Tools for SVN Merging

Question

SVN merging is very time consuming (especially on large code bases) and error prone. Eclipse and Netbeans plugins don't serve me very well. At the moment I'm using a combination of manual "svn merge" and the graphical diff Meld. Are there better alternatives (non-win32)?

Answer 1

Actually there are reports of people using git-svn or hg-svn bridges to download a tree, preform a merge, then upload the merge. Doesn't solve the messiness part but the increased speed of the merge makes it less tedious.

Answer 2

I have recently started using the new Beyond Compare 3 (for Windows and Linux). It seems to consistently make better automated merge decisions then TortoiseSVN or KDiff3. Particularly on whitespace, I believe this is due to BC3s better file type configuration.

I also think its merge interface is cleaner and easier to understand then KDiff.

Answer 3

Meld is arguably one of the best and one of the most used tools for non-win32. On Windows or with Wine WinMerge wins hands down. Some alternatives for Linux:

• Kompare
• KDiff3
• DirDiff

P.S. Actually on Windows the TortoiseSVN merge tool gives great results too :)

Answer 4

I figured out how to use SvnMerge, which is a Python script(s), and had quite a lot of success with it. You can google for the instructions I put on my blog, or drop me a line and I'll post the vanity link.

Answer 5

I really like Sourcegear Diffmerge. http://www.sourcegear.com/diffmerge/

Answer 6

We have always used TortoiseSVN on my work. Never had any problem with the merge so I can also recommend it.

Answer 7

I've used svnmerge and it helps a lot. It's a command line utility, so it may not be the best tool for everyone, but it's good for me.

Answer 8

Which platform are you running on? On Windows I use TortoiseSVN to carry out most diffs and merges pretty easily. Only some of the more complicated strands of diffs are performed with UltraCompare.

Answer 9

I have created open source console tool to automate merging process. I think it can helpful for other peoples: Merger
It can:
- Switch subfolders in the folder to the new branch
- Calculate difficulty of the future merge (number of commits/changed files/ commits to the same files, by project)
- Merge revision by revision in auto mode, until no conflicts
- Bulk merge of the groups of projects.
In theory it should be able to work with mono.

Answer 10

Best tool I've currently found for Linux is submerge from subcommander package. Here is how to use this and integrate with eclipse.