SVN merge previous revision into working copy

Question

If

• I'm working on an SVN branch at revision 5.
• I make a change, commit to create revisions r6.
• Revert back to r5 as r6 introduced problems, and commit, creating r7
• Continue working on r7, eventually committing changes up to r10

How do I merge the changes made in r6 back into my working copy?

I've tried

svn merge -r5:6 .

and

svn merge -r5:HEAD .

Both of which seem to do nothing. What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

Try this:

svn merge --ignore-ancestry -r5:6 .

or using newer syntax:

svn merge --ignore-ancestry -c6 .

btw: I recommend to always specify what files you want to work with instead of "."

Answer 2

If you are using a relatively recent svn release, you can use:

svn merge -c -6 .

(or the specific file(s) you would like to revert, rather than '.')
This is a shorthand for:

svn merge -r6:5 .

so if your on an older subversion release (prior to 1.6.x) you can use this syntax.

This may introduce properties into your repository (svn:mergeinfo, if memory serves), at least if you perform the merge on a whole directory. reverting a change to a single file, or set of files, does not affect properties. If you don't want these properties added to your repository, you may need to fall back to a patch (automated or manual).

Answer 3

I am not too familiar with command line svn. But in case the correct usage does not get you the result you want here is what I would try:

1. Create a patch out of revision r6 (differences between r6 and r5).
2. Apply it on the working copy.

Answer 4

Try reversing the revision that merged out the initial revert.

eg Instead of svn merge -r 5:6 try svn merge -r 7:6 .

Answer 5

You could revert. Create a tag. Once you are done, you can merge changes from the tag to the branch you are working in.