Can TFS 2012 perform merges across projects in the same collection?

Question

Is it possible to merge changes across projects in TFS 2012? If so, it doesn't seem obvious to me how. I find myself needing to do this because we created a new project when we really should have created a branch (or reorganized our branches).

Answer 1

You can use baseless merging from within the IDE (select merge) or using the TF command line utility. The following image shows a merge from team project Area 52 to team project Area 51, where no branch relationship exists. The IDE correctly identifies the merge as a baseless merge:

Caution is advised though and I recommend you read the section on baseless merging in the Branching Guide (http://vsarbranchingguide.codeplex.com/) first.

I did quick test and documented the findings here in a rough format: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/willy-peter_schaub/archive/2012/12/13/faq-branching-is-easy-but-can-i-merge-without-branching.aspx