How to rearrange repo without "svn: Cannot replace a directory from within"

[Michael Harris <ha...@gmail.com>]

Hi,

Several years back I set up an svn repo for a project I am involved
in. I didn't think too far ahead, and (I suspect) misread the
documentation, so I set up a repo structured like this:

<repo_root>
     |
     proj1 --+
             |-trunk
	     |-branches
	     |-tags

In other words the repo has a single folder at its root (with the name
of the project as its name), and this folder contains folders trunk,
branches, tags.

We are using svnserver and svn:// to access the repo. When I set up
the svnserve configuration, I set <repo_root> as the root for
svnserve, so the URL:

svn://server.name/proj1/trunk

points at the trunk of the repo, which is stored in

/var/svn/repos/proj1

Now, a couple of years later, I want to establish additional whole
repos on the same server. With it set up the way it currently is, I
can't do this because the server root points straight at the directory
containing the existing repo. Of course I could change the server root
so it is pointing one dir up the filesystem heirarchy but then the url
would be:

svn://server.name/proj1/proj1/trunk

Which ain't so good. I realised that my main mistake was to create the
proj1 directory inside the repo in the first place, so I want to
rename trunk, branches and tags to be at the top level, then move the
svnserver root up one as well.

So, to try it out, I made a copy of my repo on another machine and
tried the following steps:

1) Move trunks, branches and tags up a level so they are at the top of
the hierarchy, like this:

svn mv svn://server.name/proj1/trunk svn://server.name/trunk -m "SVN
Repo reorganisation Pt1"

(repeated for branches and tags as well).

2) Stop the svnserve, edit the config file, and change the server
root. Before, the server root was:

/var/svn/repos/proj1

After it became

/var/svn/repos/

Then restart svnserve. Everything seems fine, the URL for accessing
the repo remains the same, and newly checked out WCs work fine.

The problem is, working copies that were checked out before the change
are no good any more! If I try to do even an svn st -u, I get the
dreaded:

svn: Cannot replace a directory from within

Is there any way to make this change without ruining all existing
working copies?

Thanks in advance,

Regards // Mike

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Re: How to rearrange repo without "svn: Cannot replace a directory from within"

[Ryan Schmidt <su...@ryandesign.com>]

On Mar 14, 2008, at 22:26, Michael Harris wrote:

> Several years back I set up an svn repo for a project I am involved
> in. I didn't think too far ahead, and (I suspect) misread the
> documentation, so I set up a repo structured like this:
>
> <repo_root>
>      |
>      proj1 --+
>              |-trunk
> 	     |-branches
> 	     |-tags
>
> In other words the repo has a single folder at its root (with the name
> of the project as its name), and this folder contains folders trunk,
> branches, tags.
>
> We are using svnserver and svn:// to access the repo. When I set up
> the svnserve configuration, I set <repo_root> as the root for
> svnserve, so the URL:
>
> svn://server.name/proj1/trunk
>
> points at the trunk of the repo, which is stored in
>
> /var/svn/repos/proj1
>
> Now, a couple of years later, I want to establish additional whole
> repos on the same server. With it set up the way it currently is, I
> can't do this because the server root points straight at the directory
> containing the existing repo. Of course I could change the server root
> so it is pointing one dir up the filesystem heirarchy but then the url
> would be:
>
> svn://server.name/proj1/proj1/trunk
>
> Which ain't so good. I realised that my main mistake was to create the
> proj1 directory inside the repo in the first place, so I want to
> rename trunk, branches and tags to be at the top level, then move the
> svnserver root up one as well.
>
> So, to try it out, I made a copy of my repo on another machine and
> tried the following steps:
>
> 1) Move trunks, branches and tags up a level so they are at the top of
> the hierarchy, like this:
>
> svn mv svn://server.name/proj1/trunk svn://server.name/trunk -m "SVN
> Repo reorganisation Pt1"
>
> (repeated for branches and tags as well).

Yup, sounds good to me!

At this point you need to take all existing working copies of e.g.  
trunk and switch them so that they know to point to this new  
different path *within* the repository, but that the repository  
itself has remained at the same base location:

svn switch svn://server.name/trunk /path/to/wc

Same for any working copies of any branch or tag.


> 2) Stop the svnserve, edit the config file, and change the server
> root. Before, the server root was:
>
> /var/svn/repos/proj1
>
> After it became
>
> /var/svn/repos/
>
> Then restart svnserve. Everything seems fine, the URL for accessing
> the repo remains the same, and newly checked out WCs work fine.

After changing the repository root, you need to do the second kind of  
switch, namely relocation. For each working copy of e.g. trunk, fix  
the working copy to know that the repository itself has moved, while  
the path within the repository has remained the same:

svn switch --relocate svn://server.name svn://server.name/proj1 /path/ 
to/wc

Same goes for any working copies of any branch or tag.


> The problem is, working copies that were checked out before the change
> are no good any more! If I try to do even an svn st -u, I get the
> dreaded:
>
> svn: Cannot replace a directory from within
>
> Is there any way to make this change without ruining all existing
> working copies?


As I understand it, the reason for this problem is that, while to you  
the URL before and after looks the same, to Subversion, the URL is  
divided into two parts: the part that gets you to the repository, and  
the part that defines the path within the repository, and you've  
changed both of these parts. For the change in the path within the  
repository, you need to execute a "switch"; for the change in the  
part to the repository, you need to execute a "switch --relocate".

Or, of course, you can just check out new working copies.


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