Update 

If you haven’t switched to Git yet, you should. I can’t think of one reason to use Subversion over Git, Git is better in almost every way.

Since I’m still a newbie at SVN, getting the hang of Vendor Branching has taken me a little longer than I’m willing to admit.

Here are some resources that I found helpful.

• http://minimalmedia.com/en/blog/dave/upgrading-drupal-core-with-vendor-branches-and-svnloaddirs-almost-perfect

• http://svnbook.red-bean.com/en/1.1/ch07s05.html

• http://imagexmedia.com/blog/2009/1/updating-drupal-using-svn-vendor-branches

• http://gotdrupal.com/videos/drupal-svn-vendor-branches

• http://betterexplained.com/articles/a-visual-guide-to-version-control/The basic concept is this. “Subversion, listen up.  I’m going to use svn_load_dirs.pl and your going to find the differences between the current (5.15) and the new version (5.16) and record those changes. Don’t forget to tag those changes (-t) as 5.16 when your done.”

svn_load_dirs.pl file:///Users/shane/Sites/svn/test/vendor/drupal current drupal-5.16 -t 5.16

Then in your working copy “Subversion, look at me when I’m talking to you. I want you apply those changes I had you tag just a minute ago, to my working copy.  Make sure you keep my changes or I’ll have your head on a stick.”

svn merge file:///Users/shane/Sites/svn/test/vendor/drupal/5.15 file:///Users/shane/Sites/svn/test/vendor/drupal/current

Lastly. “Subversion, yeah, I’m talking to you. Commit these changes to my working copy and don’t give me any lip.”

svn committ -m "Upgrading from 5.15 to 5.16"

That’s how I understand things to be now….