Reverting single file in SVN to a particular revision

Question

I have a file as shown below in an SVN repo that I would like to revert to a previous version. What is the way to do this in SVN? I want only downgrade this particular file to an older version, not the whole repo.

Thanks.

$ svn log myfile.py
----------------------
r179 | xx | 2010-05-10

Change 3
----------------------
r175 | xx | 2010-05-08

Change 2
----------------------
r174 | xx | 2010-05-04

Initial

when you said revert, what did you mean, 7 years ago, lol – Kalpesh Soni Feb 21 '17 at 03:08 — Kalpesh Soni, Feb 21 '17 at 03:08

score 190 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 10:31

190

If you just want the old file in your working copy:

svn up -r 147 myfile.py

If you want to rollback, see this "How to return to an older version of our code in subversion?".

edited May 23 '17 at 10:31

Community

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answered May 11 '10 at 17:25

Eric Hauser

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but the next time you update it gets the file you didn't want back... :S – andygoestohollywood Nov 15 '13 at 09:53
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if you don't want it back, svn commit that file, to put the version you want into the repo – Packet Tracer Jan 27 '14 at 10:21
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This probably does not actually do what the question asker wanted. Using this, the working copy is clean and cannot be committed AS IS, and an "svn update" without a version number specified will retrieve the latest, unwanted version. – CXJ Feb 19 '14 at 02:35
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How can I commit the reverted file then? – marcio Feb 29 '16 at 15:34
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This isn't quite right because, as CXJ mentions, there isn't a way to commit the updated file. You probably want to do as Mitch Dempsey says (note, however, the --force to force overwriting the file): svn export --force -r 147 myfile.py myfile.py – benbotto Apr 12 '16 at 20:51
It is not complete. I've moved the file to file.old, did svn up again, moved file.old to file (overwriting the original) and finally committed. – Valentin H Nov 07 '16 at 11:11
If you want to roll back an individual file and be able to commit, then do: 'svn merge -c -[OldRev#] [Filename]' ie. svn merge -c -150 myfile.py. – Olmstov Aug 01 '18 at 13:52

score 102 · Answer 2 · edited Feb 24 '15 at 18:55

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svn cat takes a revision arg too!

svn cat -r 175 mydir/myfile > mydir/myfile

edited Feb 24 '15 at 18:55

Alex Shesterov

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answered Feb 24 '15 at 15:35

Never Sleep Again

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**This is by far the best answer on the page.** It leaves the changed file in a state that can be committed. – dotancohen Mar 02 '16 at 14:08
this doesn't seem to work when you are pasting into a new file – ahnbizcad Mar 04 '16 at 21:19
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haha looking back at it, idk what context i was thinking of when i posted. I can't recall. It does seem nonsensical. – ahnbizcad Apr 12 '16 at 21:34
This is simple and straightforward for when you simply want to undo your changes and get a file back into it's pre-commit state without any version control technicalities. – pretzlstyle Jan 30 '18 at 21:16

score 58 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 16 '14 at 01:22

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svn revert filename

this should revert a single file.

answered Mar 16 '14 at 01:22

thestar

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What's up with all the other answers with longer commands? Thanks. – masterxilo Aug 06 '14 at 12:50
You are welcome. I have no idea what is up with other answers.. lol – thestar Aug 20 '14 at 14:46
they're up, and they're longer. i concur. – Berry Tsakala Sep 02 '14 at 10:49
explanation for down voting? – thestar Sep 12 '14 at 19:47
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This reverts to which revision? Doc says just replaces with latest in repo. Question is how to revert to an earlier version. – tgkprog Oct 28 '14 at 10:10
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This reverts to the latest version of repo. If you read the description of the questions, it seems like he was looking for how to revert a single file, not entire directory. – thestar Oct 29 '14 at 15:27
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I believe all this does is destroy your working copy by 'reverting' it back to head. Or to which ever was checked out. confirm by doing svn update -r VER file, then do an svn revert. – Gerard ONeill Sep 25 '15 at 13:58

score 50 · Answer 4 · answered May 11 '10 at 17:26

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For a single file, you could do:

svn export -r <REV> svn://host/path/to/file/on/repos file.ext

You could do svn revert <file> but that will only restore the last working copy.

answered May 11 '10 at 17:26

Mitch Dempsey

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export, then paste it to your local copy, then commit it again? – tgkprog Sep 17 '13 at 18:53
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@tgkprog that is one way to do it, yes – Mitch Dempsey Sep 17 '13 at 20:59
@tgkprog and what is the "preferred" way? – hbogert Oct 28 '14 at 08:43
No idea but that is what worked for me : exported past revision. Opened in notepad, copied, pasted in to working file. Committed that to head with comment on which rev and why. UI tools might have a better way. – tgkprog Oct 28 '14 at 10:11

score 26 · Answer 5 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:10

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So far all answers here seem to have significant downsides, are complicated (need to find the repo URI) or they don't do what the question probably asked for: How to get the Repo in a working state again with that older version of the file.

svn merge -r head:[revision-number-to-revert-to] [file-path] is IMO the cleanest and simplest way to do this. Please note that bringing back a deleted file does not seem to work this way[1]. See also the following question: Better way to revert to a previous SVN revision of a file?

