[SOLVED] How are the sub folder's mergeinfo used when merging at top folder level?

How are the sub folder's mergeinfo used when merging at top folder level?

As we know, TortoiseSVN creates svn:mergeinfo as a folder property if the merge is performed at that folder level. This could be a top folder (such as trunk) or some sub folder. I always thought that it was OK to merge at sub folder level since the svn:mergeinfo on the sub folders would be used when merging at the top folder level. I think that it was generally working for me as well in the past, until today when I saw a case that I could not explain.

I saw a merge at sub folder level from a branch to trunk and I could see at that revision an svn:mergeinfo property on that sub folder at trunk as well.

However if I try to merge from branch to trunk again at the top folder level, that merged revision at branch is not greyed out. If I try to merge, it would just merge the property at the top folder without really any code change. If I try to merge one folder up from that sub folder, that merged revision is not greyed out as well.

I could not explain what I saw here. Could anyone shed some light on this? I am using the latest TortoiseSVN 1.8.1. In the past I was using TortoiseSVN 1.7 and below. Has the latest version of TortoiseSVN changed the behavior for this intentionally or am I missing something here?

Solution

Don't use tricks, which you don't understand fully
Don't use tricks, when they aren't needed (subtree merges is a must in a rare, some special cases only)
Read relevant part ("Subtree Merges and Subtree Mergeinfo" topic) from SVN Book gently, slowly, without haste

And now, considerations regarding your question:

When you merge some revisions in subtree, in means nothing for parents - because for parents of any level these revisions are not merged (even if they haven't any objects outside subtree)
Mergeinfo of subtree used only for avoiding duplicated merge in this subtree (not above or below), when the same revision(s) merged later to some parent (and moved to merge-root of parent, when such merges with intersected revision (in subtree and parent merges) is done)