[Svnmerge] Remembering --bidirectional status

[Blair Zajac]

David James wrote:
> On 11/9/06, Michael Haggerty <mhagger at alum.mit.edu> wrote:
>> Currently one has to supply the -b/--bidirectional option to many merge
>> operations.  Presumably, if this option is used inconsistently during
>> later merges, nonsense will result.
>>
>> Wouldn't it be nicer to allow the --bidirectional option to be passed to
>> "svnmerge.py init" and remember it in the svnmerge properties?  If a
>> directory is initialized in this way, then later operations would
>> automatically be done in bidirectional mode.
> 
> Great idea, Michael. If you setup a bidirectional merge structure
> using 'init', all merges will need the bidirectional flag. It makes
> more sense to supply the '--bidirectional' flag at init time rather
> than on each and every merge.
> 
> I think that we should also deprecate the '--bidirectional' option for
> merges, as well. Folks who need a bidirectional merge structure should
> specify this at init time.
> 
> We should also provide a way for users to add the 'bidirectional'
> property to a directory after it has already been uninitialized. Folks
> might initially create a unidirectional merge structure, and then
> later decide to switch to a bidirectional merge structure. Conversely,
> it should also be possible to turn off bidirectional mode for a
> directory, if you decide that you no longer need to do bidirectional
> merges.
> 
> Would it make sense to use the 'init' command to switch to
> bidirectional mode?  To switch off the bidirectional mode, you might
> use the 'init' command as well, but with a '--non-bidirectional'
> option.

I like the idea of storing the preference.

However, how is the svn merge tracking in 1.5 or greater going to work?  Is it 
always going to effectively have the -b flag set?

We had this discussion before, but I would much rather see the -b flag always 
set to reduce the possibility of errors.  If the svn 1.5 merge tracking will 
always have bidirectional support on, then I think svnmerge.py should too.

Regards,
Blair

-- 
Blair Zajac, Ph.D.
http://www.orcaware.com/svn/