SVN: merge local changes into other working copy

Question

I have two working copies of the same project, each switched to a different branch. Is it possible to merge local changes in one project to the other working copy?

Answer 1

You can't merge two separate working copies, but there are some things you can do.

If the changes are made to existing files, the easiest way is to create a patch with svn diff, and then just apply that patch to the other working copy. Eg. in the first working copy you do:

svn diff > patch

And then you apply it in the other one:

patch -p0 < patch

And as usual you want to run patch with the --dry-run option to make sure it works first.

However if the branches don't have the same file layout, then you can't just take a patch and apply it. In this case what you need to do is simply just first commit the other local changes, and then use svn merge as usual