svn merge changes mergeproperty of externals

Hello,

I've just noticed svn merge changes mergeproperty of externals and was
wondering if this shouldn't be considered a bug.

Example:

trunk/mylib/externals/some_file_external.foo

branches/mylib_featurebranch/externals/some_file_external.foo

If I make some change to files (not externals) in trunk/mylib and
later try to merge them to my feature branch to keep it in sync with
the trunk, svn also changes the merge property of externals.

I think this is semantically wrong because since
some_file_external.foo actually is an external it exactly the same
file in both branches. For my understanding externals shouldn't get
considered for merging operations at all. At least some option to
ignore externals on merge would be usefull.

Also there is no option to ignore externals on commit, so the only way
to get things rigth in this case is to do:

svn up --set-depth empty
svn up --set-depth infinity --ignore-externals
svn merge ........
svn up

What do you think?

regards,

Peter

P.S.:
Maybe it would be a good idea to solve a lot of similiar problems that
are currently existing with externals and their interpretation by
creating another class of links.
I think the main problem with externals is, that there are currently
two different possible use cases.

1.) Externals are dependencies/external recources that are independent
from the project code and shouldn't be considered for any operations
by default (except for checkout, status and maybe update). This is the
original meaning I think.
2.) Externals are some sort of soft-/hardlink to common code used in
different parts of your project.

Maybe thinks would get more clear and easier if the second case would
be another class LINK type.

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Received on 2009-11-18 13:44:38 CET