Check Out and Edit Files (Team Explorer Everywhere)

  • Article

When you want to edit a file, you can open it from Package Explorer or from Source Control Explorer. When you begin editing a file, it is automatically checked out to you. In rare situations you might need to manually check out (and optionally lock) an item. For example, you want to check out and lock the file to make sure your changes are checked in before changes from other team members, or you want to edit files in a server workspace outside of the Eclipse IDE.

Required permissions

You must be one of the Contributors for your team project. See Team Foundation Server Default Groups, Permissions, and Roles.

Manually check out items

  1. In Package Explorer, select the files that you want to edit, open their shortcut menu, and choose Team, Check Out for Edit.

    Check out for edit

    The Check Out dialog box appears.

    Check out a file

  2. (Optional) You can lock the file.

    Important

    As a best practice, use the Lock type option with discretion and notify your teammates why you are locking an item, and when you plan to remove the lock.

    From the Lock type menu, choose:

    • Unchanged: Do not apply a lock to the items.

    • Check Out: Prevent other users from checking out and checking in the items until you check in and unlock them.

    • Check In: Allow other users to check out the items you are checking out, but prevent them from checking in their changes until you check in your changes and unlock the items.

    Note

    The Lock type menu is not available if:

    • Another team member has locked the file.

    • The Enable multiple check-out option has been cleared (not a recommended practice) by an Administrator of your team project. Administrator: On the menu bar, choose Team, Team Project Settings, Source Control).

  3. Choose Check Out.

In Package Explorer and in Source Control Explorer, a check mark Check out icon appears next to the items that you have checked out. In Team Explorer, a pending edit change to the file is displayed on the Pending Changes page. In Source Control Explorer, a pending edit change is visible to you and to members of your team.

See Also

Concepts

Team Foundation Server Plug-in for Eclipse - Beginner's Guide