Team Development with Visual Studio Team Foundation Server

Additional Resources
• For more information about shelving pending changes, see “How to: Shelve and
Unshelve Pending Changes” at http://msdn2.microsoft.com/enus/library/ms181404(VS.80).aspx
What is a shelveset?
A shelveset is a set of files that are saved but are not yet ready to be committed to source
control. Files can be shelved in order to save pending changes to the workspace, or to be
shared with other team members for feedback. You can also use shelved files to hand off
partially completed work.
Additional Resources
• For more information about shelving pending changes, see “How to: Shelve and
Unshelve Pending Changes” at http://msdn2.microsoft.com/enus/library/ms181404(VS.80).aspx
When would I typically use shelving?
There are a number of common scenarios in which you would use shelving:
• You are midway through making changes to a set of source code when new, higherpriority
work is allocated (for example, an emergency bug fix is required). At this
point you need to go back to a stable version of the code but do not want to lose your
changes. You can shelve your code and easily retrieve it later.
• You have not completed work at the end of the day but want to ensure that your
current work is backed up on the server. By shelving your current changes, the
changes are applied to the Team Foundation Server and can be retrieved by you (or
others) on another day.
• You want to discuss or review your partially completed code with a remote team
member. Rather than e-mailing the code, you can shelve it and then have your remote
colleague retrieve the files from the shelf.
• You want to pass partially finished work to another developer for completion.
Additional Resources
• For more information about shelving pending changes, see “How to: Shelve and
Unshelve Pending Changes” at http://msdn2.microsoft.com/enus/library/ms181404(VS.80).aspx
How do I use shelving to back up my work?
If your work on one or more source files is not complete at the end of the working day,
you can shelve your code to ensure that the source is uploaded to the server without
checking in partially completed work.