Creating branches with SubversionEdit

Example: creating "tiger" branch for buildtools

# perform the actual branch
svn cp svn+ssh://svn.example.com/buildtools/trunk
       svn+ssh://svn.example.com/buildtools/branches/tiger

# check out clean copies of the two trees in the appropriate locations
cd trabajo
svn co svn+ssh://svn.example.com/buildtools/branches/tiger tiger/buildtools
svn co svn+ssh://svn.example.com/buildtools/trunk leopard/buildtools

Previously all work was gather undered the trabajo directory. Now it is structured like so:

trabajo/leopard/buildtools/
trabajo/tiger/buildtools/
trabajo/panther/
trabajo/jaguar/
trabajo/non-svn/

Projects that depend on the Leopard buildtools go in trabajo/leopard/. Almost everything else depends on the Tiger buildtools so they go in trabajo/tiger/. Note that the "trunk" for each checked out working copy will vary; for example, the buildtools checked out into the leopard directory will be from the "trunk", because that’s what corresponds to Leopard, but the buildtools checked out into the tiger directory will be from the "tiger" branch. In other cases the trunk may appear in the panther folder or even the jaguar one (the current release of Synergy is one such project).

For uniformity note that the buildtools are stored directly in the buildtools folder. The other projects should all be stored using the following format:

trabajo/os-version/project-name/svn-files

This is so that relative paths will work. Projects should have long ago abandoned the practice of storing branches in a folder named after the branch. It is tempting to get rid of the svn-files convention but I think it’s still useful to have it even if only because it justifies the presence of a conversely named non-svn-files folder which can be useful at times.

Given that I often check things out with the branch name as the principal folder in many cases I will need to set up a symlink:

cd ~trabajo/panther/SynergyAdvance
ln -s trunk svn-files

Example: creating "panther" branch for Synergy

As an example, consider the procedure taken to create a new branch, "panther", based on the current trunk of the Synergy codebase:

# rename checked out "trunk" to "panther"
mv trunk panther

# update "svn-files" symlink to point at "panther"
rm svn-files
ln -s panther svn-files

# check in changes to synchronize repository with working copy
cd panther
svn commit -m "Pre-branch commit"

# get the URL in the repository corresponding to the working copy
svn info

# copy the current trunk to a newly created branch
svn cp http://localhost:8080/svnrep/Synergy/trunk \
       http://localhost:8080/svnrep/Synergy/branches/panther \
       -m "Creating Panther branch"

# update the working copy to point at the new branch in the repository
svn switch http://localhost:8080/svnrep/Synergy/branches/panther

# confirm that the working copy corresponds to the new branch
svn info

It would be possible to check out a copy of the trunk into another directory and start working on Leopard-specific features but at the time of writing (September 2006) my plan is the following:

1. Do at least 1 or 2 more Jaguar-compatible releases; all this work will occur in the "panther" branch
2. When ready to switch to Leopard-centric development, check out a copy of the trunk and merge in changes from the "panther" branch
3. Continue new feature-related work in the "trunk"; only bug-fixes and maintenance will continue in the "panther" branch