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Can I move an existing Subversion repository into a new parent repository (and retain the history)?

Answer 1

+9 A:

You should be able to dump it, then reload it to a subdirectory of a new repository:

svnadmin dump http://oldrepo/ > mydump

svnadmin load --parent-dir my/new/folder http://newrepo/ < mydump

Steven Robbins 2009-01-26 10:40:02

hotcopy is not a good idea if you are importing the files into an already existing repository where you want to keep the history of whatever was there before the import. "svnadmin dump/load" is the way to go.

Anders Sandvig 2009-01-26 10:58:40

I've never trusted hotcopy to do anything.. I prefer the safety net of dump/load.. just giving him some options though :)

Steven Robbins 2009-01-26 11:08:08

Excellent, exactly what I was looking for, thanks.

Mark B 2009-01-26 12:27:34

It appears no one actually bothered to try this. You cannot do an svnadmin dump on a URL. It has to be a local repository.

Baxissimo 2009-03-19 01:46:35

Well actually, I did try it - it's just that I replaced the URL's with local paths without thinking (because I was working locally on the server machine). Maybe Steve can edit his answer.

Mark B 2009-09-30 14:01:26

Answer 2

+1 A:

You can use tailor to import the revisions into the new repository. It checks out the code from the old repository one revision after another and commits it to the new repository.

This can also be used to convert the history of one type of version control system to another.

An tailor project file would look like this:

[DEFAULT]
root-directory = /var/tmp/tailor
verbose = true

[myproject]
source = svn:oldrepo
target = svn:newrepo
start-revision = INITIAL

[svn:oldrepo]
repository = svn://oldhost.example.com/svnroot
module = trunk
subdir = repo-in

[svn:newrepo]
repository = svn://newhost.example.com/some/path
module = trunk
subdir = repo-out

If this file is called settings.cfg, this will copy /trunk of the old repository revison by revison to the new location:

tailor --configfile=settings.cfg myproject

The target repository needs to already exist and probably should have an empty trunk subdirectory.

sth 2009-01-26 10:40:29

It should in theory also be possible to use tailor to do svn to svn, but I'm having trouble getting it to work. Why would you want to do that? Because svnadmin dump will only work on local repositories. You cannot dump a repo at a URL.

Baxissimo 2009-03-19 01:54:13

I added an example configuration that works for svn->svn copying. I hope you can adapt it for your case with some tweaking...

sth 2009-03-19 02:51:26

Answer 3

+4 A:

svnbook: Migrating Repository Data Elsewhere

Karsten 2009-01-26 10:51:48

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Can I move an existing Subversion repository into a new parent repository (and retain the history)?

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