Clearing special permissions from folders in a branch - version-control

Question

We're a fairly large project with a single trunk branch. Most of it uses the default permissions, but a few folders have custom permissions - say, only "Builders" group is allowed to check-in.
We want to allow people to create their own private branches out of trunk, where they can freely check-in and merge later (hopefully often). However, creating a branch, the special permissions are copied along with the folders, meaning that people can't freely check-in into their branch.
Is there a way to clear special permissions from a branch, or a folder?
Is there a way to do so automatically, so anyone creating a branch under /private/** will not encounter this problem?

Answer 1

I found out about tf permission (Example: tf permission /inherit:yes itemSpec). However, the /recursive switch doesn't work with it. I guess I could write something that runs it recursively...
Edit: I finally got around to writing a tool for it:
static int Main(string[] args)
{
if (args.Length == 0 || args.Any(a => !a.StartsWith("$/")))
{
Console.WriteLine("Removes all explicit permissions and enables inheritance for a subtree.\n"
+ "Example: " + Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(Assembly.GetEntryAssembly().Location) + " $/project/path1 $/project/path2");
return 3;
}
WorkspaceInfo wi = Workstation.Current.GetLocalWorkspaceInfo(Environment.CurrentDirectory);
if (wi == null)
{
Console.WriteLine("Can't determine workspace for current directory: " + Environment.CurrentDirectory);
return 2;
}
var Tfs = TfsTeamProjectCollectionFactory.GetTeamProjectCollection(wi.ServerUri);
VersionControlServer VersionControlServer = Tfs.GetService<VersionControlServer>();
Console.WriteLine("Server: {0} Getting permissions...", wi.ServerUri);
ItemSecurity[] perms = VersionControlServer.GetPermissions(args, RecursionType.Full);
Console.WriteLine("Will remove explicit permissions from the following items:");
var changes = new List<SecurityChange>();
foreach (ItemSecurity perm in perms)
{
Console.WriteLine(" " + perm.ServerItem);
changes.Add(new InheritanceChange(perm.ServerItem, inherit: true));
foreach (AccessEntry e in perm.Entries)
{
changes.Add(new PermissionChange(perm.ServerItem, e.IdentityName, null, null, PermissionChange.AllItemPermissions));
}
}
Console.WriteLine("Enter to confirm:");
Console.ReadLine();
var successfulchanges = VersionControlServer.SetPermissions(changes.ToArray());
if (successfulchanges.Length == changes.Count)
{
Console.WriteLine("Explicit permissions removed from all items");
return 0;
}
else
{
Console.WriteLine("Explicit permissions removed only from:");
foreach (var c in successfulchanges)
{
Console.WriteLine(" " + c.Item);
}
return 1;
}
}