On Thu, 3 Apr 2008 17:18:08 -0700
"Hari Kodungallur" <hkodungallur_at_gmail.com> wrote:
> On Thu, Apr 3, 2008 at 5:12 PM, Nathan Nobbe <quickshiftin_at_gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > On Thu, Apr 3, 2008 at 5:56 PM, Mike Meyer <
> > mwm-keyword-svn.257b71_at_mired.org> wrote:
> >
> > > Does anyone else but me find the help provided with "svn help merge"
> > > to be missing a vital piece of information? Or at least that it's
> > > non-obvious?
> > >
> > > Here's the first explanation, the others are similar:
> > >
> > > merge: Apply the differences between two sources to a working copy path.
> > > 1. merge sourceURL1[@N] sourceURL2[@M] [WCPATH]
> > >
> > > 1. In the first form, the source URLs are specified at revisions
> > > N and M. These are the two sources to be compared. The revisions
> > > default to HEAD if omitted.
> > >
> > > Differences between two files have a *direction*, which isn't
> > > indicated here. The set of differences that turn oldfile into newfile
> > > are *different* from the set that turn newfile back into oldfile. The
> > > diff man page (at least on GNU/Linux) catches this:
> > >
> > > SYNOPSIS
> > > diff [options] from-file to-file
> > >
> > > Compare that to the merge command (on FreeBSD; I believe it's from the
> > > GNU reimplementation of rcs) states the direction of the diff that's
> > > going to generate the merges very clearly:
> > >
> > > merge [ options ] file1 file2 file3
> > > merge incorporates all changes that lead from file2 to file3 into
> > > file1.
> > >
> > > Perforces integrate help text is somewhat obfuscated, but the
> > > direction for the diff is still clear.
> > >
> > > p4 integrate [ options ] fromFile[revRange] toFile
> > > 'p4 integrate' stages change propagation from source files to target
> > > files,
> > >
> > >
> > > The subversion version (quoted above) doesn't state which direction
> > > the differences that are going to be applied go. Yes, the numbers 1
> > > and 2 give the right order, and the command line order is the same for
> > > them all. However, it'd be nice if the help text made this explicit.
> >
> >
> > i have to agree w/ you here. if im not mistaken the semantics on svn
> > merge are
> >
> > svn merge [dest] [src]
> >
> > based upon experimentation (boy i hope thats right otherwise im screwed on
> > a ton of merges ive done ;))
> >
> > in fact i was just discussing this w/ a fellow developer the other day.
> > the whole direction thing and we pretty much covered exactly what you said.
> > the conversation was something along the lines of
> > "you know diffs have a direction to them..".
> > "yes, but svn help merge doesnt indicate what the direction is...".
> > "o,... LAME"
> >
> > by the way, i like how you went whole-hog on your case; im convinced!
> >
> >
>
> I agree as well that the direction should be made explicit in the help. I
> never noticed it till now :-)
>
> Nathan, I tend to look at it this way:
>
> svn merge [from] [to] [dest]
> - difference from [from] to [to] and merge it to the [dest] which is the
> working copy
>
> If you meant [src] and [dest] in terms of the diff direction, I think you
> have it backwards. Or may be I am confused!!
>
> regards,
> -Hari
This looks like sufficient support to justify adding it to the issue
tracker. Could someone who already has a login please do so and let me
know? If not, I'll go through the necessary hoops.
thank you,
<mike
--
Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org> http://www.mired.org/consulting.html
Independent Network/Unix/Perforce consultant, email for more information.
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Received on 2008-04-04 21:17:23 CEST