[1] For that you want svn cp -r [rev-number] [repo-URI/file-path]@[rev-number] [repo-URI/file-path] && svn up, see also What is the correct way to restore a deleted file from SVN?

edited May 23 '17 at 12:10

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answered Nov 12 '15 at 02:01

Michel Müller

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I wish to remark that at least for my version of Subversion, `svn merge` does not take multiple files as an argument for some reason. In this case it seems to do just nothing (without an error message). – Wrzlprmft Jan 09 '16 at 10:53
But my command still works by repeating it for each file, right? – Michel Müller Jan 09 '16 at 14:31
Yes, it does indeed. – Wrzlprmft Jan 09 '16 at 16:07
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Agreed that this is the cleanest. – KevinG Jul 27 '17 at 17:59

score 13 · Answer 6 · edited Aug 22 '11 at 20:50

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The best way is to:

svn merge -c -RevisionToUndo ^/trunk

This will undo all files of the revision than simply revert those file you don't like to undo. Don't forget the dash (-) as prefix for the revision.

svn revert File1 File2

Now commit the changes back.

edited Aug 22 '11 at 20:50

Xavi

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answered May 11 '10 at 17:31

khmarbaise

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score 11 · Answer 7 · answered Feb 19 '18 at 21:57

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You want to do

svn merge -r [revision to revert from]:[revision to revert to] [path/filename]

Once you do that, you will have that revision of the file in a committable state. Commit the file.

answered Feb 19 '18 at 21:57

Jennifer Elyse

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Kalpesh Soni · Answer 8 · 2019-06-03T17:23:26.010

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surprised no one mentioned this

without finding out the revision number you could write this, if you just committed something that you want to revert, this wont work if you changed some other file and the target file is not the last changed file

svn merge -r HEAD:PREV file

edited Jun 03 '19 at 17:23

answered Feb 21 '17 at 03:16

Kalpesh Soni

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if you have comments please discuss here before making edits? – Kalpesh Soni Nov 17 '17 at 17:24
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Doesn't the scenario in the question require a reverse-merge of the most recent change, such that we should apply the changes needed to go from HEAD to PREV? – Nick Russo Nov 25 '17 at 17:33
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The command should be `svn merge -r HEAD:PREV file` as @Nick Russo said – Heinz Jan 19 '18 at 16:01

score 7 · Answer 9 · edited Nov 14 '13 at 13:53

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I found it's simple to do this via the svn cat command so that you don't even have to specify a revision.

svn cat mydir/myfile > mydir/myfile

This probably won't role back the inode (metadata) data such as timestamps.

edited Nov 14 '13 at 13:53

Beryllium

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answered Aug 27 '13 at 22:40

Joseph Coco

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then commit the file so it goes to the repo – tgkprog Sep 17 '13 at 18:54
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This worked for me better than update. Because update does not let you commit the modification made to that file. (svn 1.8.3) – fe_lix_ Oct 24 '13 at 07:54

score 5 · Answer 10 · answered Nov 19 '15 at 11:41

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If it's only a couple of files, and if you're using Tortoise SVN, you can use the following approach:

Right click on your source file, and select "TortoiseSVN" -> "Show log".
Right click on a revision in the log, and select "Save revision to...".
Let the old revision overwrite your current file.
Commit the overwritten source file.

answered Nov 19 '15 at 11:41

bjaastad_e

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This saves a new unversioned file such as file-xxxx wherein xxxx is the old revision number. What we do next? delete the new revision (HEAD e.g.), rename the new file, add, commit? – Heinz Jan 19 '18 at 15:49
No, don't save it with the revision number in the file name. Save it with exactly the same file name as the current version of the same file (in other words, no xxxx in the file name). Then just do an ordinary commit after that. – bjaastad_e Feb 06 '18 at 23:56

score 4 · Answer 11 · answered Apr 20 '17 at 02:19

4

Just adding on to @Mitch Dempsy answer since I don't have enough rep to comment yet.

svn export -r <REV> svn://host/path/to/file/on/repos --force

Adding the --force will overwrite the local copy with the export and then you can do an svn commit to push it to the repository.

answered Apr 20 '17 at 02:19

Kristina

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and this is the best answer :) – Zgr3doo Sep 26 '17 at 10:40
why is this the best answer? it doesn't manage history the "svn way" – Jason S Jun 07 '19 at 03:48

score 2 · Answer 12 · answered Jul 13 '18 at 23:55

An alternate option for a single file is to "replace" the current version of the file with the older revision:

svn rm file.ext
svn cp svn://host/path/to/file/on/repo/file.ext@<REV> file.ext
svn ci

This has the added feature that the unwanted changes do not show up in the log for this file (i.e. svn log file.ext).

score 1 · Answer 13 · answered Aug 01 '18 at 13:55

1

If you want to roll back an individual file from a specific revision and be able to commit, then do:

svn merge -c -[OldRev#] [Filename]

ie. svn merge -c -150 myfile.py

Note the negative on the revision number

answered Aug 01 '18 at 13:55

Olmstov

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Reverting single file in SVN to a particular revision

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