[cvsnt] Merging branch with identical versions still changes

[Glen Starrett]

Just in case anyone else needs to know, I discovered I can work around this
a little by doing:

	cvs -q diff | find "RCS file:"

to get a list of all the files that have changed.  That at least gets me a
list of files that were actually changed on the branch.

Oh, and I forgot to mention: I'm using cvs 2.0.11 server and a combination
of 2.0.11 (at command line) and 2.0.8 (via TortoiseCVS 1.5.1) on the client.
I ran a quick check using 2.0.11 exclusively on the final merging step and
got the same results.


Glen Starrett


> -----Original Message-----
> From: cvsnt-bounces at cvsnt.org 
> [mailto:cvsnt-bounces at cvsnt.org] On Behalf Of Glen Starrett
> Sent: Thursday, November 06, 2003 10:02 AM
> To: 'CVSNT'
> Subject: [cvsnt] Merging branch with identical versions still changes
> 
> 
> When I'm about to merge in a branch back to MAIN, I first 
> merge MAIN onto
> the branch so that testing and conflict resolution happen on 
> the branch, not
> on MAIN.  Then when I merge the branch to MAIN it is 
> seamless, shortening
> the time my sandbox is being updated on MAIN.  However, when 
> I do this,
> every file that was updated on MAIN since the branch point is 
> bumped up a
> revision with *no change* by this back-and-forth merge process.
>  
> To detail a sample problem file (I changed the numbers to be 
> simpler, my rev
> numbers are much higher):
>  
> --File "foo.vb", verision 1.1.
>  
> --Branch GRS is created, foo.vb is on the 1.1.2 branch.
>  
> --foo.vb is modified on MAIN, now 1.2
>  
> --Branch GRS merges in changes, gets update from foo.vb.  Now 
> called 1.1.2.1
> on branch, with a mergepoint of 1.2.
>  
> --Now I merge changes from GRS back to HEAD.   foo.vb merges 
> changes from
> 1.1.2.1 to 1.2, with a "merge from" 1.1.2.1 (the pending mergepoint,
> right?).
>  
> --> The local file is modified.  CVS diff reports nothing 
> (because there is
> no difference), yet I can (and do) commit it, and it gets a 
> new revision
> number on HEAD (1.3).  
>  
> Why?  Shouldn't cvs realize there is no change and not even 
> modify the file
> on the merge from GRS to HEAD?  It makes it more difficult to 
> review the
> _real_ changes that have happened on a branch as I am merging 
> changes in.
>  
> Regards,
>  
> Glen Starrett
>  
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