Are subversion externals an antipattern?

Question

Subversion lets you embed working copies of other repositories using externals, allowing easy version control of third-party library software in your project.

While

Answer 1

If plain external is an anti-pattern because it can break your repository, then one with explicit revision should'nt.

Excerpt from svn book:

An externals definition is a mapping of a local directory to the URL**—and possibly a particular revision—**of a versioned resource.

I think it's all depend your purpose of using the feature, it is not an anti-pattern by itself.