I have a couple of files that always seem to be getting new svn:mergeinfo set on various merge tasks performed through the regular work cycle of merges.
The file has not changed in months, but the mergeinfo is persistently touched. I have a feeling that the mergeinfo got confused at some point and never recovered. I'm not sure what to look for to hack the mergeinfo and correct, or just delete it all and go forward.
Any tips?
I recommend you delete any mergeinfo on files and go forward, assuming that your mergeinfo is correct on the directory (like "trunk") that contains your whole project. For typical merge scenarios, you should never see mergeinfo set on a file -- it should only be set on the directory that was the target of the merge operation (the "trunk", for example).
My guess is that at one point, you (or someone on your team) accidentally performed a merge where the target was one or more of these files. That merge operation set mergeinfo on those files, and you've been stuck with it since (svn will see that every time you do a merge, and update the merge info, even if the file itself was not modified in the merge). I have seen this happen before and the best solution is to just remove the mergeinfo on the files.
If you haven't already, make sure you give chapter 4 of the subversion book -- on branching and merging -- a good read-through so that you understand the gotchas involved with merging in svn.