There's gotta be several ways I can improve my process when updating the version of Forge I'm developing with... here is my current workflow:
When I download a new "src" package from files.minecraftforge.net I unzip it to a common folder called "forgedev" and then rename the newly created forge directory to include it's fml build number so 923 would become ~/forgedev/forge.923, I then run install.py, add a symbolic link in mcp/src/minecraft to where I have my mod code, and open the mcp/eclipse workspace in eclipse, import preferences and then spend 20 minutes changing all the settings that don't get exported.
This has worked well for me, for the most part. Using a symbolic link rather than importing the source via eclipse lets me have a single location for my code and I can handle any issues between versions of Forge at the version control level (git in my case) via branches. However now I have the need for a few modified Minecraft source files in one of my mods, and it all works fine but now the symbolic link isn't enough since I have to copy the modified portions of code into their respective Minecraft source files (rather than overwrite the new file in case it contains changes other than my own). It's a bit of a headache but not the end of the world.
I'm not a big fan of Eclipse, I use IDEA in my professional life and having to deal with a new workspace is probably the thing I like least about how I'm doing things now.
So does anyone have a way they do things that involves using the same workspace with their own code but allows forge and mcp to be updated? I haven't explored using the MinecraftForge git repo directly, I suppose that may be an option.