On Fri, Mar 27, 2015 at 2:27 PM, Johan Corveleyn <jcor...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Fri, Mar 27, 2015 at 9:01 PM, Pete Harlan <pchpubli...@gmail.com> wrote: >> On Tue, Mar 24, 2015 at 11:24 AM, Pete Harlan <pchpubli...@gmail.com> wrote: >>> Is it accurate then to say that Subversion may generate explicit >>> mergeinfo whenever it decides that there is something useful to record >>> about the set of revisions that contributed to a given node, and that >>> svn:mergeinfo properties may appear in subnodes as part of normal >>> Subversion merging bookkeeping, and this doesn't imply lack of a full >>> root->root merge or other user shenanigans? >>> >>> I appreciate your time on this. >> >> Hi, >> >> Is that an accurate description? I'm not trying to file a bug report >> anymore, I'm just looking to understand the intent of this property so >> we can know what to expect when moving forward from 1.7. >> >> Thanks for your help, >> > > Yes, I think it's possible that svn records mergeinfo on subnodes > (directories or files), even if there is nothing to do there. It > happens for instance when that subnode already has some explicit > mergeinfo (explicit, as opposed to inherited), because of some > previous merge. As soon as a node has explicit mergeinfo, that > explicit mergeinfo needs to be updated on every merge to the root of > the branch. > > I'm trying to explain from memory here, possibly not entirely > accurate. I think you should really start by reading this article [1] > describing the merge tracking introduced in 1.5 (it has undergone > changes and many bugfixes since then, but the underlying principles > are still the same). It explains nicely some important terms such as > 'inheritable mergeinfo', 'explicit mergeinfo', 'mergeinfo elision' > etc.. > > Also, some changes were made in 1.7 to reduce the amount of > unnecessary subtree-mergeinfo changes [2]. > > [1] https://www.open.collab.net/community/subversion/articles/merge-info.html > [2] > http://subversion.apache.org/docs/release-notes/1.7.html#subtree-mergeinfo-recording > > -- > Johan
Thank you. I don't mean updates to explicit mergeinfo, which I understand from 1.7 and prior, and I have read the docs on mergeinfo handling. In 1.8 and later I've started to see explicit svn:mergeinfo properties appearing on subtrees outside the context of user-initiated non-root merges and am trying to follow the circumstances in which they occur and whether I should stop being concerned about them. The earlier parts of this thread [1], where I was believing the new mergeinfo properties to be inadvertent (i.e., bugs) detail my confusion. I have stopped trying to tell the Subversion authors what I thought they meant to do :), and am now trying to get a solid understanding going forward. I (and others) had been inferring non-root merges when seeing explicit subtree mergeinfo (an inference informed by the articles that you cite), and believe on the basis of this thread that I have to stop doing that if I want to use 1.8 or newer. Because of the necessity to explain the rules to our developers, I was hoping for further clarification of those rules here. [1] http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.version-control.subversion.user/118260 Thanks, --Pete