Did you recently upgrade SVN from 1.4x to 1.5x? If so, you may that you cannot merge changes because you will get an error similar to this:
Retrieval of mergeinfo unsupported
The reason for this is because Subversion 1.5 has started the implementation of a new feature called “Merge Tracking”, which means that Subversion is now tracking what changes have been merged where in your code - similar to how it tracks changes made to your files between revisions. The reason for this is:
- Reduce the bookkeeping overhead for branch maintenance
- Avoid common cases of the “repeated merge” problem
- Allow for cherry-picking of changes
Keep in mind that this new feature is not yet fully implemented according to the original spec. You can read about the changes to Merge Tracking in Subversion 1.5.
The error that I was originally getting is because when you upgrade from 1.4x to 1.5x, Subversion is upgraded, but not your database (whether you are using FSFS or Berkely DB). There are a couple of good reasons for this. First, Subversion 1.5x is backwards-compatable and will work with older DB versions. And secondly, the database is not upgraded becuase the developers of Subversions didn’t want 1.5 to “silently make repositories unusable by 1.4 - that step should be a conscious decision on the part of the repository admin”.
Fixing this issue, and upgrading your SVN database is as simple as entering the following command for your repository:
svnadmin upgrade
Of course you can learn more about Merge Tracking using these resources:
- Take a look at the list of known issues
- Read “The Final Word on Merge Tracking” in the Subversion Book
- Read “Understanding the internals of Subversion’s merge tracking feature” by Paul Burba
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