Pre-Merge Checks

Before performing a merge, it is recommended to make sure that the working copy target item is ready for the merge operation. The SVN Client includes a best practices step that checks various conditions of the working copy target item to ensure that the merge operation will succeed. By enabling the Perform pre-merge best practices checks of the working copy target option in the first page of the Merge wizard, the Pre-merge checks wizard page is displayed to give you a summary of the verified conditions.

The Pre-Merge Checks Wizard Page

The following conditions are checked in this operation:

No local modifications: The working copy item (or any of its children) receiving the merge should not contain uncommitted changes, to make it easier to revert merge-generated changes if you encounter unexpected results.
Tip: If this condition fails, you should commit or revert the local modifications before merging.
No switched children: None of the children of the working copy item receiving the merge should be switched, to avoid incomplete merges and subtree mergeinfo.
Tip: If this condition fails, you should switch back all the children before merging.
Complete working copy tree: The working copy item receiving the merge should be a complete directory tree structure with an infinite depth, to avoid incomplete merges and subtree mergeinfo.
Tip: If this condition fails, you should change the sticky depth of the working copy item receiving the merge to infinity value.
No mixed revisions: The working copy item receiving the merge should not contain items that were updated to different revisions, to avoid unexpected merge conflicts.
Tip: If this condition fails, you should update the working copy before merging.

Each condition is marked with an icon that represents the state of the condition. The possible states are as follows:

Successful - The condition is fulfilled successfully.
Warning - The condition is not fulfilled, but it is not mandatory.
Error - The condition is not fulfilled and is mandatory, and therefore the operation cannot proceed until you solve the error.

Tip: For each condition state, a message is displayed that gives you additional information about the results and, for warning or errors, a hint that explains how you can solve them.

Important: After solving any of the warnings or errors, it is recommended that you perform the pre-merge checks again to make sure your new changes are valid.