What are your favorite tools to backport modifications from branch to trunk in subversion directories ?

Question

On a project I'm working on, we use subversion, with tortoiseSVN as a client, under windows XP.

As we enter in production and continue development in parallel, many branches are created.

Often, we have to backport modifications made on the branch to the trunk, or to older branches. Backporting is a very delicate task, as many errors can be introduced into the code.

What are your favorite tools to make backporting easier and more secure ? If possible, add only one tool per answer, and vote for your favorite ones.

Thank you for your help

Answer 1

I am using BeyondCompare. I believe it's one of the most essential tools for a developper, up there with TortoiseSVN.

Answer 2

Whatever diff-merge-tool you use, make sure you read the "Branching and Merging" chapter from the Subversion book. Since version 1.5, Subversion supports merge tracking, so read the documentation appropriate for your version:

• version 1.5
• version 1.4