SVN - Retrieve history of item "replaced into" existing directory

Question

I created a branch from my SVN trunk. In the branch, another developer deleted a directory, but then readded it with the same files. When I merged the changes from the branch back into the trunk (using TortoiseSVN), this directory had a "replace into" message. I unfortunately merged those in (none of these files in the branch had changed, but since it was deleted and added, it showed up as a change). Now, the history for those files only goes back to the time it was readded in the branch. I have the old history in a tag from before the merge, but it is a pain to have to go to that to get the history.

Is there a way to update the files to get the history back into the trunk? Even if I merge the tag into the trunk, would it actually update the full history? I have a feeling it would just merge any file changes, not the history.

Answer 1

you should again delete the last added directory and after that restore (!!) old by copying from actual revision.

for example: the correct directory was at 42 rev, at 43 it was deleted and at 44 new was created. so current rev is 45. you delete directory (46) and do some kind of this (untested):

svn copy http://server/full/server/path/to/directory@42 .

(specify . if you want restore dir into current directory or complete server/local path otherwise)

after this you would get the "old" directory with its complete history