I use branches to be able to maintain previous release versions of my project. Whenever I release a version I create a branch named for the released version (for example, v1.2) and my current development is continued in the trunk.
After fixing some bugs in the branch, I want to reintegrate them into the trunk. However, in order to do that properly I have to update the branch first. Obviously I don’t want to do this as I don’t want to include any new development into the previous product version.
I understand why this is problematic for SVN to perform such a merge but nevertheless, is
there any way to accomplish that? Am I doing something wrong here?
Yes, you’re doing something wrong. You should just merge the changes done in the maintenance branch to the trunk.
You’re confusing maintenance branches with feature branches, which must stay up-to-date with the trunk before reintegrating them in the trunk.