How to get tf.exe (TFS command line client)?

Question

What\'s the minimum amount of software I need to install to get the \'tf.exe\' program?

Answer 1

I'm in a virtual machine, and am trying to keep my VHD as small as possible, so I find Team Explorer is a really heavyweight solution (300+ MB install). As an alternative, I've had some luck copying a minimal set of EXEs/DLLs from a Team Explorer installation to a clean machine (.NET 4.0 is still required, of course).

I've only tried a handful of operations so far, but this set of files (about 8.5 MB) has been enough to get basic source-control functionality via tf.exe:

• TF.exe
• TF.exe.config
• Microsoft.TeamFoundation.dll
• Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Client.dll
• Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Common.dll
• Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Common.Library.dll
• Microsoft.TeamFoundation.VersionControl.Client.dll
• Microsoft.TeamFoundation.VersionControl.Common.dll
• Microsoft.TeamFoundation.VersionControl.Controls.dll

(It should go without saying that this is a completely unsupported solution, and it doesn't free you from the normal TFS licensing requirements.)

Depending on the operations you perform, you may find that additional DLLs are required. Fortunately, tf.exe will produce a nice error message telling you exactly which ones are missing.

Answer 2

Visual Studio 2017 Team Explorer

According to https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/bharry/2017/04/05/team-explorer-for-tfs-2017/ you can now download it separately from Visual Studio via this link:

https://www.visualstudio.com/thank-you-downloading-visual-studio/?sku=TeamExplorer&rel=15

Answer 3

In Visual Studio 2017 & 2019, it can be found here :

-Replace {YEAR} by the appropriate year ("2017", "2019").

-Replace {EDITION} by the appropriate edition name ("Enterprise", "Professional", or "Community")

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\{YEAR}\{EDITION}\Common7\IDE\CommonExtensions\Microsoft\TeamFoundation\Team Explorer\tf.exe

Answer 4

There is a Java TFS client in the Team Explorer Everywhere installation (together with an Eclipse plugin). Look at http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30661

Answer 5

The tf.exe command line is included in the VSTS agent package in folder externals\vstsom.

Answer 6

You can also try TFS CLI for Node.js which is a cross-platform CLI for Microsoft Team Foundation Server and Visual Studio Team Services.