How to create shadow folders in TFS
One of the features from VSS that TFS does not support "out of the box" is shadow folders. Last year, one of our interns, Philip, wrote short guide to setting up shadow folder for TFS by using Scheduled Tasks in Windows (he also wrote tfpt.exe).
I've attached the MS Word document to this post. You can read the introduction below. Another use for this is to prime the version control caching proxy at a remote location to minimize the amount of time users have to wait to get files from the version control repository.
Shadow Folders with Team Foundation Version Control
Microsoft Team Foundation Version Control does not support the concept of shadow folders. In Visual SourceSafe 6.0, shadow folders are a copy of the repository, constantly updated with the latest version of each checked-in item.
Shadow folders are useful for several situations, including:
- Source code index servers
- Centralized build servers
Shadow folders can be emulated with Team Foundation Version Control by using the Scheduled Tasks service on Windows Server 2003 or later.
