[Svnmerge] Initializing New Branches - Already Initialized?

[Thomas F. O'Connell]

On Jan 8, 2007, at 3:50 PM, Daniel Rall wrote:

> On Mon, 08 Jan 2007, Thomas F. O'Connell wrote:
>
>> On Jan 4, 2007, at 3:04 PM, Daniel Rall wrote:
>>
>>> On Thu, 04 Jan 2007, Thomas F. O'Connell wrote:
>>>
>>>> Whenever I create a new branch, e.g.,
>>>>
>>>> cd working-copy-top-dir
>>>> svn copy trunk branches/new-branch-n
>>>>
>>>> And then try to initialize the branch, e.g.,
>>>>
>>>> cd branches/new-branch-n
>>>> svnmerge.py init
>>>>
>>>> I get the following error:
>>>>
>>>> svnmerge: /vhost/trunk has already been initialized at .
>>>> Use --force to re-initialize
>>>>
>>>> Am I missing something? Why would brand new branches already be
>>>> initialized?
>>>
>>> Does trunk already have the svnmerge-integrated property set on it
>>> before you create the branch (via 'svn cp')?
>>
>> Apparently. In trunk:
>>
>> svn proplist .
>> Properties on '.':
>>   svnmerge-blocked
>>   svnmerge-integrated
>>   svk:merge
>>
>> Is this ill-advised? What should I do to correct it?
>
> Well, you can't re-initialize a branch directory.  If you no longer
> need the record of merges which have occurred into your trunk, you can
> delete the merge info via:
>
>   svn propdel svnmerge-integrated
>
> BEWARE: This will LOSE ALL MERGE HISTORY for merges into trunk.
>
> Alternately, you can use 'svnmerge.py merge --record-only' (or just
> 'svn propedit') to explicitly mark all revisions from trunk as merged
> into your new branch (which is probably closer to what you're looking
> for).

Well, here's my scenario: I have a trunk and often create feature- 
specific branches that get developed at a variety of paces, but none  
of which I want to hold up patches to the trunk or merging of other  
branches. My expectation is that the trunk and branches are all  
bidirectional (although I've had a hard time deciphering what the  
best practices are for initial setup and ongoing maintenance of this  
scenario).

 From reading the built-in help and the wiki documentation, I had  
thought that the appropriate way to create a new branch was to create  
a copy of trunk as a branch and then to initialize both.

E.g.,

cd cd working-copy-top-dir
svn copy trunk branches/new-branch-n
cd branches/new-branch-n
svnmerge.py init
cd ../trunk
svnmerge.py init -r 1:[revision corresponding to n] [URL to new- 
branch-n]

Often, I'll need to patch something in trunk as branches are  
midstream. Then I want to merge a branch back to trunk and possibly  
merge those changes out to other feature branches.

Initial setup has been one confusing aspect. In the case above, when  
I got the error, I went ahead and just used --force to  
"re-"initialize the new branch(es).

I'm also a little unclear about when/how to use -b to my benefit when  
conducting merges.

I see all these issues as related to what would strike me as a fairly  
common usage pattern, and I'd be happy to contribute to improving  
documentation once I get my head around how best to proceed a little  
better.

--
Thomas F. O'Connell

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