How to branch back into the parent branch?

[tucny]

I think I must be missing something. I can't see a straightforward way to merge changes up to the parent branch. My workflow is as follows:

1. Take a changeset in e.g. /main and create a child branch, e.g. /main/my-task-1
2. Develop changes, commit into /main/my-task-1 until I have a consistent result
3. Merge back /main/my-task-1 into /main — to do so, I right-click on the last changeset in branch explorer, choose Advanced merge — Merge from this changeset to… and then manually find the parent /main branch.

Is there an easier way to do step (3)? I'd expect a simple "Merge to parent branch" option in the menu.

[calbzam]

Hi,

3. Switch workspace to /main

4. Right-click "/main/my-task-1" --> Merge from this branch.

 

You may find useful out evaluation guide where we explain some of the key concepts in the Plastic SCM workflow:

https://www.plasticscm.com/evaluation-guide/

Regards,

Carlos.

[tucny]

Yeah, that works. However, when you work on a longer task, and need to integration intermediate versions into the parent branch, the workspace switch is an unnecessary extra step.

[Mikael Kalms]

Seconding this. One of our artists asked for this exact feature ('merge up to parent branch') a few days ago.

I suspect that they would ideally want two separate operations with quick-access: merge latest from main to current branch, and merge current branch onto main + switch workspace to main.

[calbzam]

Hi,

By default, before you run a merge you will need to switch your workspace to merge destination branch.

Under the "Advanced merge" --> "merge from this branch to". The merge-to doesn't require to switch your workspace to the destination. We have recently improved the merge-to feature so it now supports conflict resolution. Please check the following link:

http://blog.plasticscm.com/2018/03/workspace-less-merge-to.html

Regards,

Carlos.

 

[Mikael Kalms]

Hi Carlos,

 

the "merge from this branch to" feature is, as it is designed right now, precisely the right tool for the following situations:

1) There is new stuff on /main, and I want to merge everything onto release branch X

2) I am working on a feature within a task branch, and I want to merge all work so far up to /main but continue working within the task branch

It requires extra steps in the following situation:

3) I have been working on a task branch, and I am done: I want to merge all work up to /main, and also switch my workspace back to /main.

 

Scenario 3 is what our artists do a lot and they ask me if there is a way that I can customize the Plastic SCM for them so that it is a single operation instead of two.

We do not use any automation for creating task branches nor merging them in, we have no connection to any issue tracking system, no automated "submit branch/task for tests & automated merge-up" (because our test coverage is quite spotty).

[calbzam]

3) If you need to switch to a different branch and also run a merge, you will need to run the two operations. Actually, this is the default merge scenario (switch to the destination branch + run the merge).

Regards,

Carlos.