Label command (Team Foundation Version Control)

TFS 2018

Visual Studio 2019 | Visual Studio 2022

The Team Foundation Version Control (TFVC) tf label command attaches a label to or removes a label from a version of a file or folder in the TFVC server.

Prerequisites

To use the label command, you must have the Label permission set to Allow. To modify or delete labels created by other users, you must have the Administer labels permission set to Allow. For more information, see Default TFVC permissions.

Syntax

tf label labelname[@scope] [/owner:ownername] 
itemspec [/version:versionspec] [/comment:("comment"|@commentfile)] 
[/child:(replace|merge)] [/recursive] [/login:username,[password]] [/collection:TeamProjectCollectionUrl]	

tf label /delete labelname[@scope] 
itemspec [/login:username,[password]] [/collection:TeamProjectCollectionUrl]

Parameters

Arguments

Options

Remarks

A label is a marker that you can attach to a set of otherwise unrelated files and folders in the TFVC server. Use the label to simplify file and folder retrieval to a workspace for either development or build purposes. A label is like a changeset or date/time to which and from which you can arbitrarily add and remove files and folders or change the versions of the items therein. A label is a version specification that can be passed to the following TFVC commands:

• Branch command
• Difference command
• Dir command
• Get command
• History command
• Merge command
• View command

Common types of labels are milestone labels such as M1, Beta2, or Release Candidate 0.

Labels are version-specific. That is, you can only attach a label to one version of a file or folder. Each version of an item can support multiple labels.

A label isn't a versioned object. Therefore, the label history of files isn't tracked. Also, a label operation doesn't create a pending change in your workspace. When you issue the label command, the update is immediately reflected in the TFVC server.

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

Remove and delete labels

You can use the Unlabel command to remove a label from a file or folder. Alternatively, you can delete a label from the system by using the tf label /delete command.

For information about an existing label that includes a list of the items to which the label has been attached, its comment, scope, and owner, see Labels command.

Manage overloaded labels

Label names must be unique throughout a specified scope. When you add a label, you reserve the use of that label name at or under the specified or implied scope. The default value for the @scope parameter is the project, for example, $/TeamProject1.

If another team or user adds a common label such as M3 to a set of version-controlled files in a different part of the TFVC server, you can apply the M3 label to version-controlled files in your project as long as the root project folders are in different directories. For example, if files in the $/math directory are labeled M3, you can also apply the M3 label to files in your $/projects directory.

To get, remove a label, or otherwise manage your M3-labeled items, you should specify the @scope parameter to tell TFVC which M3 label you want to work with.

You can prevent other users from "overloading" a label such as M3 in different parts of the TFVC server by either creating your label at the root $/ of the Team Foundation version control server or by adjusting Label permissions for certain folders.

Examples

The following example attaches the goodbuild label to the workspace version of the docs folder and the files and folders it contains.

c:\projects>tf label goodbuild docs /recursive

The following example attaches the goodbuild label to the docs folder but not to the files and folders the docs folder contains.

c:\projects>tf label goodbuild docs

The following example attaches the goodbuild label to version 3 of 314.cs in the TFVC server.

c:\projects>tf label goodbuild /version:3 $/src/314.cs

The following example deletes the badbuild label from all items in the TFVC server.

c:\projects>tf label /delete badbuild

The following example uses the @ scope option to apply a label to 314.cs.

c:\projects>tf label goodbuild@$/TeamProject1 314.cs

Related articles

• Use Team Foundation version control commands
• Labels command
• Unlabel command
• Use labels to take a snapshot of your files