How to merge new files into another branch in TFS?

Question

Ok, in TFS we have a main trunk branch and another branch, let\'s call it secondary. We have created a new file in the trunk but when trying to merge

Answer 1

trying to merge that specific file

To understand TFS it helps to remember that the unit of change is the changeset, and it is changesets (not files) that are checked-in and merged.

We're assuming that it's because an analagous file does not exist in secondary

This is correct - at the version (changeset number) that the target branch is at, this file simply does not exist, so there is nothing to merge to.

In general, you don't gain anything by selecting a particular file in the merge source dialog - as it says, it asks you to select the source and targe branches. Specify the branches at their root, choose Selected changesets only, and TFS will show you a list of changesets that exist in source but have not been merged to target. If you only want the one that added this new file, you can select it in that list.