Merging Question

[Alexander Kamilewicz]

Hello all,

I'm new to the list, and hoped to lurk a bit more before sending out a
question, but I find myself in need of some help.

Some background:  The CVS repository I am using was set up by someone
else.  I've been told to start using it and to get a number of our
products under CVS control ASAP.  I've had to learn CVS more or less on
my own, and have only been "learning" it for about 4 weeks.

The process I'm using will be heavy on importing Vendor releases into
the modules.  The way our business works (and I can't change this) is
that I'll get updates to an entire module from another group, and then
have to import this (since they don't use CVS) into that module under
CVS.

The modules mostly consist of html pages, images, and some misc. stuff. 
Yes, they're websites.  

I've read all about Vendor branches in Karl Fogel's book and in the
Cederqvist and thought I knew what I was getting in to.  However, the
crux of my problem was that whenever I've been importing their new
changes into a module, I _never_ get a conflict message.  This is
important, because in most cases I _know_ a file has changed (usually
index.htm).

Thus, I embarked on the following simple exercise to prove myself right
or wrong:

1.  I create a directory called "acktest" with one file called "page1"
that has one line that says "first time".  No quotes in any of this, of
course.

2.  I import this into CVS as such:  $cvs import acktest vendor1
release1

3.  It imports fine.

4.  I rm -rf acktest.

5.  I repeat step #1 with the one change that the one and only line now
says "second time".

6.  I import this into CVS as such:  $cvs import acktest vendor2
release2

7.  It imports fine with no conflicts.

8.  I rm -rf acktest

9.  I $cvs checkout acktest

10.  I get "page1" with "second time" and "first time" is nowhere to be
seen.

11.  And then, just to prove my fears, I go $cvs update -j vendor1

12.  And it is still acktest/page1 with "second time" as the only line
in the file.

This worries me, of course, because while it's good that the new "sites"
I'm receiving from Dev will now be in CVS, there appears to be a) no
version history and b) no way of "rolling back" when it turns out that
their new changes aren't up to snuff.

Anyway, sorry for the long-and-drawn-out email.  If anyone has any
suggestions as to where I'm going wrong, I'd very much appreciate it. 
Like I said, I've been looking for solutions to this problem in Karl
Fogel's book (Open Source Development with CVS) and in the Cederqvist
for a copule of weeks now, but I think I've reached an impasse.

Thanks,
Alex
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