Rollback Command (Team Foundation Version Control)

  • Article

You can use this command to roll back the effects of one or more changesets to one or more version-controlled items. This command does not remove the changesets from an item's version history. Instead, this command creates in your workspace a set of pending changes that negate the effects of the changesets that you specify.

Required Permissions

To use this command, you must have the Read, Check Out, and Check In permissions set to Allow. For more information, see Team Foundation Server Permissions.

tf rollback /toversion:VersionSpec ItemSpec [/recursive] [/lock:none|checkin|checkout] [/version:versionspec] [/keepmergehistory] [/login:username,[password]] [/noprompt]

tf rollback /changeset:ChangesetFrom~ChangesetTo [ItemSpec] [/recursive] [/lock:none|checkin|checkout] [/version:VersionSpec]
[/keepmergehistory] [/noprompt] [/login:username,[password]]

Parameters

Argument

Description

ChangesetFrom~ChangesetTo

Use this argument with the /changeset option to specify the changesets that you want to roll back. You can specify the changesets in the following ways:

  • A single changeset

    Example: /changeset:C11

  • A range of changesets

    Example: /changeset:C7~C20

  • A date

    Example: /changeset:D09/30/09

  • A range of dates

    Example:/changeset:D09/23/09~D10/07/09

  • The most recent changeset

    Example: /changeset:Tip or /changeset:T

ItemSpec

Use this argument to specify one or more items that you want to roll back. If you are using the /toversion option, you must specify this argument.

For more information about how Team Foundation parses item specifications, see Command-Line Syntax (Version Control).

NoteNote
You can specify more than one Itemspec argument.

VersionSpec

The user-provided value for both the /version option and the /toversion option.

Use this argument with the /toversion option to revert a file to its state in a specific changeset. You can specify the version in the following ways:

  • A single changeset

    Example: /toversion:C32

  • A date (at midnight)

    Example: /toversion:D06/19/09

  • A date and a time

    Example: /toversion:D06/19/09T14:32

  • A label

    Example: /toversion:LTestLabel

  • The version in the workspace that is mapped to the current directory

    Example: /toversion:W

  • The version in a specific workspace

    Example: /toversion:WResolveRIConflicts;AKerry

For more information about how Team Foundation parses versionspecs, see Command-Line Syntax (Version Control).

Option

Description

/changeset

Use this option to specify one or more specific changesets that you want to negate.

/keepmergehistory

This option has an effect only if one or more of the changesets that you are rolling back include a branch or merge change. Specify this option if you want future merges between the same source and the same target to exclude the changes that you are rolling back.

For more information, see Example: /keepmergehistory Option.

/lock

Specify this option to prevent other users from checking in or checking out items until you finish rolling back all associated changes. For more information, see Understanding Lock Types.

Lock Options

  • None

    Default. No lock is applied. If the file that you are rolling back has been locked, this option removes the lock.

  • Checkin

    Locks an item until you release the lock by performing a check-in. Other users can check out the specified items, but the users cannot check in revisions until the lock is removed. You cannot lock a file that is already locked.

  • Checkout

    Prevents users from checking in or out a locked item until you remove the lock by performing a check-in.

/login

For information about this option, see Command-Line Options.

/noprompt

Suppresses any dialog boxes that would otherwise appear during this operation.

/recursive

Specify this option if you want the operation to include items in subfolders.

/toversion

Specify this option to revert a file to its state in a specific changeset. When you use this option, you negate the effect of all changesets that have been applied since the version that you specify.

/version

Specifies the current version of the files and folders that you want to roll back.

Remarks

The tf rollback command negates the effect of each changeset that you specify for each item that you specify. The following table lists how the operation negates each kind of change.

If you roll back this change…

...a rollback change and the following additional change are made

add, branch, or undelete

delete

edit

edit

encoding

encoding

rename/move

rename/move

delete

undelete

merge

Change that negates whatever changes were merged into the current branch.

