Lo and behold, this past Wednesday, after waiting all day for the Drupal 6.4 update that was rumored to be coming out, it finally was released at around 6:30pm MDT. We saw it at the DBUG Meetup during setup, and I knew that once again it was time to do some updating. At pingVision, we have an entire dev/test/production process for all of our clients' and our own sites. But when it comes to my own sites, I prefer to do it myself as much as possible so that I can keep my fingers in code and configuration, even while my more official presidential responsibilities tend to pull me in other directions.

And yet my own sites are still under Subversion, so it's not just a matter of uploading the new code and being done with it. No, I have to do it through SVN.

Now if you are like me (and unlike our developers), and have a general preference for a good GUI over using the command line, and are working on OS X and using version control like Subversion, then you likely have run into the problem that the architects of Finder have not deigned to solve: You cannot "merge" folders in OS X using Finder. No, Finder will overwrite folders completely.

Why is this a problem? Anyone who uses Subversion (or other version controller) will know what I'm talking about: If you try to just overwrite wholesale a folder that's under version control, you end up deleting the hidden .svn folder, which has the versioning information. And that leads to Dante's SVN Inferno, where all sorts of error demons torment you while you wail with pangs of regret: Oh, why didn't I merge that folder instead of replacing it?

Using Unix command line, you can of course use mv -v to merge folders, but that forces you to use command line. Since OS X is built upon Unix, I and many others wonder why Finder does not offer this option, not even with contorting combinations of control, option, command and shift.

It's ridiculous. –Especially when you consider that your basic (s)ftp applications can merge folders without a problem. This isn't rocket science.

A trick to merge folders on Mac I figured out a couple of years ago (when I was first introduced to SVN workflows) is this: ftp from your computer to your computer, using your favorite ftp application.

That's right, rather than copy or drag files from folder to folder using Finder, you drag files from folder to folder using ftp. (I use Transmit, but this will work with any ftp app that can merge folders. A free one I can recommend is Cyberduck.)

To enable this approach, all you need to do is turn on ftp access in OS X.

You do this in Preferences -> Sharing.

Click the checkbox to enable "file sharing".

Then, with the file sharing option highlighted, as pictured, click on the Options button down in the lower right-hand area of the window.

This reveals the kinds of file sharing you want to enable, and one of them is ftp. Enable that.

Underneath you will now see a message that provides the IP address where your computer can be reached. You just enter that IP address into your ftp app as the remote server. You may need to enter your username and password for your Mac.

That's it. Now just drag folders over from your desktop into the appropriate area on your ftp app and the merge will happen.

Note: Depending upon the ftp app, you may need to set appropriate preferences to merge folders. Here are the settings I use in Transmit:

This way you can maintain your website in a dev environment on your Mac desktop or laptop, and manage updating tasks easily without having to do SVN gymnastics or work in Terminal.

I welcome your comments.