Search code examples
svnversion-controlmergethree-way-merge

Subversion: How to merge only specific revisions into trunk when multiple consecutive changes are made in a branch?


I have been using TortoiseSVN, svn, and subclipse and I think I understand the basics, but there's one thing that's been bugging me for a while: Merging introduces unwanted code. Here's the steps.

trunk/test.txt@r2. A test file was created with 'A' and a return:

A
[EOF]

branches/TRY-XX-Foo/test.txt@r3. Branched out the trunk to TRY-XX-Foo:

A
[EOF]

branches/TRY-XX-Foo/test.txt@r4. Made an unwanted change in TRY-XX-Foo and committed it:

A
B (unwanted change)
[EOF]

branches/TRY-XX-Foo/test.txt@r5. Made an important bug fix in TRY-XX-Foo and committed it:

A
B (unwanted change)
C (important bug fix)
[EOF]

Now, I would like to merge only the important bug fix back to trunk. So, I run merge for revision 4:5. What I end up in my working directory is a conflict.

trunk/test.txt:

A
<<<<<<< .working
=======
B (unwanted change)
C (important bug fix)
>>>>>>> .merge-right.r5
[EOF]

Against my will, Subversion has now included "unwanted change" into the trunk code, and I need to weed them out manually. Is there a way to merge only specified revisions when multiple consecutive changes are made in the branch?

The part of the problem is that B (unwated change) is included in .merge-right and I can't tell the difference between which revision it came from. I usually use TortoiseMerge and here's how it looks.

text.txt.working


Solution

  • The problem is that both svn

    A
    <<<<<<< .working
    =======
    B (unwanted change)
    C (important bug fix)
    >>>>>>> .merge-right.r341
    

    and TortoiseSVN is treating the situation as 2-way merge. I've heard of the term 3-way merge, so I gave Beyond Compare a shot. With quick set up with TortoiseSVN, Edit Conflict now bring up the following screen. This is not perfect, since it's still requiring human intervention, but at least I can tell which changes are coming from where.

    See screenshot.