Problem deleting .svn directories on Windows XP

Question

I don't seem to have this problem on my home laptop with Windows XP, but then I don't do much work there.

On my work laptop, with Windows XP, I have a problem deleting directories when it has directories that contain .svn directories. When it does eventually work, I have the same issue emptying the Recycle bin. The pop-up window says "Cannot remove folder text-base: The directory is not empty" or prop-base or other folder under .svn

This continued to happen after I changed config of TortoiseSVN to stop the TSVN cache process from running and after a reboot of the system.

Multiple tries will eventually get it done. But it is a huge annoyance because there are other issues I'm trying to fix, so I'm hoping it is related.

'Connected Backup PC' also runs on the laptop and the real problem is that cygwin commands don't always work. So I keep thinking the dot files and dot directories have something to do with both problems and/or the backup or other process scanning the directories is doing it. But I've run out of ideas of what to try or how to identify the problem further.

Have you tried to change the options in tortoise to use _svn instead of .svn for the folder names? Or Vice Versa? — Doug Chamberlain, Jan 07 '11 at 21:13
just curious - how long are your file paths, and do you have an indexing service running? — Joshua McKinnon, Jan 07 '11 at 21:27
I don't know exactly what the problem is, but this might help: http://download.cnet.com/Unlocker/3000-2248_4-10493998.html — Tyler, Jan 08 '11 at 02:22

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 08 '11 at 08:05

You don't need to reboot; just open Task Manager and kill TSVNCache.exe.

This is safe, too. It's designed so you can kill it and it will automatically restart when needed.

(As a result of the auto-restart, note that browsing some SVN folders in Explorer, File-Open dialogs, etc. may cause TSVNCache.exe to restart. Keep an eye on Task Manager.)

Tortoise SVN is great but I have found that TSVNCache.exe can hold on to locks and get in the way at times. (Sometimes justified, sometimes not.) As a result, for some automated scripts I run I include commands to kill TSVNCache.exe as part of the scripts so it doesn't get in the way. That's only worth doing if it's an operation you perform often, though.

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 08 '11 at 07:51

You can try a few things:

Since you are getting this error frequently, you can use handle.exe from sysinternals to check which process currently have open handles for the .svn\* directory. If handle utility tells you about any process, try stopping that process and then delete the directories.
Error while deleting from recycle bin: In simple terms, when a file is sent to recycle bin after deleting, it is not actually deleted, rather, a few manipulations are done in directory hierarchy (file system level) to avoid showing the file while browsing content of a folder. So If you happen to resolve the problem mentioned in comment#1, you will not get this error probably.
Cygwin command not working: Running a cygwin command on windows requires (in particular) cygwin1.dll, which is known to be shipped with other programs (eg: CopSsh, some version of svn clients etc...) as well. If there is any mismatch in the version of cygwin1.dll, cygwin commands won't work. Try searching for cygwin1.dll on your computer and try to resolve version conflicts (if any).

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered May 03 '12 at 03:33

I have just experienced this problem (or similar)

I am using tortoise 1.6.7

To fix it I went to 'Tortoise Settings' from the tortoise context menu.

from there select "Icon Overlays" in the tree widget.

In the icon overlays page, I entered the path that was giving me angst into the "exclude paths:"and tortoise no longer holds that directory handle.

This is a directory that is often deleted by a process other than explorer.

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered May 03 '12 at 03:39

Since what it appears that you are trying to do is export the repository from SVN, why not use the export functionality with TortoiseSVN. This removes all .svn directories from the generated 'working copy'.Cmdline: http://svnbook.red-bean.com/en/1.0/re10.html

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Nov 25 '12 at 15:54

If you want to delete all sub folders named .svn in windows then create batch file with this content:

for /f "tokens=* delims=" %%i in ('dir /s /b /a:d *.svn') do (
rd /s /q "%%i"
)

save it in a file del_All_Dot_SVN_Folders.cmd . Run it. Your done.

Thanks to http://www.axelscript.com/2008/03/11/delete-all-svn-files-in-windows/

Remember the above code has .svn whereas the code in the link has only *svn so its better to have the .svn to not accidentally have undesired effect.

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Jan 08 '11 at 02:04

0

did you ever do mkpasswd and mkgroup for cygwin? If you're using cygwin from the command line you are pretty much guaranteed to have file system permissions issues. and you have to read a little to fix it.

http://cygwin.com/cygwin-ug-net/ntsec.html

answered Jan 08 '11 at 02:04

vinnyjames

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score 0 · Answer 7 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:43

0

Try this answer from me. Although it's given for TortioseGit instead of TortoiseSVN, the handling is the same:

disable the status cache (i.e. prevent the TSVNCache.exe from accessing the .svn folders continuously)
delete what you have to delete
enable the status cache to get updated overlays again

edited May 23 '17 at 11:43

Community

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answered Jan 08 '11 at 09:59

eckes

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Problem deleting .svn directories on Windows XP

7 Answers7