Merging changes

If a revision has been branched off from the main line of development it may be necessary to apply the changes in that revision to the main line. For example, after checking out an old version of a file to fix a bug, a new branch will be created when that file is checked back in. If the bug fix has to be applied to the main line of development, you will need to merge these changes with the tip revision.

To merge revisions, you can use the Difference Viewer. The Difference Viewer provides a side-by-side view of two revisions of a file, or a specified revision and the current work file. If the work file is writable, the changes in the revision can be applied to the work file.

To merge a branch into the main line of development, first check out the tip revision of the main line:

Then select the branched revision and select Action/Differences/<filename> from the main menu.

If there are multiple files in this group (see file groups), the process will have to be repeated for each file.

The difference viewer will be displayed:

The difference viewer can be used to apply changes from one file to another. In this case, we want to apply the relevant changes in the branched revision to the work file. The Difference Viewer will be described in another section but, once the changes have been applied to the work file, closing the Difference Viewer prompts you to save the changes.

Checking in the file, with the changes, effectively applies the changes made in the branch revision to the new tip revision.

See also: Scenario 6