TFS 2010 Merge after renaming a root branch

Question

My source code branch contains almost 20000 files. I created a branch a couple of months ago called, "v2.5TEMP", which was branched off the "Main" trunk. Developers were working in both branches.

I then renamed "v2.5TEMP" to simply "v2.5." People have been working on this version which has now been released. I'm trying to merge from the v2.5 into the "Main" trunk, and am seeing every single file marked as requiring a merge.

Looking at the check ins over the past couple of months, there have been code changes, but not every file should need merging. It appears as though renaming the branch has marked each file as having changed and now requiring a merge from "v2.5" into "Main".

I don't want to have to check each and every file (20000), or have to go through each check in history and work out what needs merging.

Answer 1

Yes, this is what happens when you rename a branch in TFS.

Renaming the root folder effectively results in a rename for every file in that branch - and hence a conflict for every file when it's eventually merged down.

@ZephanSchroeder's answer to this question explains things in more detail.

Note that using Auto Merge will work fine, so you don't strictly need to examine every conflict. But it's still a major pain when merging because you can't see what's actually changed.

Devs in our team have been told not to rename branches, because it's not worth the confusion it causes later!