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Jérôme Verstrynge
Asked: 2011-06-18 06:52:17 +0800 CST

Migrating SVN repositories issues + SVN can't create directory

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I had to reformat my PC from scratch. I restored my backup data, including a directory containing SVN repositories and a directory containing check-outs of those repositories. These check-outs contain work that has not been checked-in yet.

When I try to check-in, SVN dumps error messages. I could trace it to the fact that I have changed the location of these directories from:

C:/Users/J%C3%A9r%C3%B4me/Documents/Java/Repositories/...
C:/Users/J%C3%A9r%C3%B4me/Documents/Java/CheckOut/...

to:

C:/Users/JVerstry/Documents/Java/Repositories/...
C:/Users/JVerstry/Documents/Java/CheckOut/...

Yes, I choose a different user account name when re-installing my machine. And yes, svn does not manage to fall back on its feet.

How can I solve this issue? I checked the content of files located in .svn hidden repositories and it seems like they contain lines such as:

file:///C:/Users/J%C3%A9r%C3%B4me/Documents/Java/Repositories/...

I was thinking may be I could use a tool to scan those files and replace J%C3%A9r%C3%B4me with JVerstry. Is such a tool available for Windows 7? And is this a good idea?

EDIT

I turns out that my issues are deeper than described above. Some of my .svn directories seem corrupted + some directories seem to be locked and cannot be unlocked (SVN dumps error messages...) + some directories are missing in the /db directory of every repository.

migration svn

2 Answers

  1. I think you should be able to solve that by using svn switch to tell Subversion that you are talking to "another" repo. --relocate may be needed in this scenario, I think.

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  2. Best Answer

    I tried the idea of modifying J%C3%A9r%C3%B4me to JVerstry, but it did not work. However, I found a solution to all my issues.

    For each repository:

    1. I checked-out the content of the repository into a /NewCheckOut directory.
    2. I created a patch from my existing /CheckOut directory to capture all modifications made on existing files, but not files added since last check-out.
    3. I applied the patch to my /NewCheckOut directory. I had to make one manual intervention to solve some incompatibility issue.
    4. When trying to check-in /NewCheckOut, I face the issue mentioned here. I created the missing directories in /db. The check-in went fine after.
    5. In order to retrieve added files, I exported the content of my existing /CheckOut directory in /ExportCheckOut. This gets rid of the corrupted /.svn.
    6. I used Windows explorer to copy all content of /ExportCheckOut in /NewCheckOut.
    7. I made sure code compiled fine.
    8. I checked-in /NewCheckOut again.

    Problem solved. I don't exactly know what caused it though...

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