Branching does not show labels inherited at project level

[rcsuser]

I have seen related posts on branching and labeling but they don't seem to address this particular behavior. So please excuse if this is a repeat post.

Lets say, I branched a project tree (say I branched A to B).

When I do a recursive history on a particular project at the directory level in B, I don't see labels or any other check-in details on the underlying files in that directory. At the directory level, all I see in the history is line items showing my "branch" action. I do see the complete history on each individual file just like the original trunk A has it but don't see that at the directory level. This functionality works great in the original trunk A at the directory level.

This prevents me from getting an entire project directory by label, from my branch B. I would've thought B would inherit A's history at all levels. However, to me it looks like B inherit's A's history only at file level and not at directory level. I am trying to a recursive get by label on B which is where I ran into this problem. This is Vault client and server version 3.1.9. The branch was done while we were on version 3.1.6 on client and server. Should I try to branch again in 3.1.9? Any known issues such as this or am I doing something completely wrong?

Any help is appreciated. I can provide more clarification if the post isn't quite clear. Thanks.

[jclausius]

Currently, history on branches does not retrieve labels applied on the "source" items. Labels applied to a folder or files under a folder created *after* the branch will be seen in history.

It is a bit of a long read, but are you asking the same questions in this thread - Major issues with Branching.

[rcsuser]

I read that thread before posting my question. It definitely sounds similar but not exactly what I'm trying to solve.

Let me give you an example of A and B in the original post above.

A (the original directory)
- SubDirectory A1
-- File A11
-- File A12

B (branched from A. Identical to A just to simplify this)
- SubDirectory A1
-- File A11
-- File A12

So when I do a recursive history on SubDirectory A1 (i.e. at folder level) in A, I see check-ins/ checkouts/ created etc. When I do a recursive history on SubDirectory A1 in B all I see is "branched" comments indicating my branch operation, but all original history I could see on A1 in A is not on A1 in B.

At the file level, A11 and A12 have all history in B that they had in A. It just seems at the folder level, history gets dropped when a branch is made.

To summarize, if I've branched a project, why don't I see the same history as the original trunk when I do a recursive history at the folder level. What led me to this issue is me trying to do a "get by label" on a folder in Branch B. I realized that the label was missing on the folder.

Thanks for your help so far.

[jclausius]

Yes. I see your question.

Due to the iterative nature of branches, the current behavior for folders does not retrieve past branch points.

There is a feature request to modify this behavior in a version after the release of Vault 3.5.

[rcsuser]

Thanks for the reply. That clears it up. Any ideas on which version of Vault this feature request might be fulfiled in?

Regards

[jclausius]

We haven't investigated what it would take to add the feature. I can tell you its not a simple one line fix, as the history would have to include branches of branches of branches of... well you get the picture.

The best I can do at this time is to say after Vault 3.5, which should be out in July. When we evaluate this and set a milestone , I'll post back to this thread.