Checkout (or Edit) command

TFS 2017 | TFS 2015 | TFS 2013

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

Checks out a file and changes its pending change status to Edit. You can call this command using either Checkout or Edit.

Prerequisites

tf checkout [/lock:(none|checkin|checkout)] [/recursive] [/encoding:encoding] itemspec [/login: username,[password]]

Parameter	Description
/encoding	Ignore this parameter.
itemspec	Specifies the scope of the items to check out. For syntax, see Use Team Foundation version control commands.
/lock	Applies or removes a lock. See Use Team Foundation version control commands.
/login:username,[password]	Specifies the user account to run the command. See Use Team Foundation version control commands.
/recursive	Recursively checks out items in the specified directory and any subdirectories.

c:\code\SiteApp\Main\SolutionA\Project1\>tf checkout program.cs

Checks out program.cs.

c:\code\SiteApp\Main\SolutionA\Project1\>tf checkout program1.cs program2.cs

Checks out the files program1.cs and program2.cs.

If you are beginning a new task, it's probably a good idea for you to download the latest files from the server before you check out files and begin your work. See Get command.
When you begin editing a file in a local workspace, it is automatically checked out for you.
You can view a list of your pending changes:
- And work with related data such as Comments and Associated Work Items in the Check In dialog box using the Checkin command.
- At the command prompt by using the Status command.
When you are ready to check in your changes to the team's codebase on the server, use the Checkin command.
If you need to set aside changes (and perhaps also want to clean your workspace for another task), use the Shelve Command.
If you use a server workspace, files that you have not checked out are read-only.