Patent ID: 8078589

Claim:
An automated method, comprising: storing, by a computer device, data associated with a version tree representing relationships between multiple versions of a file, the version tree including a plurality of branches, where the version tree includes a listing of merge-from branches to merge-to branches and where each of the merge-from and merge-to branches are associated with a same file; identifying, by the computer device, a file check-in request associated with a first version of the file; in response to identifying the file check-in request, automatically identifying, by the computer device, a merge candidate associated with the first version of the file, where identifying the merge candidate includes: determining a first portion in the version tree associated with the first version of the file, and selecting one of the multiple versions based on the first portion of the version tree, where a second portion of the version tree is associated with the merge candidate; merging, by a computer device, a portion of the first version of the file with a portion of the merge candidate, resulting in a merge result; and storing, by the computer device, the merge result.