Hello,
I need some advice on how to best perform a merge in the scenario
below. This mimics a real-world example that was just performed, and I
would welcome pointers on how to improve the process.
We're using the trunk for work on the next product release, and branches
are created for experimental work, future release work, and post-release
maintenance. Development towards Release 1 of the product progresses on
the trunk. Before Release 1 is complete, work on Release 2 commences by
creating a branch off the trunk at a specific tag (BUILD1234). The
branch is named BUILD1234_REL2_BRANCH.
Work progresses independently on both trunk and branch for a couple of
weeks. Release 1 modifications are made to the trunk, and Release 2
features are added to the branch. At some point, the Release 2 branch
developers realize they need bug fixes made on the trunk since their
branch was created to continue with their work. The latest trunk code
tag is BUILD4567, and the latest (fixed) tag on the branch is
BUILD1234_REL2_BUILD5. Code from the trunk is merged to the branch (on
the branch, with cvs update -j BUILD1234 -j BUILD4567) and committed.
The branch code is tagged BUILD1234_REL2_MERGED_WITH_BUILD4567.
Work again progresses on the trunk and the branch until we get to the
point where the code on the trunk towards Release 1 is complete. A
branch tag for Release 1 maintenance is created.
Now we want to merge the code from the Release 2 branch to the trunk.
The latest trunk code tag is BUILD5432, and the latest (fixed) tag on
the branch is BUILD1234_REL2_BUILD10. From the trunk, I issue a cvs
update -j BUILD1234_REL2_BUILD10. Here's where the problem comes about
- I get conflicts on "remerging" changes which had already been merged
to the branch and are now merged again to the trunk. If I issue from
the trunk a cvs update -j BUILD1234_REL2_BUILD5 -j
BUILD1234_REL2_BUILD10, I don't get the changes made on the branch
between BUILD_1234 to BUILD_REL2_BUILD5.
We had about 54 conflicts on the merge to the trunk, most of which were
easily resolved, but I suspect there should have been only about 10
conflicts if I'd done it right. I suspect I needed to do something like
create a new branch on trunk revision BUILD_4567 (call the branch tag
BUILD_4567_BRANCH), and then merge the changes onto this branch between
-j BUILD1234 and -j BUILD1234_REL2_BUILD5. I could then have used the
following command to merge back to the trunk: cvs update -j
BUILD_4567_BRANCH -j BUILD1234_REL2_BUILD10.
Does this sound right? Is there an easier way?
I appreciate your responses...
David
