Merging SVN branches into the trunk

Question

When I merge a branch back into the trunk using SVN I am advised to merge from the root of the repository. Why is this? (revision numbering?)

Answer 1

This is for many reasons, but the primary one is mergeinfo. SVN is unable to track subtree mergeinfo. If you try, it will put garbage into folder properties.

Mergeinfo is important for svn blame command to work correctly.

If you want to commit only parts of the folders, you can do that at the time of commit.