Can I update a branch from the trunk without performing a merge?
I probably just haven't thought this through, or perhaps I'm simply unaware of an already existing option in Subversion (I'm certainly no expert).
I'm just wondering, if I've created a branch to start working on some new feature, if there's an easier way to keep the branch up to date with the trunk's most recent revisions without having to go through all the trouble of merging a range of revisions. I would like to be able to simply update and get all revisions from the trunk (and the branch, of course), while my committed changes only affect the branch. Is this possible? Does what I'm asking make sense?
I suppose this isn't really necessarily different from merging a range of revisions; it's just that I use AnkhSVN, which performs all these best-practice checks before allowing a merge, and sometimes it feels like it's a lot more complicated than it needs to be. The idea is that I want to keep my branch up-to-date with any commits other developers may be making to the trunk so that when I eventually do merge my branch into the trunk, everything goes (as) smoothly (as possible).
Answer
Keeping your branch up to do date with the latest trunk check-ins is called a merge.
I know merging can be a royal nightmare sometimes, but this is precisely what merging is.