The shelf information includes the specific path it goes to. Unfortunately I don't know of any automatic way to unshelve to any location other than the one it was shelved to. The times I've wanted to do this I had to check out the equivalent files in the new branch, unshelve from the old branch, then manually copy the files over.
EDIT: Well, I guess I was doing it the hard way. I'll have to try out Curt's solution. :)
C:\src\2\Merlin\Main>tfpt unshelve /?
tfpt unshelve - Unshelve into workspace with pending changes
Allows a shelveset to be unshelved into a workspace with pending changes.
Merges content between local and shelved changes. Allows migration of shelved
changes from one branch into another by rewriting server paths.
Usage: tfpt unshelve [shelvesetname[;username]] [/nobackup]
[/migrate /source:serverpath /target:serverpath]
shelvesetname The name of the shelveset to unshelve
/nobackup Skip the creation of a backup shelveset
/migrate Rewrite the server paths of the shelved items
(for example to unshelve into another branch)
/source:serverpath Source location for path rewrite (supply with /migrate)
/target:serverpath Target location for path rewrite (supply with /migrate)
/nobackup Skip the creation of a backup shelveset
For example to merge a shelve set called "Shelve Set Name" created on Branch1 to Branch2 use this:
>tfpt unshelve "Shelve Set Name";domain\userName /migrate /source:"$/Project/Branch1/" /target:"$/Project/Branch2/"
Alternative solution to tfpt that avoids having to merge each file manually
The problem with the tfs power tool is that you're doing a 'baseless merge' so have to confirm every file. I had a shelveset of over 800 files and I never trust the 'auto merge' button and didn't want to go through each file in turn - so I had to find another way!
Run the 'Shelveset Sidekick' tool, click Search to show shelvesets
Right click on your shelveset and select 'Export Shelveset'
Save to an empty location such as C:\temp\shelveset-name
Now have a complete directory structure containing JUST the new files
(Note: There's no progress bar when exporting - so if you have a large shelveset that takes a long time to export you'll just have to check in Windows Explorer (File>Properties>Size) that the files are still coming down if you think it's frozen).
You now just have to copy them over to the new branch with Windows Explorer.
This worked for me :
Checking out the whole solution first (in the new branch)
Close that solution
Take TFS offline from within VS (Tool to do this) - see below for why this is important...
Copy files over in Windows Explorer. The directory structure in c:\temp\shelveset-name will have to be renamed to correspond to the new branch. Tip: Make sure you copy to the right place!!!
Bring VS online
It should find all the changes and add the new files
If it asks you to bind the sourcecontrol be sure to verify the path is correct for the new branch.
Test - and then checkin the new files
Important: I've found that if you don't first take TFS offline then you'll end up with any new files (from your unshelves changeset) showing without a little red check mark and you'll have to exclude and include them again to get them to add. If anyone has an alternative solution to this problem I'd love to know - refreshing doesn't seem to work.
I spent good amount of time to get this done and I had few issues to overcome. It is possible but here few issues and few rules to follow to avois these issues
Error:
unable to determine the workspace
This particular issue was solved by running the command from source branch root folder. This is contrary to some answers on SO where they say to use "target" branch - no, use "source":
Second issue appeared after this. Seem that it couldn't connect to TFS server. What I realized, I have multiple VS installed and connected to different TFS servers. I was using VS12 and I had workspace and server connection. But I didn't realize that same connection needs to be replicated in VS13 for TFPT2013 to work. It connects to same server and workspace.
I also tried doing it using TFPT2015 but I installed it and it didn't install TFPT.exe hence it was useless. So I tried from TFPT2013 to TFS2015 and it worked for this particular command. I wonder, why not, if VS12/13 works fine against TFS2015?
To summarize
Use CMD or DevCMD - doesn't matter
run command from source branch root folder
verify Team Explorer Server connection for specific VS
TF Power Tools 2013 work against TFS v15, at least migrate option works