CVS: Replace HEAD with a branch

Question

How do I replace the HEAD of a CVS repository with a branch?

Habitation

Answer 1

Check out this page, which has a pretty easy to follow walk through of branching and merging in CVS

http://kb.wisc.edu/middleware/page.php?id=4087

It also includes an example of replacing HEAD with a specified branch

Replacing One Branch With Another

Tag the end of your branch

cvs tag merge_NEW_BRANCH

Switch back to the branch you're replacing

To head:

cvs up -A

To branch:

cvs up -r OLD_BRANCH

Do the replace:

Replace head

cvs up -jHEAD -j NEW_BRANCH

Replace branch

cvs up -jOLD_BRANCH -j NEW_BRANCH

Commit changes and tag if you need to.

Infamous

I have a directory that doesn't exist in OLD_BRANCH but it does in NEW_BRANCH. When I run cvs up -jOLD_BRANCH -j NEW_BRANCH the directory is not created (and populated). Any idea why? Seems like this approach could miss other changes if it misses this directory. – Roughrider

It seems adding -d works but also adds directories that don't exist in the NEW_BRANCH. Sigh. – Roughrider

if you mean empty directories, it's normal CVS behaviour. You have to use additional option -P to not got them. So in the end: "cvs up -dP ..." – Bitstock