What do the different columns (of letters) mean for the svn merge output?

James, I had the same issue - very frustrating not finding detailed "svn merge" info; however, in my google searches I found this posting: http://svn.haxx.se/users/archive-2008-06/0813.shtml

It indicates that the "svn merge" status letters are identical to the "svn update" status letters, which are actually documented. From the "svn help update" command:

For each updated item a line will start with a character reporting the action taken. These characters have the following meaning:

A  Added
D  Deleted
U  Updated
C  Conflict
G  Merged

A character in the first column signifies an update to the actual file, while updates to the file's properties are shown in the second column. A 'B' in the third column signifies that the lock for the file has been broken or stolen.

Execute this command to get the definitions of these values: svn update --help

This is excepted from the output of that command:

For each updated item a line will be printed with characters reporting the action taken. These characters have the following meaning:

A  Added
D  Deleted
U  Updated
C  Conflict
G  Merged
E  Existed
R  Replaced

Characters in the first column report about the item itself. Characters in the second column report about properties of the item. A 'B' in the third column signifies that the lock for the file has been broken or stolen. A 'C' in the fourth column indicates a tree conflict, while a 'C' in the first and second columns indicate textual conflicts in files and in property values, respectively.

From this page of the documentation:

The first column indicates that an item was added, deleted, or otherwise changed:

' ' No modifications.

'A' Item is scheduled for addition.

'D' Item is scheduled for deletion.

'M' Item has been modified.

'R' Item has been replaced in your working copy. This means the file was scheduled for deletion, and then a new file with the same name was scheduled for addition in its place.

'C' The contents (as opposed to the properties) of the item conflict with updates received from the repository.

'X' Item is present because of an externals definition.

'I' Item is being ignored (e.g., with the svn:ignore property).

'?' Item is not under version control.

'!' Item is missing (e.g., you moved or deleted it without using svn). This also indicates that a directory is incomplete (a checkout or update was interrupted).

'~' Item is versioned as one kind of object (file, directory, link), but has been replaced by a different kind of object.

The second column tells the status of a file's or directory's properties:

' ' No modifications.

'M' Properties for this item have been modified.

'C' Properties for this item are in conflict with property updates received from the repository.

The third column is populated only if the working copy directory is locked (see the section called “Sometimes You Just Need to Clean Up”):

' ' Item is not locked.

'L' Item is locked.

The fourth column is populated only if the item is scheduled for addition-with-history:

' ' No history scheduled with commit.

'+' History scheduled with commit.

The fifth column is populated only if the item is switched relative to its parent (see the section called “Traversing Branches”):

' ' Item is a child of its parent directory.

'S' Item is switched.

The sixth column is populated with lock information:

' ' When --show-updates is used, the file is not locked. If --show-updates is not used, this merely means that the file is not locked in this working copy.

K File is locked in this working copy.

O File is locked either by another user or in another working copy. This appears only when --show-updates is used.

T File was locked in this working copy, but the lock has been “stolen” and is invalid. The file is currently locked in the repository. This appears only when --show-updates is used.

B File was locked in this working copy, but the lock has been “broken” and is invalid. The file is no longer locked. This appears only when --show-updates is used.

The out-of-date information appears in the seventh column (only if you pass the --show-updates option):

' ' The item in your working copy is up to date.

'*' A newer revision of the item exists on the server.

Same information but from official source:

http://subversion.apache.org/docs/svn-merge.txt

  For each merged item a line will be printed with characters reporting the
  action taken. These characters have the following meaning:

    A  Added
    D  Deleted
    U  Updated
    C  Conflict
    G  Merged
    E  Existed
    R  Replaced

  Characters in the first column report about the item itself.
  Characters in the second column report about properties of the item.
  A 'C' in the third column indicates a tree conflict, while a 'C' in
  the first and second columns indicate textual conflicts in files
  and in property values, respectively.