Merging a subversion branch back into trunk

Here’s an tutorial explaining how to merge a subversion branch back into trunk:

# First you'll need a local working copy of your trunk
$ cd /path/to/checkout/trunk
$ svn co https://HOSTNAME/repo/trunk .

# The above command will return the latest revision of the trunk
# which you'll need to remember for a later command. Example:
Checked out revision 76.

# If you already have a working copy of your trunk,
# running an "svn update" will set your repo to the latest revision
# and return the latest revision:
$ cd /path/to/checkout/trunk
$ svn update
At revision 76.

# Now, you'll need to find the revision when the branch was created:
$ svn log --stop-on-copy https://HOSTNAME/repo/branches/20091205 | tail -5
------------------------------------------------------------------------
r63 | eric | 2009-10-07 15:10:28 -0400 (Wed, 07 Oct 2009) | 1 line

Created branch.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

# Now that you know the latest trunk revision and the branch created revision,
# you can execute the merge on your local working copy of trunk
# NOTE: it would be a good idea to ensure you are not executing the merge
# in an active environment!
$ cd /path/to/checkout/trunk
$ svn merge -r 63:76 https://HOSTNAME/repo/branches/20091205 .

# NOTE: the revision range syntax is: "-r BRANCH:TRUNK"

# Now if you execute an "svn stat" command you'll see that all the changes from your branch have been applied to your working copy of trunk. Hopefully, there are no conflicts! Now you can review the changes, test your code, and commit.

If you need to merge some changes made to trunk into your branch, you could do the following:

# find the branch created revision:
$ svn log --stop-on-copy https://HOSTNAME/repo/branches/20091205 | tail -5
------------------------------------------------------------------------
r63 | eric | 2009-10-07 15:10:28 -0400 (Wed, 07 Oct 2009) | 1 line

Created branch.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

# find the latest revision of trunk:
$ svn info https://HOSTNAME/repo/trunk | grep -i ^Last\ Changed\ Rev
Last Changed Rev: 76

# from checked out local copy of branch:
$ svn merge -r 63:76 https://HOSTNAME/repo/trunk .

Eric London