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I want to reorder a subversion repository; for this I use svnadmin dump, svnadmin load, svndumpfilter and sed.

For example, I want to "move" the following directory (in fact, it's much more but I do it step by step now):

project1/common/bib -> trunk/pub/common/bib

For this, I execute the following command on the exported dump file:

sed -i "s|Node-path: project1/common/bib|Node-path: trunk/pub/common/bib|g" repo.dump
sed -i "s|Node-copyfrom-path: project1/common/bib|Node-copyfrom-path: trunk/pub/common/bib|g" repo.dump

However, when I load this into a new/empty repository I get:

<<< Neue Transaktion basierend auf Originalrevision 64 gestartet
svnadmin: Datei nicht gefunden: Transaktion »63-1r«, Pfad »trunk/pub/common/bib«
 * Füge Pfad hinzu: trunk/pub/common/bib ...

I don't why this does not work since I replace stupidly every entry!

divB
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  • You say that you use `svndumpfilter` but you don't specify commands you run. – bahrep Jul 03 '14 at 05:11
  • It does not matter (it's just for including/excluding). Just suppose I have no svndumpfilter at all (which I is true for my experiments). What I want is to move project1/common/bib to trunk/pub/common/bib within the repository (i.e., its dump file) – divB Jul 03 '14 at 05:34
  • svn has a native command (`svn mv URL1 URL2`) for moving a directory in the repository to another location in the same repository. Why not use that instead of dump/sed/load? – John1024 Jul 03 '14 at 06:12
  • Because the move is visible then in the history, the history a bit broken etc. dump/sed/load to my understanding would allow to just move them as they would have always been there. Since it concerns the big structure of my repos this is what I would like to want – divB Jul 03 '14 at 15:07

1 Answers1

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svnadmin dump will indeed produce a complete history of your "project1" repository.

However, although possible, altering file paths within that history can be tricky. Your sed commands are good, but they might get the job done only 98%. To correctly change the history, you need to do some more searching and validation of the changed history file.

Here is an example of how things can get corrupted if you only perform those 2 sed commands:

Supposing the common directory was added and committed in revision 5, svndump would give:

Node-path: project1/common
Node-kind: dir
Node-action: add
Prop-content-length: 10
Content-length: 10

PROPS-END

You run your incomplete sed magic, and the new repository fails to create the trunk/pub/common directory:

Node-path: project1/common # bad! should be: trunk/pub/common !!!
Node-kind: dir
Node-action: add
Prop-content-length: 10
Content-length: 10

PROPS-END

From this point in time, svn will try to re-create your invalid paths, thus giving:

<<< Started new transaction, based on original revision 2
svnadmin: File not found: transaction '1-1', path '/trunk/pub/common'
     * adding path : trunk/pub/common ...

Sometimes this can work. But most of the times it fails.

Solution:

Personally, I would use a text editor with nice search and replace features (e.g. vim), and replace all "project1", "project1/common" and "project1/common/bib" appearances.

Liviu Chircu
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