SVN branch compare

Question

How do I compare one branch with another? I want to compare a branch with the latest revision in trunk.

score 75 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 24 '09 at 01:04

75

You could start with:

svn diff http://REPOS/trunk http://REPOS/branches/B

(Where http://REPOS is your repository path including the parents of trunk and branches.)

This will print a large quantity of text, including all the textual changes but not the binary changes except to say where and when they occurred.

answered Nov 24 '09 at 01:04

Edmund

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Thanks! Your answer led me to this http://tortoisesvn.net/docs/release/TortoiseSVN_en/tsvn-dug-diff.html which explains how to do the same with TortoiseSVN – tekumara Nov 24 '09 at 21:18
Shorthand -> `svn diff ^/trunk ^/branches/B` – cchamberlain Oct 09 '15 at 17:39
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Is there a way to hide the inner diff part? That means to only show revision, author, date, file list. – Sandburg May 24 '18 at 14:56

score 20 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 09 '15 at 17:44

20

If you are just looking for high level of what files are different and do not want to see all the contents, use:

svn diff ^/trunk ^/branches/dev --summarize

(This compares trunk and dev branch)

answered Oct 09 '15 at 17:44

cchamberlain

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For me in Linux I have to use escapes: `svn diff \^/[SUBPROJECT]/develop \^/[SUBPROJECT]/feature/myfeature/` – ephemerr Sep 29 '20 at 06:32

score 7 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 10 '13 at 08:25

I usually check out the two branches (or the branch and the trunk) into directories. Then I use a graphical tool like Kompare or similar (depending on your preferences, operating system,...). This is really helpful for me when I need to perform complex merges.

score 5 · Answer 4 · answered May 18 '17 at 10:10

As lack of reputation won't let me add this as a comment against an existing answer, I'm having to add it as a separate one.

A useful option to svn diff for me was --ignore-properties. My two branches had ended up identical code wise, but with different merge histories.

Using --ignore-properties allowed me to prove to myself that this was the case, without wading through the large quantity of "svn:mergeinfo" property changes.

score 2 · Answer 5 · edited Mar 22 '12 at 14:31

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Thanks for the info guys, I would add something to improve the readability of the diff results.If you used: svn diff svn://url:9090/branches/PRD_0002 svn://url:9090/branches/TST_0003 >svn_diff_filename.txt

You can use: findstr "Index:" C:\path\svn_diff_filename.txt >svn_diff_file_list.txt

That will bring you a readable list of files that have any differences.

edited Mar 22 '12 at 14:31

Wilduck

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answered Mar 22 '12 at 13:30

Kra.

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score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Nov 24 '09 at 00:59

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Here's a post from Murray Cumming which describes the non-obvious process:

Discover the revision numbers: You need to know the revision numbers of the latest versions in each of the branches. It looks like svn log is the only way to do that.
cd into one of the branch directories, such as trunk.
Supply the revision numbers to the svn diff command: svn diff -r123:145

answered Nov 24 '09 at 00:59

Stef

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Won't this just tell you what's changed in `trunk` since the last commit to the branch? Apologies if I'm missing something - it's getting late here... – SimonJ Nov 24 '09 at 01:10
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You don't need to look for the latest revision number in each branch: simply use `HEAD`. But this isn't what the OP was asking for -- he wanted to compare between his branch and trunk, not between two revisions in the same branch. – Ether Nov 24 '09 at 01:33

score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Jun 05 '15 at 09:51

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To diff between two revisions of a branch:

svn diff -r rLATEST:rOLD

Use svn log to get the different revisions. Use can limit the number of revisions in the log using svn log -l 5. only the last 5 revisions will be shown.

answered Jun 05 '15 at 09:51

arush436

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SVN branch compare

7 Answers7