Destroy Command (Team Foundation Version Control)

TFS 2017 | TFS 2015 | TFS 2013

Visual Studio 2019 | Visual Studio 2017 | Visual Studio 2015 | Visual Studio 2013

Use the tf destroy command to destroy, or permanently delete, version-controlled files from Team Foundation version control.

The destroy action cannot be reversed. You must not destroy files that are still needed. Sometimes you have to clean up version control systems. For example, if some files are infected with a computer virus, you have to remove them permanently from version control.

Before you run tf destroy without the /keephistory option, we recommend that you first delete the files you want to destroy. For more information, see Delete Files and Folders from Version Control.

After you delete the files you can synchronize the Team Foundation warehouse. Otherwise, the warehouse will not be synchronized with the destroyed items.

Prerequisites

To use the destroy command, you must belong to the Team Foundation Administrators security group. For more information, see Default TFVC permissions.

Syntax

tf destroy [/keephistory] <itemspec1>[;<versionspec>][<itemspec2>...<itemspecN>] 
[/stopat:<versionspec>] [/preview] [/startcleanup] [/noprompt] [/silent] [/login:username,[password]] [/collection:TeamProjectCollectionUrl]]

Parameters

Argument

Option

Remarks

When you use tf destroy to destroy version-control files, the application tier of Team Foundation Server receives the destroy request and checks to see whether you are a member of the Team Foundation Administrators security group. If you are not a member, the system displays an error-message dialog box that tells you that you do not have sufficient permissions to perform the operation.

After the system verifies your permissions, it runs the destroy command. This command deletes all file references, shelvesets, and pending changes. The actual destruction of files, which is a permanent deletion, happens the next time that the content that is no longer referenced by Team Foundation Server is cleaned up. You can also specify the /startcleanup option to clean up the files immediately after tf destroy runs.

If you run tf destroy without specifying /i and /preview, the system displays a console Yes or No prompt for each filespec value. Otherwise, you can specify Yes to all. If you do not specify /keephistory, you are prompted by an interactive text that warns of pending changes, if they exist. The interactive text points to /preview if you want more information about the changes. If you specify /keephistory, you are also prompted by Yes, No, or All text. If you select Yes or All, the destruction process starts, and the server paths to the destroyed items appear in the Command Prompt window.

Destroyed: <serverItem1>
Destroyed: <serverItem2>
Destroyed: ...

If you specified the versionspec value as a tip, the server paths displayed in the Command Prompt window include deletion IDs. For example, X123 might appear in the Command Prompt window.

If you use the /preview option, the files are not destroyed, but the command-line text displays the files that would be destroyed. For example, if, at the command-line, you type tf destroy /preview $/Test1/MyProject/MyProject/Program.cs, the command window displays this text:

Destroyed: $/Test1/MyProject/MyProject/Program.cs

However, the file is actually not destroyed because you used the /preview option.

For more information on how to find the tf command-line utility, see Use Team Foundation version control commands.

Effects of /keephistory on Other Version Control Operations

If you specify the /keephistory option to retain the history of destroyed files, the files are treated as destroyed by the following Team Foundation version control operations:

• Change content If you try to change the content of a destroyed file, for example edit or branch, the system issues an error message that states the content has been destroyed.

• Branch, merge, or unshelve If you try to branch, merge, or unshelve destroyed items, the system issues an error message that states the content of the items has been destroyed.

Destroying Previously Deleted Items

If an item has already been deleted, a deletion ID is attached to it and results in a filename change.

Effects of TF DESTROY on TFVC repo Code Search

Code Search does not handle TF DESTROY notifications and so using TF DESTROY for TFVC repos will not automatically delete files in the Search index. As a result, these files appear in the code search results. To avoid these ghost files scenario, users are recommended to delete files before TF DESTROY operation.

Examples

Description

The following example permanently deletes the file a.cs.

Code

C:\pi\ws1>tf destroy $/proj/pi/a.cs

Description

The following example deletes a folder, aFolder, type at the command line:

Code

C:\tf delete $/MyTeamProject/aFolder

Description

To destroy the deleted item, aFolder, you must type at the command line:

Code

tf destroy $/MyTeamProject/sFolder;x123

Where x123 is the deletion ID.

Related articles

• Destroy Version Controlled Files
• What is TFVC?, Operations available only from the tf command-line