RE: setting up branch with code changes already in it

[Jim.Hyslop]

address@hidden wrote:
> I have read through a few tutorial pages and past messages but haven't
> found the answer - have a source tree on trunk and have a bunch of
> changed files in it. I want to create a branch and check in the
> changed files to the branch. Based on a tutorial I found, I have done
> this so far:
> 
> (from top directory within tree)
> cvs tag v2_0_unstable_root
> cvs tag -b -r v2_0_unstable_root v2_0_unstable
You can now check it in directly to the branch:

cvs ci -r v2_0_unstable

(or use pa's advice and update to the branch first - your choice).

I always recommend setting up a special repository, or a special directory
within your repository, that is reserved for experimenting with CVS. Any
files appearing in that special section are throw-away files, that exist
solely for testing purposes. Ours is called cvs-test. At any time, I can
telnet to the server, and issue the commands:

address@hidden:$ cd $CVSROOT/cvs-test
address@hidden:$ rm -rf *

without any repurcussions (well, to be nice to others, I should restrict my
activities to $CVSROOT/cvs-test/jhyslop, just in case someone else is in the
middle of an experiment :-)

> I have not checked in the files because I wanted to be sure they will
> check into the branch. How can I verify the code will check into the
> branch? cvs log doesn't seem to show that info. I read somewhere that
> the branch gets created on commit - is that true?
Yes - the operation we commonly call "creating a branch" is really just
"applying a branch tag."

> Also I was surprised that a test change from a trunk-based file in a
> separate directory hierarchy did get checked out into my (hopefully)
> branched hierarchy though I would have thought a "cvs up" in the
> branch wouldn't pick up new trunk changes.
I'm not sure I follow that. Can you elaborate on this, or provide a sequence
of commands that illustrates what you mean?

-- 
Jim Hyslop
Senior Software Designer
Leitch Technology International Inc. ( http://www.leitch.com )
Columnist, C/C++ Users Journal ( http://www.cuj.com/experts )