What are the big differences between TFVC (TFS Version Control) and Git for source control when using Visual Studio 2013?
There are tons of questions and answers about Git versus TFVC Source Control, but no current answers cover the integration of Git into Team Foundation Server/Service that I can find.
I'm starting green pasture development using a wide variety of languages (C#, C++, PHP, Javascript, MySSQL) using Visual Studio 2013. In the future, there will be some iOS development. I'm very familiar with SVN, VSS and TFVC for source control. However, I have never used Git. I prefer TFS for process management/agile development... It's not perfect, but it integrates well into Visual Studio.
So, to help me decide between these two systems...
What are the big differences between TFVC and Git for source control when using Visual Studio 2013?
- Is the only benefit in my case a local repository (not saying that it's insignificant) and iOS development support?
- Is the only drawback to Git the command line interface (some would argue that's not a drawback ;-P).
- Have you experienced in the Visual Studio 2013 GUI for Git? Is that enough to support basic branching/merging without the command line interface?
- Is there a detailed start-up guide for Git that shows Git being used with Visual Studio 2013? Microsoft has a video for integrating an existing Git repository into Visual Studio 2013, but I'm looking for a start from scratch with Git and VS 2013.
I am not looking for a book here, but just a few bullet points and maybe some relevant links from folks that have used both TFVC and Git.
Answer
Update
Since 2013 a lot has happened:
- Microsoft has added ssh support to Team Foundation Server, Azure DevOps Server and Azure DevOps.
- Visual studio 2019 16.8+ ships with a completely revamped git client.
- Microsoft has moved its own internal products off of TFVC. Windows and Office sources now live in Git in Azure DevOps.
- Microsoft has bought GitHub which is now the main focus for DevOps related offerings, many people who contributed to Azure DevOps have moved to GitHub as a consequence.
- Virtual File System for Git & Git Large File System have resolved many of the reasons why people stayed on TFVC.
- Azure DevOps has a built-in migration tool which can convert (part of) your TFVC history into a git repo.
In all this time very little happened for TFVC:
- YAML pipelines have yet to receive TFVC support 2 years after their introduction (I'm not expecting these at all).
- Team Explorer is now called "Legacy" in Visual Studio
- TFVC has been declared feature complete
- TFVC support for Eclipse and Visual Studio Code and Linux/Mac are officially deprecated/end-of-life.
It's pretty clear who has won: Git.
What are the big differences between TFS and Git for source control when using VS 2013?
MSDN has a very extensive page on all the features and differences between Team Foundation Version Control and Git.
Is the only benefit in my case a local repository (not saying that's insignificant) and IoS development support?
No, there's lot more, but they're often advanced scenario's of Git. Local Repo, offline support and full local fidelity on history is incredibly powerful, you get that out of the box with Visual Studio. There's a few other features that are great too! The ability to branch and merge from one repository to another is very powerful. I recommend you look up the Pro Git book for those. Git in TFS is just another git server, it has pretty much all features that the standard Git has.
The ability to rewrite history before merging allows you to remove or combine a number of smaller change sets, so that the history is cleaner and easier to read as a human.
Is the only drawback to Git the command line interface (some would argue that's not a drawback ;-P).
TFVC has a command line too, people just don't use it. For people that want to use Git and never do much more than TFVC does, they probably won't really need to leave the UI, they won't get a lot of the cool features though...
There might be a few other drawbacks, mostly due to the fact that it's different than what people are used to. It's not too hard to shoot yourself in the foot if you don't take the time to learn what git does when you do things. Things like Rebase and Squash are really powerful and create a very clean history, but it can leave people with the problem that they can't merge anymore if used incorrectly. TFS has the ability to put some security settings to take away the rights to make very stupid decisions on a git repository.
A very cool add-on for Git users on Windows is PoSHGit. it provides command autocompletion on the Powershell commandline.
Have you experienced in the VS 2013 GUI for Git? Is that enough to support basic branching/merging without the command line interface?
It has all you need for basic operations. But you do need to be able to visualize the different branches to know what's going on. Since the Git server and local repo are just Git, any git client can help you out here. SourceTree is an option here. The Git for Windows client is another.
For standard operations, check-in, check-out, merge, branch (or push, pull, fetch, commit, merge) the UI works just fine.
Is there a detailed start-up guide for Git that shows Git being used with VS 2013? MS has a video for integrating an existing Git repo into VS 2013, but I'm looking for a start from scratch with Git and VS 2013?
Starting with Git is available in a number of places... These are a few options:
- MSDN Docs: Use Visual Studio with Git
- MSDN Blog: Getting started with Git
- There's a Hands-on lab for the Brian Keller VM.
- Microsoft Virtual Academy: Using Git with Visual Studio 2013 Jump Start
- Pluralsight: Git for Visual Studio Developers
Other good reads:
- MSDN Docs: Git vs TFVC Summary
- Syncfusion: Git succinctly
- Setting the Visual Studio Merge tool as default for Git
- using PoshGit from within Visual Studio
- Apress: Pro Git
- ALM Ranger Git for TFVC users guidance.
And a few tools worth installing: