How to rename a file using svn?

Question

When I try svn mv old_file_name new_file_name, I get

 svn: Path \'new_file_name\' is not a directory

What\'s the correct way?

Answer 1

The behaviour differs depending on whether the target file name already exists or not. It's usually a safety mechanism, and there are at least 3 different cases:

Target file does not exist:

In this case svn mv should work as follows:

$ svn mv old_file_name new_file_name
A         new_file_name
D         old_file_name
$ svn stat
A  +    new_file_name
        > moved from old_file_name
D       old_file_name
        > moved to new_file_name
$ svn commit
Adding     new_file_name
Deleting   old_file_name
Committing transaction...

Target file already exists in repository:

In this case, the target file needs to be removed explicitly, before the source file can be renamed. This can be done in the same transaction as follows:

$ svn mv old_file_name new_file_name 
svn: E155010: Path 'new_file_name' is not a directory
$ svn rm new_file_name 
D         new_file_name
$ svn mv old_file_name new_file_name 
A         new_file_name
D         old_file_name
$ svn stat
R  +    new_file_name
        > moved from old_file_name
D       old_file_name
        > moved to new_file_name
$ svn commit
Replacing      new_file_name
Deleting       old_file_name
Committing transaction...

In the output of svn stat, the R indicates that the file has been replaced, and that the file has a history.

Target file already exists locally (unversioned):

In this case, the content of the local file would be lost. If that's okay, then the file can be removed locally before renaming the existing file.

$ svn mv old_file_name new_file_name 
svn: E155010: Path 'new_file_name' is not a directory
$ rm new_file_name 
$ svn mv old_file_name new_file_name 
A         new_file_name
D         old_file_name
$ svn stat
A  +    new_file_name
        > moved from old_file_name
D       old_file_name
        > moved to new_file_name
$ svn commit
Adding         new_file_name
Deleting       old_file_name
Committing transaction...