How to import and merge 2 directories with SmartSVN?

Question

I have such situation:

• We have a website which code is not hosted on SVN.
• I made changes in this website.
• Freelancer hired by client (not our team member) made changes in parallel; we have not possibility to collaborate.
• So, we have 2 folders on hard drive with 2 versions of the same site modified in parallel, like "trunk" and "branch" in SVN.

The question is: is it possible to import both versions of website to SVN repository, one as trunk and one as branch, and get from SVN list of differences to edit changed files and solve conflicts? It looks like SVN specially created to solve such problems, but I can not investigate how to solve it.

• I imported one version in trunk.
• I imported another version in branch.
• I selected "merge" in SmartSVN, but all modified files are recognized as "tree conflict" and not as "file modification", so I can not use built-in conflict resolving tools, because it writes that "file is not modified", but at the same moment "file is in tree conflict" state.

For test, I even made in such a way: I put fully the same files in branch and trunk, and when I click "merge", all files are marked as "tree conflict" even I know that they are fully identical, i. e. it gives fake conflict report.

Answer 1

Do you still also have a copy of the pre-edited one? If so, use that to create the trunk, then take a branch at that point. Then in two separate working copies, one from the trunk, and one from the branch, copy across your changes (trunk) and the freelancer's changes (branch) and commit both. You may then be able to merge the two using SVN tools.

However, use of a tool like BeyondCompare on two directories might be easier...

Answer 2

You must not import in trunk and branch, but first import the common base version in trunk, create the branch, commit the changes 1 there and the others in the trunk. Now the merge should work. If you create a file in the master and the branch, then a tree conflict occurs when merging.