[tfs] How to ignore files/directories in TFS for avoiding them to go to central source repository?

Is it possible to set up files/folders to ignore on a per-project basis in TFS source control?

For example, I've a website with an assets folder that I do not want to go in to source control. These assets are maintained by a separate system. Also, I don't want to put several gigabytes of assets into source control, but I need a couple of samples on my dev machine, but I don't want to check those in either.

If I'm working on this website while bound to source control and I refresh the tree, these files will automatically get added again

I want to prevent this from happening.

I found the perfect way to Ignore files in TFS like SVN does.
First of all, select the file that you want to ignore (e.g. the Web.config).
Now go to the menu tab and select:

File Source control > Advanced > Exclude web.config from source control

... and boom; your file is permanently excluded from source control.

It does seem a little cumbersome to ignore files (and folders) in Team Foundation Server. I've found a couple ways to do this (using TFS / Team Explorer / Visual Studio 2008). These methods work with the web site ASP project type, too.

One way is to add a new or existing item to a project (e.g. right click on project, Add Existing Item or drag and drop from Windows explorer into the solution explorer), let TFS process the file(s) or folder, then undo pending changes on the item(s). TFS will unmark them as having a pending add change, and the files will sit quietly in the project and stay out of TFS.

Another way is with the Add Items to Folder command of Source Control Explorer. This launches a small wizard, and on one of the steps you can select items to exclude (although, I think you have to add at least one item to TFS with this method for the wizard to let you continue).

You can even add a forbidden patterns check-in policy (under Team -> Team Project Settings -> Source Control... -> Check-in Policy) to disallow other people on the team from mistakenly checking in certain assets.

If you're using local workspaces (TFS 2012+) you can now use the .tfignore file to exclude local folders and files from being checked in.

If you add that file to source control you can ensure others on your team share the same exclusion settings.

Full details on MSDN - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms245454.aspx#tfignore

For the lazy:

You can configure which kinds of files are ignored by placing a text file called .tfignore in the folder where you want rules to apply. The effects of the .tfignore file are recursive. However, you can create .tfignore files in sub-folders to override the effects of a .tfignore file in a parent folder.

The following rules apply to a .tfignore file:

• # begins a comment line
• The * and ? wildcards are supported.
• A filespec is recursive unless prefixed by the \ character.
• ! negates a filespec (files that match the pattern are not ignored)

Example file:

# Ignore .cpp files in the ProjA sub-folder and all its subfolders
ProjA\*.cpp
# 
# Ignore .txt files in this folder 
\*.txt
#
# Ignore .xml files in this folder and all its sub-folders
*.xml
#
# Ignore all files in the Temp sub-folder
\Temp
#
# Do not ignore .dll files in this folder nor in any of its sub-folders
!*.dll

I'm going to assume you are using Web Site Projects. These automatically crawl their project directory and throw everything into source control. There's no way to stop them.

However, don't despair. Web Application Projects don't exhibit this strange and rather unexpected (imho: moronic) behavior. WAP is an addon on for VS2005 and comes direct with VS2008.

As an alternative to changing your projects to WAP, you might consider moving the Assets folder out of Source control and into a TFS Document Library. Only do this IF the project itself doesn't directly use the assets files.

For TFS 2013:

Start in VisualStudio-Team Explorer, in the PendingChanges Dialog undo the Changes whith the state [add], which should be ignored.

Visual Studio will detect the Add(s) again. Click On "Detected: x add(s)"-in Excluded Changes

In the opened "Promote Cadidate Changes"-Dialog You can easy exclude Files and Folders with the Contextmenu. Options are:

• Ignore this item
• Ignore by extension
• Ignore by file name
• Ignore by ffolder (yes ffolder, TFS 2013 Update 4/Visual Studio 2013 Premium Update 4)

Don't forget to Check In the changed .tfignore-File.

For VS 2015/2017:

The same procedure: In the "Excluded Changes Tab" in TeamExplorer\Pending Changes click on Detected: xxx add(s)

The "Promote Candidate Changes" Dialog opens, and on the entries you can Right-Click for the Contextmenu. Typo is fixed now :-)