merging with and without --force produces different results

[Stefan Küng <to...@gmail.com>]

Hi,

For some days now we've been tracking some strange differences in 
merging with TSVN and the CL client which we couldn't really explain.
Now I found the reason. But I'm not quite sure if it's a bug in the 
Subversion lib or if that's intended.

Attached is a bat script file (with txt extension to get past ISP virus 
checkers) which reproduces this.

Run the batch file. At the end, you'll see a file "file1.cpp" inside 
"folder".

If you now change the last line from
svn merge -r4:5 %REPO%/branch/b %WC%
to
svn merge -r4:5 %REPO%/branch/b %WC% --force

and run the script again, the "file1.cpp" isn't there anymore after the 
merge.

I always thought that the --force flag wouldn't change what get's merged 
and what doesn't, only that it would enforce a merge in case it would 
otherwise fail?

I've just tested this with the CL client compiled from the 1.3.x branch 
(updated half an hour ago).

Our discussion on the TSVN list indicates that this also happens with 
older clients.

Can someone please check this and explain me if this is really a bug or 
if it's intended why (and how) the --force flag changes the behavior of 
the merge here?

Stefan

-- 
        ___
   oo  // \\      "De Chelonian Mobile"
  (_,\/ \_/ \     TortoiseSVN
    \ \_/_\_/>    The coolest Interface to (Sub)Version Control
    /_/   \_\     http://tortoisesvn.tigris.org