Release branch merging.

Hi There everyone,

I have trunk, branches and tags.
(the "default" repo setup)

VERY recently we swapped from continuous deployment to having a scheduled release strategy.
We used to simply cherry-pick or even just OS copy the required changes from trunk to a "special"(to us) branch any change that needed to go to production.
This special branch was ten simply copied to production.

Now, we are trying to start the "standard" release strategy,
Develop on trunk,
Merge to a release branch,
Create a tag.

I genuinely cannot recall how we created the release branch;
all I know is the symptoms of what I now face - and hope to "correct".

I did this;
cd /repos/branches/releases/1
svn merge ^/trunk --dry-run

And subsequently got a status report that everything was going to be a conflict.
So I think it's safe to say that the releases branch was created by an OS copy and not an SVN aware operation.

is there a pain-free way that I correct my repository to allow for successful trunk -> release branch merging?
I am thinking of;
 * Deleting the release branch;
 * Recreating the release branch at the revision that the release branch was originally created.
 * Re-merging the single trunk change that was merged to ^/branches/releases/1.0

Which should bring it to its current state - and match the 1.01 release tag.

And hopefully now allow me to merge ^/trunk -> ^/branches/releases - which should allow a more pain-free merge for the next release.

Do I have that right?
Is there something else I can do that would negate the requirement to recreate the release branch?

As always - thanks for your assistance.

Gavin 'Beau' Baumanis.
Received on 2011-10-19 13:56:59 CEST