How can I easily diff/compare 2 shelvesets in TFS?

Question

Is there a way to compare 2 shelves in TFS without having to resort to unshelving both in separate workspaces and diffing the files?

Solution 1

I don't have access to TFS currently, but if the file in the shelveset has a unique idenitifer (like say $/x/y/z/a.b.c;SH='ShelvesetName') you should be able to issue a command line tf dff command to compare each one.

Or

If you unshelve one and then use the command line TFS power tools to compare the other one with the review command

tfpt review /shelveset:shelvesetName;userName

The power tools are version specific and you can download the following versions:

• TFS Power Tools 2015
• TFS Power Tools 2013
• TFS Power Tools 2012
• TFS Power Tools 2010
• TFS Power Tools 2008
• TFS Power Tools 2005

Solution 2

I was looking for the same i.e. to compare the contents of two shelveets without needing to unshelve one of them. End up writing a Visual Studio extension for the functionality.

The extension is available for Visual studio 2013

http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/1fa59764-efc6-457a-a5f3-81ca68e280e8

and for Visual studio 2012

http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/33c521d4-73fc-48be-969d-fa68c511341f

Please feel free to use and give your feedback.