Chapter 4. Branching and Merging

What's a Branch?
Using Branches
Creating a Branch
Working with Your Branch
The Key Concepts Behind Branching
Basic Merging
Changesets
Keeping a Branch in Sync
Subtree Merges and Subtree Mergeinfo
Reintegrating a Branch
Mergeinfo and Previews
Undoing Changes
Resurrecting Deleted Items
Advanced Merging
Cherrypicking
Merge Syntax: Full Disclosure
Merges Without Mergeinfo
More on Merge Conflicts
Blocking Changes
Merge-Sensitive Logs and Annotations
Noticing or Ignoring Ancestry
Merges and Moves
Preventing Naïve Clients from Committing Merges
The Final Word on Merge Tracking
Traversing Branches
Tags
Creating a Simple Tag
Creating a Complex Tag
Branch Maintenance
Repository Layout
Data Lifetimes
Common Branching Patterns
Release Branches
Feature Branches
Vendor Branches
General Vendor Branch Management Procedure
Vendor Branches from Foreign Repositories
Vendor Branches from Mirrored Sources
To Branch or Not to Branch?
Summary
 

“君子务本 (It is upon the Trunk that a gentleman works.)”

  
  --Confucius

Branching and merging are fundamental aspects of version control, simple enough to explain conceptually but offering just enough complexity and nuance to merit their own chapter in this book. Herein, we'll introduce you to the general ideas behind these operations as well as Subversion's somewhat unique approach to them. If you've not familiarized yourself with Subversion's basic concepts (found in Chapter 1, Fundamental Concepts), we recommend that you do so before reading this chapter.