While rereading the SVN Book, I noticed instructions for creating a branch on a subdirectory of the trunk. So I decided to create a branch on just the php subdirectory of a project:

svn copy http://localhost/svn/ll/trunk/php http://localhost/svn/ll/branches/phpMVC

The branch development was adopted, thus requiring merging the code back into the trunk. Overall, using a branch on just the subdirectory I was working on made the development and merging easier. Commits by others could be retrieved by an update without needing a merge, minimizing disruptions during coding.

I screwed up the merge as follows:

• svn merge -r 11:15 http:../branches/phpMVC – on the basis of a stop-on-copy command that started at 15 and ended at 11.  But other files in the branch had been modified up to revision 20.  So I will use the form svn merge -r 11:HEAD from now on.
• I kept issuing the svn merge and svn switch  commands in the root directory instead of the php subdirectory.  These missteps were reported by SVN and I recovered, but I did scare myself a few times.

Also, I modified a file in a css subdirectory which I could not commit to the branch because it was not within the scope of the branch. Next time I will create the branch on the entire project and then svn switch only the subdirectory I’m working on. This leaves the option of switching other subdirectories if the work expands.