TFS Compare in Eclipse (can't copy from left to right)

Question

I have a problem with TFS in Eclipse. It's working great, but when I try to check in, and I am notified that the file I'm sending has conflicts with the one stored on the server, I can't copy the changes from left(local file) to right(server) in comparison window. I can only copy from right to left, and options "Copy all from left to right" and "copy current change from left to right" are greyed out.

Is there something I'm missing here?

Or maybe it's like this: I'm making changes on the left, and the left(local) version is checked in. But if that's the case, then why the commit button is greyed out at the beginning?

Lucas

Answer 1

No, you can't make changes to the server version, you can only make changes to your local version. The server version (the right side) is simply a view of what's on the server, conflicting with your location version. You can take some of those changes from the server, copying from right to left, which will update your local file and you can then check in. But the server's version is in a changeset that's immutable - you need to check in your changes to update.

You are making changes on the left, but your left (local) file is not yet checked in. You need to resolve the conflicts with the server version before that happens, which will involve either backing out those server changes or accepting them.

The commit button (disappointingly labelled, as it does not actually commit your changes to the server - it's really a "Save Local Contents" button but we cannot override the label) will be grayed out until you make any changes to the left (local) side as there's nothing to actually save yet.

Sorry about the confusion. Don't forget that you can configure external compare and merge tools to use when resolving conflicts - I find a standard left/middle/right three-way merge window to be far more intuitive than the Eclipse three-way merge. But this is very much a matter of preference.