Commit symlink into subversion

Question

I'm tring to commit a symlink into subversion, but I get this error when I try to add the actual symlink:

Can't replace 'path/to/symlink' with a node of a differing type; the deletion must be committed and the parent updated before adding 'path/to/symlink'

Answer 1

I read it as - you have to remove the file, commit, update, create symlink, add it, commit.

And my guess is that you're trying to remove the file, create symlink, commit in one go.

Answer 2

1. svn delete x
2. svn ci -m'blah'
3. svn update
4. ln -s blee x
5. svn add x

Answer 3

The error I got on svn 1.6.11 reads

svn: Commit failed (details follow):
svn: Entry '/path/to/symlink' has unexpectedly changed special status

I fixed it by simply

svn propset svn:special on /path/to/symlink

And then rerunning the commit. Apparently no need to delete, update, etc....

Answer 4

find . -type l | xargs -i -x svn propset svn:special on {}