WorkingWithCVSBranches

Starting Work on an Existing Branch

• checking out a specific branch of MODULE into DIR

    cvs -z3 checkout -r BRANCH -d DIR MODULE

Explanation of switches:

• • -z3 - compress communication with the CVS server
  • -r - the branch to use
  • -d - the directory to checkout into (defaults to MODULE)

• switching your working copy to BRANCH (commit before you do this unless you like pain!)

    cvs -z3 update -PAd -r BRANCH

Explanation of switches:

• • -P - prune empty directories from your working copy
  • -A - "reset sticky tags" (change the current branch)
  • -d - create new directories as required
  • -r - the branch to use

Making Your Own Branch

1. Make a branch based on the revisions in your working copy (commit before you do this!)

    cvs -z3 tag -b BRANCH

2. Switch your working copy to that BRANCH (as shown earlier)

    cvs -z3 update -PAd -r BRANCH

3. Tag the initial revisions in your branch (you'll need this for merging easily)

    cvs -z3 tag BRANCH_START

Merging Your Changes

1. Commit your work and resolve any conflicts

2. Tag the revisions for this merge

    cvs -z3 tag BRANCH_MERGE

3. Switch your working copy back to the branch you want to merge to (HEAD is the default if you don't specify a branch with -j)

    cvs -z3 update -PAd -r OTHER_BRANCH

4. Merge the changes between BRANCH_START and BRANCH_MERGE into your working copy

    cvs -z3 update -Pd -j BRANCH_START -j BRANCH_MERGE

5. Check for any conflicts and commit the changes

If you want to work on BRANCH some more, you'll need to switch your working copy back to BRANCH again.

For future merges, you'll need to tag the revisions for those merges with unique tags (e.g. BRANCH_MERGE_2, BRANCH_MERGE_3, etc...), and only merge the changes between the previous merge and the new one.

This is so you don't end up merging the same set of changes twice. Example:

 First merge: -j BRANCH_START   -j BRANCH_MERGE
Second merge: -j BRANCH_MERGE   -j BRANCH_MERGE_2
 Third merge: -j BRANCH_MERGE_2 -j BRANCH_MERGE_3

If you merge to another branch that you've never merged to before, you'll need to merge from BRANCH_START up through BRANCH_MERGE_3 to catch up.