Merge not picking up changes in individual files/crashing

[ROTRTechTeam]

I am using v. 3.0.5. I have two branches that have some substantial differences in some of the files. I've run the merge wizard. I've committed the changes. The only thing that seems to work right is that files are added to the one branch from the other that were not already there. However, any changes within the individual files themselves do not seem to make it over. In fact, I've confirmed this by doing a DIFF on two files -- one from each branch -- and there are changes in the origin that are not in the target.

HELP!

Mike

[ericsink]

I am using v. 3.0.5. I have two branches that have some substantial differences in some of the files. I've run the merge wizard. I've committed the changes. The only thing that seems to work right is that files are added to the one branch from the other that were not already there. However, any changes within the individual files themselves do not seem to make it over. In fact, I've confirmed this by doing a DIFF on two files -- one from each branch -- and there are changes in the origin that are not in the target.

HELP!

Mike

Two possibilities come to mind:

1. You should consider upgrading to 3.0.7. There were some bug fixes for merge branches in 3.0.6.

2. Sometimes problems that sound like yours are traced to mistakes when selecting the changes to be merged. Can you tell us more information about what you selected when the merge branches wizard gave you the history of the origin folder?

Thanks,

--
Eric

[ROTRTechTeam]

Eric,

First, before I did the merge I made a copy of both branches so I could compare and satisfy myself that the merge happened. Well, I've done a diff on some forms that I KNOW have changes and the alleged merged copy is actually MISSING all the changes that were made. So, the target branch seems as though it was just overwritten rather than merged. Sure glad I made a copy!

Here is how I did the merge. I ran the wizard and selected one branch as the source (the one with more changes) -- Branch A. I then selected the other branch as the target -- Branch B. The wizard ran, loaded the files and then presented me with a list of files. Every file said "Add" and a few were not in the target, Branch B. The first time through, I only selected the files from Branch A that were not in Branch B. That only succeeded in adding those files to Branch B from Branch A. The next time I attempted the merge and got to this step, I actually selected all files. The wizard said it would attempt to merge changes. At that point it ran for a long time. I was presented with a changeset at the end of the process. I committed that change set. Now I am where I said before--it appears Branch A has just overwritten Branch B, which makese sense as I read my own explanation.

So the question is: how do I successfully use this merge feature?

[ericsink]

Sorry for the slow reply on this. I need to work with you more closely to figure out what is going wrong in your situation. Could you email me?

eric@sourcegear.com

Thanks.

[ssalter_chemsw]

I'm having a similar problem, and I wonder if it may be related.

I did a large merge, and while most of the files merged successfully, some of them were missing all of their changes. When I tried to execute the merge again, I noticed that the files that were missing changes were listed as 'Add File' operations which I couldn't check to include in the merge, because they were 'Already Present'.

What I believe happened was that, after branching, I added these files to both the source and the branch folders. But Vault refuses to let me merge these files because the Add File operation would presumably fail. When I select only changes that occurred after the initial Add File, Vault is able to merge these changes.

What would be nice is if Vault would be able to merge changes even if the file is already present and the change set includes an 'Add File'. There doesn't seem to be any reason why Vault couldn't just ignore the add file operation and merge the changes with the file that's already there.

-Steve

[ericsink]

At the file level, merge is a 3-way operation -- you need three versions of the file:

1. The older version from the origin
2. The newer version from the origin
3. The target version

In this situation, you have only two, since #1 above is not present. Vault has only two files to work with, so it can't proceed with a file merge.

Furthermore, it doesn't know which one you want to use.

When you did this, I assume the merge branches wizard highlighted this row with a gripe saying the file was "Already Present", and with the corresponding checkbox unchecked. Did you try forcing the operation by checking that checkbox? Some operations can be forced in this manner, and I think this is one of them.

--
Eric

I'm having a similar problem, and I wonder if it may be related.

I did a large merge, and while most of the files merged successfully, some of them were missing all of their changes. When I tried to execute the merge again, I noticed that the files that were missing changes were listed as 'Add File' operations which I couldn't check to include in the merge, because they were 'Already Present'.

What I believe happened was that, after branching, I added these files to both the source and the branch folders. But Vault refuses to let me merge these files because the Add File operation would presumably fail. When I select only changes that occurred after the initial Add File, Vault is able to merge these changes.

What would be nice is if Vault would be able to merge changes even if the file is already present and the change set includes an 'Add File'. There doesn't seem to be any reason why Vault couldn't just ignore the add file operation and merge the changes with the file that's already there.

-Steve