Subversion: How to merge only specific revisions into trunk when multiple consecutive changes are made in a branch?

Question

I have been using TortoiseSVN, svn, and subclipse and I think I understand the basics, but there\'s one thing that\'s been bugging me for a while: Merging introduces unwante

Answer 1

Well to clarify a thing about merge is that it actually has 2 steps.

1. Merge
2. Commit

So that means that after your merge is done, you can do a manual diff against head and the other branch to make sure that the merge was correct. And if something was wrong with it, like in your case, you can manually fix it before the commit.

/Johan

Answer 2

As pointed out by other users (I won't take credit for noticing it because I didn't), it may be the trivial nature of this merge (i.e. lack of context around the change) that is confusing the tools.

I do a lot of merging and, as you discovered, the merge tool provided by Tortoise is awful. A three-way merge tool is an absolute must if you do this very often. Beyond Compare is my personal favorite, but there are other that are free (Meld, KDiff3) and ones that are not (Araxis).

You will notice that Beyond Compare did the right thing in the end, even if it makes you manually verify it correctness!