What does a TortoiseSVN cleanup actually do?

Question

What does a TortoiseSVN cleanup actually do?

I have not found a pattern, but I frequently get asked to do a \"cleanup\" while trying to commit code.

If TortoiseS

Answer 1

It looks for inconsistencies. From the docs:

If a Subversion command cannot complete successfully, perhaps due to server problems, your working copy can be left in an inconsistent state. In that case you need to use TortoiseSVN → Cleanup on the folder. It is a good idea to do this at the top level of the working copy.

Cleanup has another useful side effect. If a file date changes but its content doesn't, Subversion cannot tell whether it has really changed except by doing a byte-by-byte comparison with the pristine copy. If you have a lot of files in this state it makes acquiring status very slow, which will make many dialogs slow to respond. Executing a Cleanup on your working copy will repair these “broken” timestamps and restore status checks to full speed.