Version Control with Subversion, 2nd Edition

Chapter 9. Subversion Complete Reference

This chapter is intended to be a complete reference to using Subversion. This includes the command-line client (svn) and all its subcommands, as well as the repository administration programs (svnadmin and svnlook) and their respective subcommands.

The Subversion Command-Line Client: svn

To use the command-line client, type svn, the subcommand you wish to use,^[56] and any options or targets that you wish to operate on—the subcommand and the options need not appear in a specific order. For example, all of the following are valid ways to use svn status:

$ svn -v status
$ svn status -v 
$ svn status -v myfile

You can find many more examples of how to use most client commands in Chapter 2 and commands for managing properties in Properties.

svn Options

While Subversion has different options for its subcommands, all options exist in a single namespace—that is, each option is guaranteed to mean the same thing regardless of the subcommand you use it with. For example, --verbose (-v) always means “verbose output,” regardless of the subcommand you use it with.

The svn command-line client usually exits quickly with an error if you pass it an option that does not apply to the specified subcommand. But as of Subversion 1.5, several of the options that apply to all—or nearly all—of the subcommands have been deemed acceptable by all subcommands, even if they have no effect on some of them. They appear grouped together in the command-line client’s usage messages ...