Unlocking a file from TFS

Inevitably somebody on the team goes away on holidays and forgets to check everything into TFS (guilty, as charged!)

There’s no facility to unlock somebody else’s files through TFS Explorer, so we have to resort to the command line.  Firstly, get the list of the user’s workspaces:

tf workspaces /server:tfsserver /owner:DOMAIN\offender /computer:*

This will list the workspaces “owned” by the offending little tyke absent user, which we will feed into the next command:

tf undo /server:tfsserver /workspace:workspacename;DOMAIN\offender $/path/to/file/to/unlock

Now you’re free to change the file at will, and reprimand your teammate when he gets back from his holiday, all tanned and relaxed.

Another FYI: just type in tf on the command line, and it will open up the appropriate help file. Sweet!