Find and delete inactive tfs branches - sql-server

Question

Is there any built-in way to find and delete (tf destroy) branches of TFS project that were inactive (I mean there were no check in operations) for a long time, let's say 1 month. Either tfs tools or maybe sql script that can do it would be ok.

Answer 1

You can do it but you need to write a small program that uses the TFS API to check each branch and delete the unused ones.
You can use a simple C# console app and I can tell you from experience that the TFS public API is quite intuitive and easy to use. You can get started with it here.
Here's how to display all the branches.

Answer 2

Unused branches contain element modification history, rather than deleting them writelock the branch and leave it. The space that is recovered is not significant.

Answer 3

Well, whole thing wasn't hard, posting code here, might help someone:
private static string _tfLocation; //location of tf.exe
private static string _tfProject; //our team project
static void Main(string[] args)
{
_tfLocation = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings.Get("tfLocation");
_tfProject = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings.Get("tfProject");
var keepAliveBranches = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings.Get("keepAliveBranches").Split(',').ToList(); //branches that we keep anyway
var latestDate = DateTime.Now.AddMonths(-3); //we delete all branches that are older than 3 months
var folders = ExecuteCommand(string.Format("dir /folders \"{0}\"", _tfProject));
var branches = folders.Split('\r', '\n').ToList();
branches = branches.Where(b => !string.IsNullOrEmpty(b) && b.StartsWith("$")).Select(b => b.Remove(0, 1)).Skip(1).ToList();
branches.ForEach(b => b = b.Remove(0, 1));
foreach (var branch in branches)
{
if (keepAliveBranches.Contains(branch))
continue;
//get latest changeset
var lastChangeset = ExecuteCommand(string.Format("history \"{0}/{1}\" /recursive /stopafter:1 /format:brief /sort:descending /noprompt", _tfProject, branch));
var changesetDate = DateTime.Parse(Regex.Match(lastChangeset, #"\d{2}\.\d{2}\.\d{4}").Value); //get it's date
if (changesetDate < latestDate)
//destroy
ExecuteCommand(string.Format("destroy \"{0}/{1}\" /recursive /stopafter:1 /startcleanup /noprompt /silent", _tfProject, branch));
}
}
//execute console command and get results
private static string ExecuteCommand(string command)
{
var process = new Process()
{
StartInfo = new ProcessStartInfo(_tfLocation)
{
UseShellExecute = false,
RedirectStandardOutput = true,
CreateNoWindow = true,
Arguments = command
},
};
process.Start();
var result = process.StandardOutput.ReadToEnd();
process.WaitForExit();
return result;
}