Our project has a history of creating new branches in CVS from existing branches. After several years, this has led to this situation on the files that are changed in every release:
new revision: 1.145.4.11.2.20.2.6.2.20.2.1.2.11.2.3.2.4.4.4.2.5.2.1.2.1.2.6.2.23;
previous revision: 1.145.4.11.2.20.2.6.2.20.2.1.2.11.2.3.2.4.4.4.2.5.2.1.2.1.2.6.2.22
Obviously this looks bad in the CVS console, but does it actually matter technically? Would we gain anything by merging everything back to the head so it is back at 1.146?
(P.S. "Switch to subversion" is not an answer.)
Best Answer
Obviously, this has worked for you for several years, so if there are technical problems, then you've not yet seen them. I don't know of any that you'll run into; however, if this continues over the next several years, I would not be surprised if you start to find limits and bugs in various tools. (Not to mention you can't ever meet source code line-length guidelines. :P)
Clarity. A simpler system is easier to work with, even if the more complex equivalent is technically sound. Do you have anything to lose by merging back to 1.146? At this point, you're talking about project- and group-specific benefits whose value will vary, and you'll just have to decide if the effort is worth the result.