CODEWITHSUNDEEP
svnbranching-and-merging
Spiderman
Spiderman

Reputation: 10030

Does SVN show branch hierarchy anywhere?

I Have got in my SVN's repositry a branch called 'Version4'
now I created out of this branch another branch called 'Version4.5' so that the parent of this branch should be 'Version4' branch.
Is this hierarchy shown somwhere in SVN views? because when I open the repository browser I can see the folders of these 2 branches side by side in the same level and not one beneath the other.
Perhaps the hierarchy doesn't matter at all to SVN and I can merge from any branch to any branch (even if logically it doesn't make sense)?

Upvotes: 2

Views: 4208

Answers (3)

Rup
Rup

Reputation: 34418

Which repository browser - the web interface? That's a very simple view on the latest (or a pegged) revision for the whole repository.

If you're using 1.5+ server and client then the best you're likely to have is an svn:mergeinfo property at the root of each revision,

svn propget svn:mergeinfo http://myserver/svn/branches/version4.5/

which lists the source branches and revisions of any copying and merging you've done. I think the first entry will be the original this branch was created from.

Upvotes: 0

Thilo
Thilo

Reputation: 262824

Perhaps the hierarchy doesn't matter at all to SVN and I can merge from any branch to any branch (even if logically it doesn't make sense)?

The layout of the directory tree in a subversion repository does indeed not matter at all. Having folders called "trunk", "tags", "branches" and using them as such is a mere convention (but of course a very useful one).

You can see what branch was created off which other branch (or tag, or whatever) by inspecting the version history. It will show up as the source path of the COPY command that created the branch.

I strongly recommend you use a GUI tool or something like Trac to be able to comfortably investigate these things.

Upvotes: 4

Álvaro González
Álvaro González

Reputation: 146630

In Subversion, branching and tagging are accomplished through regular directory copy; it's not a bultin concept and it hasn't anything special. The location displayed in the repository browser in the one you chose when doing the copy. If you are not happy with it, you can move stuff around as usual. The only physical relationships that exists between branches are:

  • Common ancestors (before branching)
  • Merge history (after branching)

Upvotes: 2

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