A sane way to rename a directory in subversion working copy

Question

While somehow versed in VCS (regular svn, git and git-svn user) I can\'t seem to wrap my head around this peculiar SVN behavior.

Whenever I need to rename a directory in

Answer 1

OK, I bumped into this - and can finally reconstruct the problem with a simple terminal session: the problem happens if you svn mv (move/rename) a file; then commit that change; then (without doing an svn update first), svn mv the parent directory of the file whose move/rename was previously committed - and finally do an svn commit on the change of the directory name - or as accepted answer puts it: "you also need to update and commit a file contained in the folder, but not update the folder itself"; but all of this executed in a parent (or rather, ancestor) directory. Here's command line log demonstrating the problem:

$ cd /tmp
$ svnadmin create myrepo
$ svn co file:///tmp/myrepo myrepo-wc
Checked out revision 0.

$ cd myrepo-wc/
$ mkdir -p dir1/dir2/dir3
$ svn add dir1/
A         dir1
A         dir1/dir2
A         dir1/dir2/dir3

$ svn ci -m 'add dir1/'
Adding         dir1
Adding         dir1/dir2
Adding         dir1/dir2/dir3

Committed revision 1.

$ echo test1 >> dir1/dir2/dir3/test1.txt
$ echo test2 >> dir1/dir2/dir3/test2.txt
$ svn add dir1/
svn: warning: 'dir1' is already under version control
$ svn add dir1/*
svn: warning: 'dir1/dir2' is already under version control
$ svn add dir1/dir2/dir3/*
A         dir1/dir2/dir3/test1.txt
A         dir1/dir2/dir3/test2.txt
$ svn status
A       dir1/dir2/dir3/test2.txt
A       dir1/dir2/dir3/test1.txt
$ svn ci -m 'add dir1/dir2/dir3/*'
Adding         dir1/dir2/dir3/test1.txt
Adding         dir1/dir2/dir3/test2.txt
Transmitting file data ..
Committed revision 2.

$ svn mv dir1/dir2/dir3/test2.txt dir1/dir2/dir3/test2X.txt
A         dir1/dir2/dir3/test2X.txt
D         dir1/dir2/dir3/test2.txt
$ svn status
D       dir1/dir2/dir3/test2.txt
A  +    dir1/dir2/dir3/test2X.txt
$ svn ci -m 'mv dir1/dir2/dir3/test2.txt dir1/dir2/dir3/test2X.txt'
Deleting       dir1/dir2/dir3/test2.txt
Adding         dir1/dir2/dir3/test2X.txt

Committed revision 3.

$ svn status
$ svn mv dir1/dir2/dir3 dir1/dir2/dir3X
A         dir1/dir2/dir3X
D         dir1/dir2/dir3/test2X.txt
D         dir1/dir2/dir3/test1.txt
D         dir1/dir2/dir3
$ svn status
D       dir1/dir2/dir3
D       dir1/dir2/dir3/test2X.txt
D       dir1/dir2/dir3/test1.txt
A  +    dir1/dir2/dir3X
D  +    dir1/dir2/dir3X/test2.txt
$ svn ci -m 'mv dir1/dir2/dir3 dir1/dir2/dir3X'
Deleting       dir1/dir2/dir3
svn: Commit failed (details follow):
svn: Directory '/dir1/dir2/dir3' is out of date
$ svn status
D       dir1/dir2/dir3
D       dir1/dir2/dir3/test2X.txt
D       dir1/dir2/dir3/test1.txt
A  +    dir1/dir2/dir3X
D  +    dir1/dir2/dir3X/test2.txt
$ svn up
   C dir1/dir2/dir3
At revision 3.
Summary of conflicts:
  Tree conflicts: 1

And this is how it should have been - doing an svn up after the file move/rename was comitted; note how the version numbers reported by svn status -v change after the svn update command:

$ cd /tmp
$ rm -rf myrepo*

$ svnadmin create myrepo
$ svn co file:///tmp/myrepo myrepo-wc
Checked out revision 0.

$ cd myrepo-wc/
$ mkdir -p dir1/dir2/dir3
$ svn add dir1/
A         dir1
A         dir1/dir2
A         dir1/dir2/dir3
$ svn ci -m 'add dir1/'
Adding         dir1
Adding         dir1/dir2
Adding         dir1/dir2/dir3

Committed revision 1.

$ echo test1 >> dir1/dir2/dir3/test1.txt
$ echo test2 >> dir1/dir2/dir3/test2.txt
$ svn add dir1/dir2/dir3/*
A         dir1/dir2/dir3/test1.txt
A         dir1/dir2/dir3/test2.txt
$ svn status
A       dir1/dir2/dir3/test2.txt
A       dir1/dir2/dir3/test1.txt
$ svn ci -m 'add dir1/dir2/dir3/*'
Adding         dir1/dir2/dir3/test1.txt
Adding         dir1/dir2/dir3/test2.txt
Transmitting file data ..
Committed revision 2.

$ svn mv dir1/dir2/dir3/test2.txt dir1/dir2/dir3/test2X.txt
A         dir1/dir2/dir3/test2X.txt
D         dir1/dir2/dir3/test2.txt
$ svn status
D       dir1/dir2/dir3/test2.txt
A  +    dir1/dir2/dir3/test2X.txt
$ svn ci -m 'mv dir1/dir2/dir3/test2.txt dir1/dir2/dir3/test2X.txt'
Deleting       dir1/dir2/dir3/test2.txt
Adding         dir1/dir2/dir3/test2X.txt

Committed revision 3.

$ svn status
$ svn status -v
                 0        0  ?           .
                 1        1 username dir1
                 1        1 username dir1/dir2
                 1        1 username dir1/dir2/dir3
                 3        3 username dir1/dir2/dir3/test2X.txt
                 2        2 username dir1/dir2/dir3/test1.txt
$ svn up
At revision 3.
$ svn status -v
                 3        3 username .
                 3        3 username dir1
                 3        3 username dir1/dir2
                 3        3 username dir1/dir2/dir3
                 3        3 username dir1/dir2/dir3/test2X.txt
                 3        2 username dir1/dir2/dir3/test1.txt
$ svn mv dir1/dir2/dir3 dir1/dir2/dir3X
A         dir1/dir2/dir3X
D         dir1/dir2/dir3/test2X.txt
D         dir1/dir2/dir3/test1.txt
D         dir1/dir2/dir3
$ svn status
D       dir1/dir2/dir3
D       dir1/dir2/dir3/test2X.txt
D       dir1/dir2/dir3/test1.txt
A  +    dir1/dir2/dir3X
$ svn ci -m 'mv dir1/dir2/dir3 dir1/dir2/dir3X'
Deleting       dir1/dir2/dir3
Adding         dir1/dir2/dir3X

Committed revision 4.

$ svn status
$ svn status -v
                 3        3 username .
                 3        3 username dir1
                 3        3 username dir1/dir2
                 4        4 username dir1/dir2/dir3X
                 4        4 username dir1/dir2/dir3X/test2X.txt
                 4        4 username dir1/dir2/dir3X/test1.txt
$ svn up
At revision 4.
$ svn status -v
                 4        4 username .
                 4        4 username dir1
                 4        4 username dir1/dir2
                 4        4 username dir1/dir2/dir3X
                 4        4 username dir1/dir2/dir3X/test2X.txt
                 4        4 username dir1/dir2/dir3X/test1.txt

And as OP said - should one forget to do the svn update before a new move/rename+commit, and the "Commit failed" occured - then one can use svn resolve --accept working -R . to be able to finish the commit action.