The following list provides some examples of changes that result from the rollback command:

  • If you are rolling back a changeset in which an add change occurred, the rollback operation causes a rollback change and a delete change.

  • If you are rolling back changeset 521 in which an edit change occurred, the rollback operation causes a rollback change and an edit change that negates the changes encompassed by the edit change in changeset 521.

  • In changeset 132, you merged from $/BranchA/File1.txt to $/BranchB/File1.txt. The changes included in that merge included edit changes in changesets 92 and 104. In changeset 162, you roll back changeset 132, which results in a rollback change and an edit change to $/BranchB/File1.txt that negates the edit changes in changesets 92 and 104.

Exit Codes

The exit codes in the following table appear after you run the tf rollback command.

Exit Code

Description

0

The operation rolled back all items successfully.

1

The operation rolled back at least one item successfully but could not roll back one or more items.

100

The operation could not roll back any items.

Examples

The following example negates the effect of changeset 23 on all items that were changed in that changeset.

c:\workspace> tf rollback /changeset:C23

The following example negates the effect of changeset 23 on the file a.txt.

c:\workspace> tf rollback /changeset:C23 a.txt

The following example changes the content of a.txt to match the version that was checked in with changeset 23.

c:\workspace> tf rollback /toversion:C23 a.txt

The following example changes the content of OurTeamProject to match the last changeset that was applied on or before midnight on August 31, 2009.

c:\workspace> tf rollback /toversion:D08/31/2009 /recursive $/OurTeamProject/

Example: /keepmergehistory Option

When you roll back a changeset that includes a branch or a merge change, you usually want future merges between the same source and the same target to include those changes. However, you can use the /keepmergehistory option if you want future merges between the same source and the same target to exclude changesets that were encompassed in a past merge operation.

For example, you can use this command in the following situation:

  1. In On June 30, 2009, you perform a full merge of all items from $/BranchA/ to $/BranchB/:

    c:\workspace> tf merge $/BranchA $/BranchB

    You check in this merge as part of changeset 292.

  2. In July, you make several changes $/BranchA/Util.cs. These changes are encompassed in changesets 297, 301, and 305.

  3. On August 1, 2009, you merge $/BranchA/Util.cs to $/BranchB/Util.cs:

    c:\workspace> tf merge $/BranchA/Util.cs $/BranchB/Util.cs

    You check in the change as part of changeset 314. The result of this operation is that the edits that you made in changesets 297, 301, and 305 to $/BranchA/Util.cs are now also applied to $/BranchB/Util.cs.

  4. A week later, you realize that the edits that you made to $/BranchA/Util.cs in July are not appropriate for $/BranchB/Util.cs. You can use the rollback command to negate these changes. When you use the rollback command to roll back a merge change or a branch change, you have a decision to make.

    • If you want the changes that you made in July to $/BranchA/Util.cs to be re-applied to $/BranchB/Util.cs in future merges, you should type the following command:

      c:\workspace> tf rollback /changeset:314

    • If you want the changes that you made in July to $/BranchA/Util.cs to never be re-applied to $/BranchB/Util.cs in future merges, you should type the following command:

      c:\workspace> tf rollback /changeset:314 /keepmergehistory

  5. A few weeks later, you merge $/BranchA/ into $/BranchB/:

    c:\workspace> tf merge $/BranchA $/BranchB

    • If you omitted the /keepmergehistory option, the merge change will apply to $/BranchB/Util.cs all changesets that were applied to $/BranchA/Util.cs since changeset 292, including changesets 297, 301, 305. In other words, a future merge will undo the rollback change.

    • If you included the /keepmergehistory option, the merge operation will apply to $/BranchB/Util.cs all changesets that were applied to $/BranchA/Util.cs since changeset 292, excluding changesets 297, 301, and 305. In other words, a future merge will not undo the rollback change. Therefore, the content on BranchA might not match the content on BranchB.

See Also

Reference

Merge Command

Concepts

Operations Available Only From the Command-Line (Team Foundation Version Control)

Other Resources

Tf Command-Line Utility Commands