I currently have a java library in subversion under package:
com.company.product.foo.*
Unfortunately, I have to refactor this into:
com.othercompany.bar.*
That'd be fine as a one-shot. But this has to be performed only on a specific branch. The problem is then to merge changes from trunk to the branch with totally different names.
The only solution I see would be to create a patch file, run some search & replace and then apply it on the branch.
Is there any better option ?
I can't see any really good solutions, but would it be an option to just create subclasses under the new package name?
Then the patches could be applied to the super classes, and the sub classes would never actually contain anything.
The first most obvious solution is to not use either company name as the package, but rather a trademarked name, or a neutral domain name that would be used going forward.
If that isn't possible (as in the customer doesn't want the two code bases to be seen as connected) the next most obvious solution is to use a source control system that is more friendly to the concept. Git might have better options, or perforce.
If you have to stick with subversion, then I would have it in source control under a neutral package name and then have the build process that checks out the code, moves it, renames the packages, and compiles, once for each company. Or If your IDE can understand it use a Java pre-processor.
Of course, that last one only works if both customers stay on the same base, but if not then the customer would have its own branch, and the build process could copy the code only as appropriate for the correct branch.
A good IDE with refactoring capability will be able to handle this in an instant. Once you make the change, commit it to Subversion. One of its strengths is that it treats directories and files the same way, so you can keep the history as you rename packages.
Sounds like you'd want to create a tag for the original; check out and refactor the trunk; commit the changes. Voila - old and new, with the refactored packages on the trunk where they belong.
Perhaps I'm misunderstanding your question, but I don't think you should make the change directly inside Subversion. Change the code and let Subversion do its job.