SVN Commands

What is Svn

SVN stands for Subversion. It is a centralized version control system distributed under an open-source Apache license. SVN allows multiple developers to have the current and recent versions of data, such as source files, in sync. It keeps track of every change users make on files.

Checkout the project repository

svn checkout (co) — Check out a working copy from a repository.

$ svn checkout <svn_repository_url> svn co <svn_url>

Show Information

svn info — Display information about a local or remote item.

svn info

Check status

svn status (stat, st) — Print the status of working copy files and directories.

$ svn status

Add changes

svn add — Add files, directories, or symbolic links.

$ svn add file1.js

Add a directory

The default behavior of adding a directory is to recurse.

$ svn add testdir/
A testdir
A testdir/a
A testdir/b
A testdir/c
A testdir/d

Add multiple files and directories in a single shot

Add multiple files

svn add file1.txt file2.txt file3.txt

Add multiple directories

svn add dir1 dir2 dir3

Add multiple files and directories together

svn add file1.txt file2.txt dir1 dir2

Move file or directories

svn move (mv) — Move a file or directory.

Move a file

$ svn move foo.c bar.c
A bar.c
D foo.c

Move several files in your working copy into a subdirectory

$ svn move baz.c bat.c qux.c src
A src/baz.c
D baz.c
A src/bat.c
D bat.c
A src/qux.c
D qux.c

Move a directory

svn move dir1 new_dir1

Or move inside another directory

svn move dir1 dir3/dir1

Move several directories

Unfortunately, the svn move command does not support moving multiple directories with a single command like it does with multiple files. Each move operation in SVN needs to be executed individually. However, you can streamline the process using a script to handle multiple moves in a single execution.

Delete changes

svn delete (del, remove, rm) — Delete an item from a working copy

Delete a file

$ svn delete myfile
D myfile
$ svn commit -m "Deleted file 'myfile'."
Deleting myfile
Transmitting file data .
Committed revision 14.

Deleting by keeping at local

Use the --keep-local option to override the default svn delete behavior of also removing the target file that was scheduled for versioned deletion. This is helpful when you realize that you've accidentally committed the addition of a file that you need to keep around in your working copy, but which shouldn't have been added to version control.

$ svn delete --keep-local conf/program.conf

D conf/program.conf

Commit changes

svn commit (ci) — Send changes from your working copy to the repository.

Commit all the changes

Commit a simple modification to a file with the commit message on the command line and an implicit target of your current directory (“.”):

$ svn commit -m "added howto section."
Sending a
Transmitting file data .
Committed revision 3.

Commit changes of a particular directory

$ svn commit ./module1 -m "Add module 1"

Revert changes

svn revert — Undo all local edits.

$ svn revert foo.c

Reverted foo.c

Revert a whole directory of files

$ svn revert --depth=infinity src/
Reverted src/newdir/afile
Reverted src/foo.c
Reverted src/bar.txt

$ svn add mistake.txt whoops
A mistake.txt
A whoops
A whoops/oopsie.c
$ svn revert mistake.txt whoops
Reverted mistake.txt
Reverted whoops
$ svn status
? mistake.txt
? whoops

Update repository

svn update (up) — Update your working copy.

svn update