Force/overwrite merge of two tags in svn

Question

I was wondering if it was in any way possible to merge tag_1 into tag_2 such that any conflicts result in tag_1's files overwriting tag_2's files by default. Also, if there are files/dirs in tag_1 that don't exist in tag_2 will exist after the merge.

For example, if I was to execute:

svn merge http://host/svn/tags/tag_1 http://host/svn/tags/tag_2

this would force overwrite and commit all changes and then if I checked out tag_2, all of tag_1's additional/altered files would be in the working copy.

Currently, I use a method that runs a diff and then runs svn rm on any files of the same name and path in tag_2 and then svn cp the new files in, but it is becoming quite inefficient as releases grow in the number of changed files.

Answer 1

1. Use '2-URL Merge' as "Tool of last resort", not needed here
2. Read svn help merge carefully for command options

3. If you want merge to tag2, you have:

   • Checkout tag_2 into fresh Working Copy, or if it exist, make it Clean WC: no local modifications, no mixed revisions
   • In this WC svn merge http://host/svn/tags/tag_1 --accept 'mine-conflict' do the trick (parts without conflicts will be merged, for conflicted chunks "mine" - i.e tag_2 version - will be selected automatically)
   • Commit merge result

Edit: Test-run in reply to comment

Initial state (use trunk and branch)

svn log -q -v file:///Z:/Repo/
------------------------------------------------------------------------
r3 | Badger | 2013-01-17 10:07:55 +0600 (Чт, 17 янв 2013)
Changed paths:
   A /branches/MyFixes (from /trunk:2)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
r2 | Badger | 2013-01-17 10:03:32 +0600 (Чт, 17 янв 2013)
Changed paths:
   A /trunk/Data
   A /trunk/Data/b.txt
   A /trunk/Data/c.txt
   A /trunk/a.txt
------------------------------------------------------------------------
r1 | Badger | 2013-01-17 09:57:52 +0600 (Чт, 17 янв 2013)
Changed paths:
   A /branches
   A /tags
   A /trunk
------------------------------------------------------------------------

svn ls -R file:///Z:/Repo/trunk
Data/
Data/b.txt
Data/c.txt
a.txt

svn ls -R file:///Z:/Repo/branches/MyFixes
Data/
Data/b.txt
Data/c.txt
a.txt

Change branch (edit files, add new objects)

svn log -q -v file:///Z:/Repo/ -l 1
------------------------------------------------------------------------
r4 | Badger | 2013-01-17 10:26:40 +0600 (Чт, 17 янв 2013)
Changed paths:
   M /branches/MyFixes/Data/b.txt
   M /branches/MyFixes/Data/c.txt
   A /branches/MyFixes/Data/d.txt
   A /branches/MyFixes/NewData
   A /branches/MyFixes/NewData/e.txt
   A /branches/MyFixes/NewData/f.txt
   M /branches/MyFixes/a.txt
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Control diffs for "M"-files

svn diff file:///Z:/Repo/trunk/a.txt file:///Z:/Repo/branches/MyFixes/a.txt
Index: a.txt
===================================================================
--- a.txt       (.../trunk/a.txt)       (revision 4)
+++ a.txt       (.../branches/MyFixes/a.txt)    (revision 4)
@@ -1,2 +1,2 @@
-String 1
-String 2
+A String 1
+A String 2

---

svn diff file:///Z:/Repo/trunk/Data/b.txt file:///Z:/Repo/branches/MyFixes/Data/b.txt
Index: b.txt
===================================================================
--- b.txt       (.../trunk/Data/b.txt)  (revision 4)
+++ b.txt       (.../branches/MyFixes/Data/b.txt)       (revision 4)
@@ -1,2 +1,3 @@
-Data String 1
-Data String 2
+The Data String One
+The Data String Two
+The Data String Three

---

svn diff file:///Z:/Repo/trunk/Data/c.txt file:///Z:/Repo/branches/MyFixes/Data/c.txt
Index: c.txt
===================================================================
--- c.txt       (.../trunk/Data/c.txt)  (revision 4)
+++ c.txt       (.../branches/MyFixes/Data/c.txt)       (revision 4)
@@ -1,2 +1,3 @@
-String 1 data
-String 2 data
+1 Los datos de cadena
+Cadena 2 Datos
+Cadena 3 Datos

Try to merge

z:\Trunk>svn merge file:///Z:/Repo/branches/MyFixes --accept "mine-conflict" --dry-run
--- Merging r3 through r4 into '.':
A    NewData
A    NewData\e.txt
A    NewData\f.txt
U    Data\b.txt
U    Data\c.txt
A    Data\d.txt
U    a.txt

Impression - none conflicts (as expected), none tree-conflicts (as expected by me), diverged files merged, new from branch - added

Real merging

z:\Trunk>svn merge file:///Z:/Repo/branches/MyFixes --accept "mine-conflict"
--- Merging r3 through r4 into '.':
U    Data\b.txt
U    Data\c.txt
A    Data\d.txt
U    a.txt
A    NewData
A    NewData\e.txt
A    NewData\f.txt
--- Recording mergeinfo for merge of r3 through r4 into '.':
 U   .

Commit merge

svn log -q -v file:///Z:/Repo/ -l 1
------------------------------------------------------------------------
r5 | Badger | 2013-01-17 10:50:35 +0600 (Чт, 17 янв 2013)
Changed paths:
   M /trunk
   M /trunk/Data/b.txt
   M /trunk/Data/c.txt
   A /trunk/Data/d.txt (from /branches/MyFixes/Data/d.txt:4)
   A /trunk/NewData (from /branches/MyFixes/NewData:4)
   M /trunk/a.txt
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Attention - Problem!

Maybe I edited files erroneously in branch (a/b/c), but for some strange reasons --accept "mine-conflict" was ignored and files after merge are equal to their branch's parents.

Addition: OK, I forgot edit also a/b/c in trunk before merging. Mea culpa, must work as expected totally after adding this point