Updating the trunk from a branch using svn copy?

[tcraig]

Normally, before we merge a branch back to the trunk, we update the
latest branch from the latest trunk version and test. Once this is complete,
the migration of the branch version to the trunk is less a merge than a
copy. The SVN book outlines a process where a user uses "svn merge"
to bring the branch version onto the trunk via

svn co $SVNREPO/trunk
svn merge $SVNREPO/base_version $SVNREPO/branch
svn commit

now the trunk has a been updated to changes from the branch. In our
example though, because the branch has been pre-updated with the
head of the trunk anyway, the merge command would look like

svn co $SVNREPO/trunk
svn merge $SVNREPO/trunk $SVNREPO/branch
svn commit

which translates to, checkout the trunk, update the trunk with the
diffs between the trunk and the branch, commit the trunk.

Instead of this process, would a simple

svn copy $SVNREPO/branch $SVNREPO/trunk

perform exactly the same operation?

 

[mvr]

no...the command you suggest would copy the directory containing the branch to a subdirectory under ~/trunk

the idea of just replacing the trunk with the branch is probably not something we'd want anyway since we'd be replacing the trunk's history with that of the branch...

-mathew