[svn.haxx.se] · SVN Dev · SVN Users · SVN Org · TSVN Dev · TSVN Users · Subclipse Dev · Subclipse Users · this month's index

Re: Symmetric Merge

From: Mike Dixon <michael.dixon_at_denovosoftware.com>
Date: Fri, 23 Mar 2012 10:55:45 -0700

On 3/22/2012 10:19 PM, Branko Čibej wrote:
> On 22.03.2012 22:33, Julian Foad wrote:
>> Branko Čibej wrote:
>>> I'm confused. What additional checks would --reintegrate do that your
>>> common or garden merge would skip? What kind of check do you think you
>>> can safely skip without throwing all the effort you're putting into
>>> fixing the merge algorithm out the window?
>> The checks of target WC state mentioned above. Of course, the name "reintegrate" would then be less than appropriate, and we could consider a new name that makes more sense for that "I expect this to be a clean simple merge" kind of meaning. Is the use of an asymmetric-sounding option name for a now-symmetric functionality what was making you uncomfortable?
>
> No, what bugs me is the assumption that the user gives a pig's ear about
> whether the merge is "clean and simple" or whether the merge algorithm
> has to figure out all sorts of cherry picks and criss-cross twists. I
> very strongly suspect that the user doesn't care, she just wants merge
> to do the right thing, every time. What do you want --reintegrate to do,
> abort the merge if the user is wrong about "clean and simple?" Of course
> not.

Hello, I'm a user. If I'm trying to bring a feature branch back onto
trunk and the merge isn't "clean and simple", 99% of the time it's
because I did something wrong. Either my working copy is in a different
state than I think it is, or the branch in a strange state because of
previous mistakes. It's nice that svn will be able to handle more
complicated merges in the future, but please don't remove the existing
checks on standard operations that protect me from my own ignorance.

I'm also the svn administrator at $WORK, and I can promise you that my
other users understand the system even less well than I do. I'm not
really looking forward to having to disentangle a reintegrate that was
applied to a WC with switched subtrees.

-Mike

>
> /Reporting/ the merge complexity is a different matter, but you can load
> that onto the --verbose flag, or even always report, "Resolved %d cherry
> picks and %d Gordian knots, of which %d required the Alexandrian solution."
>
> -- Brane
>
Received on 2012-03-23 18:56:20 CET

This is an archived mail posted to the Subversion Dev mailing list.

This site is subject to the Apache Privacy Policy and the Apache Public Forum Archive Policy.