Re: [BUG] Merging to a branch with sparsely checked out files fails without error

[Mark Phippard <ma...@gmail.com>]

Just add --depth=infinity to your merge command and it works fine.
This is the expected behavior.  I am not exactly sure why, but it has
been explained before on this list.

Mark

On Tue, Mar 24, 2009 at 10:42 AM, Sebastian Celis
<su...@sebastiancelis.com> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I ran into a bug while attempting to perform a merge inside of a working copy with lots of sparsely checked out directories. In my particular situation, svn says that the merge succeeded, but none of the file contents have been modified. Only a few svn:merge-info properties have been set.
>
> I believe the issue only occurs when merging into a branch that has been sparsely checked out. Parent directories to the branch can be sparsely checked out without issue, but if the branch itself is sparsely checked out, this issue will occur.
>
> I am attaching a shell script that reproduces the bug. I have confirmed that this happens in both the 1.6.0 client as well as 1.5.6.
>
> Thank you,
> Sebastian Celis



-- 
Thanks

Mark Phippard
http://markphip.blogspot.com/

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RE: Re: [BUG] Merging to a branch with sparsely checked out files fails without error

[Sebastian Celis <su...@sebastiancelis.com>]

> I recall that too, but can't find it.  Anyhow, the way it works is:
> 
> "The default depth of a merge is the same as the merge target."
> 
> For example, if you don't specify a --depth and merge into directory
> that was checked out at depth=immediates, then the merge will proceed
> as if you specified --depth immediates.  It won't matter if some of
> the target's children are themselves checked out a a greater depth.

Interesting. However, I do not know if this is obvious to the user. At least it wasn't to me or to any of my coworkers. Can we open a discussion about how this currently works and whether it should be changed or better documented? I see a few potential solutions for preventing future confusion:

1) Change svn merge so that if --depth is not specified, it defaults to "infinity".

This is what I expected svn to do. As a user, when I merge a particular revision (or range of revisions) into my current working copy, I expect the changes made in those revisions to be fully merged. If they are not, I expect to be told so.

This change would have an interesting side-effect. If a user attempts to a merge a revision which changed a file that is not in the user's working copy, that file (or a parent directory to that file) will be marked as conflicted. This might not be a bad thing, and immediately tells the user what went wrong. They can then revert that conflict and commit if that is what they want to do. Or they can check out the files they are missing and redo the merge.

2) Better document the current functionality.

This could done with additional information in 'svn help merge'. Maybe another paragraph at the top? Or maybe a few additional sentences when discussing the depth parameter, specifically stating the default value.

3) Clarify the functionality in the output of 'svn merge'.

a) When performing any merge, a sentence could be printed that describes the operation about to be performed (something like: Performing merge on . with depth=files).

b) When performing a merge, if parts of the revision(s) could not be merged due to a sparsely checked out working copy, 'svn merge' could print a helpful message to the user (something like: The following files could not be updated as they are not checked out in the working copy: ...).

I think I am leaning toward (1) or (3).

- Sebastian Celis

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Re: [BUG] Merging to a branch with sparsely checked out files fails without error

[Paul Burba <pt...@gmail.com>]

On Tue, Mar 24, 2009 at 11:05 AM, Mark Phippard <ma...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Just add --depth=infinity to your merge command and it works fine.
> This is the expected behavior.  I am not exactly sure why, but it has
> been explained before on this list.

I recall that too, but can't find it.  Anyhow, the way it works is:

"The default depth of a merge is the same as the merge target."

For example, if you don't specify a --depth and merge into directory
that was checked out at depth=immediates, then the merge will proceed
as if you specified --depth immediates.  It won't matter if some of
the target's children are themselves checked out a a greater depth.

Paul


> Mark
>
> On Tue, Mar 24, 2009 at 10:42 AM, Sebastian Celis
> <su...@sebastiancelis.com> wrote:
>> Hello,
>>
>> I ran into a bug while attempting to perform a merge inside of a working copy with lots of sparsely checked out directories. In my particular situation, svn says that the merge succeeded, but none of the file contents have been modified. Only a few svn:merge-info properties have been set.
>>
>> I believe the issue only occurs when merging into a branch that has been sparsely checked out. Parent directories to the branch can be sparsely checked out without issue, but if the branch itself is sparsely checked out, this issue will occur.
>>
>> I am attaching a shell script that reproduces the bug. I have confirmed that this happens in both the 1.6.0 client as well as 1.5.6.
>>
>> Thank you,
>> Sebastian Celis
>
>
>
> --
> Thanks
>
> Mark Phippard
> http://markphip.blogspot.com/
>
> ------------------------------------------------------
> http://subversion.tigris.org/ds/viewMessage.do?dsForumId=462&dsMessageId=1403046
>

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