How do I add a file to Subversion that has the same name as a directory that was deleted?

Question

A long time ago I had the following directory structure in my SVN repository

trunk/
    data/
        levels/
            1.level
            2.level
            ...
        ...
    ...

But I deleted the 'levels' directory long ago. Now I want to add a single text file called 'levels' to the 'data' directory, so it will look like this:

trunk/
    data/
        levels
        ...
    ...

Now when I try to add the file 'levels', I get this message:

$ svn add data/levels
svn: Can't replace 'data/levels' with a node of a differing type; the deletion m
ust be committed and the parent updated before adding 'data/levels'

How can I solve this?

Answer 1

Try running svn update. That will update the current folder's revision number and all associated metadata. You should also make sure svn status doesn't display anything related to this.

Answer 2

As the error message indicates:

1. first commit the deletion of the levels folder (svn ci)
2. run an update (svn up)
3. add the levels file (svn add data/levels)
4. commit the levels file (svn ci)

Answer 3

It's usually good practice to run svn update before and after a commit so that your working copy is up-to-date.

Remember that whenever you make a commit in svn, it doesn't update your working copy. So, when you commit revision 10, your working copy is still revision 9 (or something lower).