xib + subversion + automerge = pain

Don’t let Subversion automerge your xib files. This error isn’t even on the freakin’ google:

ibtool: some object IDs were duplicated

You can work around this by 1) telling subversion the file can’t be merged by setting its mime type to application/octet-stream 2) requiring the file to be svn locked before you edit it for an exclusive lock. You can tell your subversion client to automatically give xib files these properties by adding a few lines to your ~/.subversion/config file.

## Under [miscellany]
enable-auto-props = yes

## under [auto-props]
*.nib = svn:mime-type=application/octet-stream;svn:needs-lock=*
*.xib = svn:mime-type=application/octet-stream;svn:needs-lock=*

Of course, your merged xib is still beyond saving, so just fetch the previous version and redo all your changes! (also, more on subversion locking and exclusive checkouts)