Re: vendor branching and merge

[Greg A. Woods]

[ On Saturday, February 23, 2002 at 15:56:22 (-0500), Larry Jones wrote: ]
> Subject: Re: vendor branching and merge
>
> Greg A. Woods writes:
> > 
> > [ On Friday, February 22, 2002 at 16:09:37 (-0500), Larry Jones wrote: ]
> > > 
> > > Using import is not appropriate in this case.
> > 
> > Actually I think 'import' is the correct function to use -- I concur
> > with Eric's earlier suggestion to unpack the previous release and then
> > update it manually with the new files, and finally import it as per the
> > normal process you'd use if you got an entire release from the vendor.
> 
> That works, too.  If you still have the previous release other than in
> CVS, then that may be easier; if you only have the previous release in
> CVS, then checking out the vendor branch and working there probably is.

It's still better to "cvs export" the previous vendor release than it is
to check it out and to try to work on the vendor branch directly.

> > Working on a checked out vendor branch is not always going to have the
> > correct results with CVS -- the vendor branch is too magic.  It may or
> > may not work correctly in this situation, but "cvs import" will always
> > work correctly.  Sometimes the problems are subtle and won't appear for
> > some time.
> 
> Please elucidate -- I don't know of any way that import treats the
> vendor branch in a particularly magic fashion.

I'll have to dig through quite a pile of notes to find the details.....

This was one of those rules of thumb that only became apparent over time
and after doing a fair bit of work on the vendor branch.

-- 
                                                                Greg A. Woods

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