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c#svnsharpsvn

Import to the same Subversion repository directory multiple times?

For a number of reasons, the canonical source of some files I have can't be a working copy of the repository (the Subversion server is behind an inaccessible firewall, and the data doesn't natively exist in the file system in my preferred structure). So, I wrote a tool that downloads the data, generates a directory structure from it, and then uses SharpSvn to import the result into the repository. This works… the first time. The second time, of course, a directory of that name already exists in the repository, and I can't import again.

Instead, I could:

  1. Delete the directory, then import. I haven't tested this, but aside from sounding stupid, it probably also deletes the revision history of the respective files, regarding the new ones as entirely different.
  2. See if the directory exists, check it out, remotely delete the files that no longer exist in the canonical source, then replace the remainder and commit. This would probably work, but sounds error-prone and needlessly difficult.

Is my assumption correct that deleting files will mark new ones of the same ways as different files? Is there an easier way than the second approach?

Solution

  • For 1), it won't delete the revision history, but the new files will be treated as completely unrelated to the old ones. You still could get the old files back though.

    For 2), that would be the recommended way. But after 'svn delete'ing the existing files and adding the new ones, you also have to 'svn add' those new files before committing.

    But it seems you should consider using the svn-load-dirs.pl script. You can read about this in the Subversion book, chapter "Vendor branches".