tortoise svn always merging 45 extra files

Question

When we do our branching and merging with svn, we always have the same thing happen.

We get a latest copy of the trunk.

Create a branch and switch.

Make some small change on one file in the branch.

Merge branch back into trunk.

At this point, we'll have our one file that needs to be comittied, plus the same 45 extra files. This happens on every single branch and merge, and its always the same 45 extra files. I have no idea how to fix the problem, but its extremely annoying.

Has anyone ever seen this before?

UPDATE: When I do the commit, the files that I actually changed have their Text Status as modified and their property status as blank. The "45 files" are all Text Status normal, Property Status modified.

Answer 1

They're probably mergeinfo properties. With version 1.5 of SVN, it was quite aggressive with setting the mergeinfo property, and as you merge, those properties get updated - requiring a commit to them.

The answer is to delete the mergeinfo property from them. Also upgrade to version 1.6 which has better mergeinfo support (i.e. it writes less of these properties).

I should say that these file will have no visible changes if you look at the differences. Obviously, if their contents are changed, then what the changes are may give you a clue (e.g. is an automated tool writing extra comments, modifying the layout or adding lines to the top or bottom).

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EDIT: See this blog post for more information on SVN merging issues, and fixes.