5.6 Merging an entire branch

You can merge changes made on a branch into your working copy by giving the `-j branch' flag to the update command. With one `-j branch' option it merges the changes made between the point where the branch forked and newest revision on that branch (into your working copy).

The `-j' stands for "join".

Consider this revision tree:

+-----+ +-----+ +-----+ +-----+ ! 1.1 !----! 1.2 !----! 1.3 !----! 1.4 ! <- The main trunk +-----+ +-----+ +-----+ +-----+ ! ! ! +---------+ +---------+ Branch R1fix -> +---! 1.2.2.1 !----! 1.2.2.2 ! +---------+ +---------+

The branch 1.2.2 has been given the tag (symbolic name) `R1fix'. The following example assumes that the module `mod' contains only one file, `m.c'.

$ cvs checkout mod # Retrieve the latest revision, 1.4 $ cvs update -j R1fix m.c # Merge all changes made on the branch, $ cvs commit -m "Included R1fix" # Create revision 1.5.

A conflict can result from a merge operation. If that happens, you should resolve it before committing the new revision. 10.3 Conflicts example.

If your source files contain keywords ( 12. Keyword substitution), you might be getting more conflicts than strictly necessary. See 5.10 Merging and keywords, for information on how to avoid this.

The checkout command also supports the `-j branch' flag. The same effect as above could be achieved with this:

$ cvs checkout -j R1fix mod $ cvs commit -m "Included R1fix"