How to always block checkin of a specific file in TFS

tfs

There is one file that I always made changes to, but that I never want to be checked in. I would like TFS to block me from ever checking it in or committing the changes. How can I configure TFS to do this?

Details:
There is another developer on the project that has checked in some bad code that I prefer to comment out on my local machine. Since they are a client, I prefer to keep this a technical exercise rather than make it a political one.

Best Answer

One of TFS undervalued features is cloaking. Like SVN's ignore, cloaking will let you ignore a certain folder or files.

Cloaking a Folder

Cloaking a folder is easy: just right click a folder on the source control explorer and select Cloak

Cloaking a File

The UI doesn't expose cloaking on a single file, but sometimes you may want to cloak a certain file like app.config.

  1. Go to File > Source Control > Workspaces

  2. Select your workspace and click Edit.

  3. Under the working folders, and a new entry with status Cloaked and enter the full server path of the file you want to cloak. (E.g.: $/MyTeamProject/Dev/Src/SomeProject/app.config)

Cloaking a file

Using Local Workspace .tfignore file (In TFS 2012, 2013, 2015 and up)

In Local Workspace, use you can use .tfignore file (the equivalent of .gitignore for Git)

.tfignore file example
 ######################################
# Ignore .cpp files in the ProjA sub-folder and all its subfolders
ProjA\*.cpp
# 
# Ignore .txt files in this folder 
\*.txt
#
# Ignore .xml files in this folder and all its sub-folders
*.xml
#
# Ignore all files in the Temp sub-folder
\Temp
#
# Do not ignore .dll files in this folder nor in any of its sub-folders
!*.dll

Blocking by Permissions

Another approach is deny check-in on the file (requires administrative privileges):

  1. Right click the file > click Properties > Security

  2. Add your user and mark Deny on the Check In permission.

Deny Check In

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