SVN: Folder already under version control but not comitting?

Question

mark@mark-ubuntu:~/myproject$ svn stat
?       runserver.sh
?       media/images/icons
?       apps/autocomplete
mark@mark-ubuntu:~/myproject$ svn add apps/autocomplete
svn: warning: 'apps/autocomplete' is already under version control

svn stat says its not under version control, so I try to add it, and then it tells me it is. When I do an svn ci, it doesn't get comitted, and doesn't show up when I try to browse to repository online.

How do I get it to commit?

Does the "autocomplete" folder contain a broken ".svn" subdirectory? Also, did you cleanup? :) — bzlm, Feb 08 '11 at 22:08
I ran into this issue when I had copied a checked in directory to another folder in my project. Deleting the old .svn works! — paulrehkugler, Mar 12 '13 at 16:25
I forcefully added the files: `svn add --force /path/to/file`, or if you want to add directory recursively: `svn add --depth infinity --force /path/to/directory`. — joker, Apr 15 '17 at 19:57

score 164 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:03

164

Copy problematic folder into some backup directory and remove it from your SVN working directory. Remember to delete all .svn hidden directories from the copied folder.

Now update your project, clean-up and commit what has left. Now move your folder back to working directory, add it and commit. Most of the time this workaround works, it seems that basically SVN got confused...

Update: quoting comment by @Mark:

Didn't need to move the folder around, just deleting the .svn folder and then svn-adding it worked.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:03

Community

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answered Feb 08 '11 at 22:09

Tomasz Nurkiewicz

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Didn't need to move the folder around, just deleting the `.svn` folder and then svn-adding it worked. – mpen Feb 08 '11 at 23:52
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+1 for making my day ;-) As Mark said, for me it was enough to remove the .svn directories within the problematic folder. – rturrado Feb 18 '11 at 11:43
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Thanks for identifying SVN as utter BS. – Stephan Kristyn Apr 03 '12 at 12:38
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now that you only have .svn in top folder, you cant do this BS, if metadata is corrupt, you are toast – Kalpesh Soni Sep 04 '14 at 18:54
uncheck the parent folder (apps/autocomplete) from the list if already commited – khaled_webdev Oct 31 '14 at 08:29
Follow up question. After deleting .svn and moving it to the desired location. How to make SVN ignore certain file formats (Ex. xml) for commit in the new location? – william cage Oct 25 '16 at 21:51
what is svn-adding? – iosMentalist Sep 27 '17 at 08:47

score 20 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 17 '11 at 11:24

20

I had a similar-looking problem after adding a directory tree which contained .svn directories (because it was an svn:external in its source environment): svn status told me "?", but when trying to add it, it was "already under version control".

Since no other versioned directories were present, I did

find . -mindepth 2 -name '.svn' -exec rm -rf '{}' \;

to remove the wrong .svn directories; after doing this, I was able to add the new directory.

Note:

If other versioned directories are contained, the find expression must be changed to be more specific
If unsure, first omit the "-exec ..." part to see what would be deleted

answered Nov 17 '11 at 11:24

Tobias

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While this answer worked for me, the first time I used it, I was in the wrong folder and got things into quite a mess. Seems like a good place to remind people to "measure twice, cut once" i.e. double check the details before running this one. – BishopZ Aug 30 '13 at 13:42
I recommend the 'if unsure' to be `... -exec echo {} \;` so you can get your -exec switch working well also. – FlipMcF Feb 13 '15 at 19:45
also recommend adding a `-type d` to the find. Call me picky until your `rm -rf` goes a bit too far. Other than my nitpicks - I think this is the correct answer. – FlipMcF Feb 13 '15 at 19:53

score 15 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:26

15

A variation on @gauss256's answer, deleting .svn, worked for me:

rm -rf troublesome_folder/.svn
svn add troublesome_folder
svn commit

Before Gauss's solution I tried @jwir3's approach and got no joy:

svn cleanup
svn cleanup *
svn cleanup troublesome_folder
svn add --force troublesome_folder
svn commit

edited May 23 '17 at 12:26

Community

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answered Jun 14 '11 at 12:28

hobs

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score 14 · Answer 4 · answered Feb 12 '12 at 01:50

(1) This just happened to me, and I thought it was interesting how it happened. Basically I had copied the folder to a new location and modified it, forgetting that it would bring along all the hidden .svn directories. Once you realize how it happens it is easier to avoid in the future.

(2) Removing the .svn directories is the solution, but you have to do it recursively all the way down the directory tree. The easiest way to do that is:

find troublesome_folder -name .svn -exec rm -rf {} \;

score 3 · Answer 5 · answered Feb 08 '11 at 22:08

3

Have you tried performing an svn cleanup?

answered Feb 08 '11 at 22:08

jwir3

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Ive ran too into this problem. Then tried `svn cleanup` and it didnt help it. – imacake Nov 15 '11 at 12:53

jerryb · Answer 6 · 2011-02-21T18:31:38.003

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Check for a directory 'apps/autocomplete/.svn'. Move it somewhere safe (in case you need to restore it because this did not work) and see if that fixes the problem.

edited Feb 21 '11 at 18:31

answered Feb 08 '11 at 22:08

jerryb

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score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Jan 12 '16 at 08:05

I found a solution in case you have installed Eclipse(Luna) with the SVN Client JavaHL(JNI) 1.8.13 and Tortoise:

Open Eclipse: First try to add the project / maven module to Version Control (Project -> Context Menu -> Team -> Add to Version Control)

You will see the following Eclipse error message:

org.apache.subversion.javahl.ClientException: Entry already exists svn: 'PathToYouProject' is already under version control

After that you have to open your workspace directory in your explorer, select your project and resolve it via Tortoise (Project -> Context Menu -> TortoiseSVN -> Resolve)

You will see the following message dialog: "File list is empty"

Press cancel and refresh the project in Eclipse. Your project should be under version control again.

Unfortunately it is not possible to resolve more the one project at the same time ... you don't have to delete anything but depending on the size of your project it could be a little bit laborious.

score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Jun 25 '20 at 18:00

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For me doing a svn update, followed by svn commit worked. There were no .svn folders present in folder which was failing to add.

answered Jun 25 '20 at 18:00

Sujeet

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score 0 · Answer 9 · answered Sep 10 '21 at 13:48

0

Just rename the problematic file, Commit, rename it to the original name and commit

answered Sep 10 '21 at 13:48

Ahmed_mag

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SVN: Folder already under version control but not comitting?

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