How do I use git-tfs and idiomatic git branching against a TFS repository?

Question

How Do I Use git-tfs Idiomatically?

• The git idiom is to check out branches to the root directory of the repository. Checking out a branch will replace the contents of the directory with the contents of that branch.

• The TFS idiom is to check out each branch in a different directory under the root directory of the repository (even the master or trunk branch). Checking out a branch will place it in a new directory next to the current one.

Using git-tfs, I can clone a TFS repository or branch into a git repository. I want to work on a TFS repository with multiple branches in a manner consistent with the git branching idiom. But I'm not sure what's technically possible or recommended :)

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Clone The Whole TFS Repository

If I clone the whole repository out of TFS

> git tfs clone http://<tfsurl>:8080 $/main

That would give me a git master containing all the TFS branches as directories.

[master]> dir
  trunk
  feature-logon
  feature-search
  release-0.0.1

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Add a Remote Per TFS Branch

I don't know if I can (or how to) map a git remote to each TFS branch.

> git init .
[master]> git tfs clone http://<url> $/main/trunk .

Then

[master]> git checkout -b feature-logon
[feature-logon]> git tfs clone http://<url> $/main/feature-logon .

I know this is technically incorrect, but I don't know any better without playing (my only TFS repo is very large, experimenting is taking a long time)

Answer 1

It's now possible to get the TFS branches to be correct Git branches if cloning using git-tfs. This is now in the stable release! You first clone not the entire repository but the trunk :

git tfs clone http://<tfsurl>:8080 $/main/trunk

Then you run branch --init, which creates a new branch in the Git repository

git tfs branch --init $/MyProject/MyTFSBranch

in your case :

git tfs branch --init $/main/feature-logon

Or use the the --all flag on a fresh cloned repository to create ALL the branches present on the TFS server.

git tfs branch --init --all

You could also clone directly with all the branches using flag --with-branches:

git tfs clone http://<tfsurl>:8080 $/main/trunk --with-branches

The documentation for this new command is here. Feel free to provide feedback to improve it...