Re: Merges and Conflicts with Binary File Formats

[Ben Collins-Sussman <su...@collab.net>]

On Feb 28, 2005, at 5:27 PM, nicholas a. evans wrote:
>
> So, I've looked and looked to see what subversion does when attempting
> to merge binary files, and I coouldn't find any confirmation at
> http://svnbook.red-bean.com/ or on google.

It doesn't merge binary files.  It just creates 3 fulltexts for you to 
deal with.

 From this part of the book:

   http://svnbook.red-bean.com/en/1.1/ch03s05.html#svn-ch-3-sect-5.4

"If Subversion considers the file to be of a mergable  type, it places 
conflict  markers—special strings of text which  delimit the “sides” of 
the  conflict—into the file to visibly demonstrate the  overlapping 
areas. (Subversion uses the  svn:mime-type property to decide if a  
file is capable of contextual, line-based merging. See  the section 
called “svn:mime-type” to learn more.)"

The svn:mime-type is described here:

   http://svnbook.red-bean.com/en/1.1/ch07s02.html#svn-ch-7-sect-2.3.2


>
> Wouldn't it be better if binary files were *never* merged and *always*
> resulted in conflicts?

Yes, that's exactly what happens.

But if a bunch of people must share binary files, then the only way to 
make changes safely is to serialize access to the resource.  That's 
what the upcoming locking feature is all about.


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