How do I create a branch?

StackOverflow https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2041

Question

How do I create a branch in SVN?

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Solution

Branching in Subversion is facilitated by a very very light and efficient copying facility.

Branching and tagging are effectively the same. Just copy a whole folder in the repository to somewhere else in the repository using the svn copy command.

Basically this means that it is by convention what copying a folder means - whether it be a backup, tag, branch or whatever. Depending upon how you want to think about things (normally depending upon which SCM tool you have used in the past) you need to set up a folder structure within your repository to support your style.

Common styles are to have a bunch of folders at the top of your repository called tags, branches, trunk, etc. - that allows you to copy your whole trunk (or sub-sets) into the tags and/or branches folders. If you have more than one project you might want to replicate this kind of structure under each project:

It can take a while to get used to the concept - but it works - just make sure you (and your team) are clear on the conventions that you are going to use. It is also a good idea to have a good naming convention - something that tells you why the branch/tag was made and whether it is still appropriate - consider ways of archiving branches that are obsolete.

OTHER TIPS

Create a new branch using the svn copy command as follows:

$ svn copy svn+ssh://host.example.com/repos/project/trunk \
           svn+ssh://host.example.com/repos/project/branches/NAME_OF_BRANCH \
      -m "Creating a branch of project"

If you're repo is available via https, you can use this command to branch ...

svn copy https://host.example.com/repos/project/trunk \
       https://host.example.com/repos/project/branches/branch-name \
  -m "Creating a branch of project"

svn cp /trunk/ /branch/NEW_Branch

If you have some local changes in trunk then use Rsync to sync changes

rsync -r -v -p --exclude ".svn" /trunk/ /branch/NEW_Branch

Normally you'd copy it to svn+ssh://host.example.com/repos/project/branches/mybranch so that you can keep several branches in the repository, but your syntax is valid.

Here's some advice on how to set up your repository layout.

Suppose you want to create a branch from a trunk name (as "TEST") then use:

svn cp -m "CREATE BRANCH TEST" $svn_url/trunk $svn_url/branches/TEST

If you even plan on merging your branch, I highly suggest you look at this:

Svnmerge.py

I hear Subversion 1.5 builds more of the merge tracking in, I have no experience with that. My project is on 1.4.x and svnmerge.py is a life saver!

Top tip for new SVN users; this may help a little with getting the correct URLs quickly.

Run svn info to display useful information about the current checked-out branch.

The URL should (if you run svn in the root folder) give you the URL you need to copy from.

Also to switch to the newly created branch, use the svn switch command:

svn switch http://my.repo.url/myrepo/branches/newBranchName
  • Create a new folder outside of your current project. You can give it any name. (Example: You have a checkout for a project named "Customization". And it has many projects, like "Project1", "Project2"....And you want to create a branch of "Project1". So first open the "Customization", right click and create a new folder and give it a name, "Project1Branch").
  • Right click on "Myproject1"....TortoiseSVN -> Branch/Tag.
  • Choose working copy.
  • Open browser....Just right of parallel on "To URL".
  • Select customization.....right click then Add Folder. and go through the folder which you have created. Here it is "Project1Branch". Now clik the OK button to add.
  • Take checkout of this new banch.
  • Again go to your project which branch you want to create. Right click TorotoiseSVN -> branch/tag. Then select working copy. And you can give the URL as your branch name. like {your IP address/svn/AAAA/Customization/Project1Branch}. And you can set the name in the URL so it will create the folder with this name only. Like {Your IP address/svn/AAAA/Customization/Project1Branch/MyProject1Branch}.
  • Press the OK button. Now you can see the logs in ...your working copy will be stored in your branch.
  • Now you can take a check out...and let you enjoy your work. :)
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