How to add a parent directory to SVN?

Question

Say I have a directory structure like this

dir1
   dir2
   dir3

dir2is already under version control, whereas dir1 is not. Now I realize that I would like to have dir1 under version control as well (and maybe later on dir3 etc.) How can I do this and reflect the changes correctly in the repository?

If I just move dir2 out of dir1, add dir1 to SVN and move dir2 back into dir1, this will probably destroy the version history of dir2. What makes it even more complicated is that dir2 contains many files which are not under version control (they are ignored), so dir2 cannot be (fully) recreated from the repository.

Answer 1

• create dir1 besides dir2
• move dir2 into dir1

You can do this on the server (by using URLs) or in your working copy (by using file system paths). In the latter case you will have to commit afterwards.

Answer 2

You're right, re-importing dir2 will not save the history of your existing dir2.

This should do the trick (assuming path is the url repository):

1. svn mkdir path/dir1
2. svn mv path/dir2 path/dir1

Answer 3

There is another possibility, although it might not be exactly what you're looking for: SVN externals.

1. Check in dir1.

2. Add dir2 as SVN external to dir1s properties:

-

$ svn propget svn:externals dir1
dir2  svn://repository/dir2