check in a set of pending changes. There are primarily five shelve scenarios:

• Interrupt   When you have pending changes that are not ready for check in but you need to work on a different task, you can shelve your pending changes to set them aside.

• Integration   When you have pending changes that are not ready for check in but you need to share them with another team member, you can shelve your pending changes and ask your team member to unshelve them.

• Review   When you have pending changes that are ready for check-in and have to be code-reviewed, you can shelve your changes and inform the code reviewer of the shelveset.

• Backup   When you have work in progress that you want to back up, but are not ready to check in, you can shelve your changes to have them preserved on the Team Foundation server.

• Handoff   When you have work in progress that is to be completed by another team member, you can shelve your changes to make a handoff easier.

Shelvesets are created from either Source Control Explorer, the Pending Changes window, or the menu. For more information about how to create a shelveset see How to: Shelve and Unshelve Pending Changes.

Unshelving Shelved Changes

You can use the Unshelve command in Visual Studio or you can use the Difference Command from the command line to compare one, some, or all of the shelved file revisions in a shelveset to the base shelveset version, which is the server version of the item upon which it was based.

Unlike changesets, which are permanently stored in the source control server, you can delete shelvesets from the server.

Caution:
Unlike a deleted file, a shelveset is permanently deleted and you cannot retrieve it from source control.

For more information about how to delete a shelveset using Visual Studio, see How to: Delete a Shelveset. For more information about deleting shelvesets using the command line interface, see Shelve Command.

How to: Shelve and Unshelve Pending Changes

Explains how to shelve and unshelve shelvesets.

How to: Find a Shelveset

Describes the procedure used to find a shelveset in Team Foundation version control.

How to: View Details for Shelvesets

Explains the steps that you must follow to view detailed information associated with a shelveset.

How to: Delete a Shelveset

Describes the steps used to delete a shelveset.

Team Foundation Version Control Command-Line Reference

Team Foundation Version Control Walkthroughs

Lists walkthroughs which explore using source control, customizing a source control check-in and using source control from the command line.

Tasks

Concepts