Tech Chorus

If you are using subversion (SVN) for your source code management you may have come across this situation.

1. You add some files to your working copy
2. You use the command 'svn add ' to add files to the be versioned
3. You commit using the command 'svn commit -m "message"'
4. When other users of your project update their working copy they find some files missing

You forgot to add certain files to the repository. It happens every now and then.

To avoid the situation, check the status of the files and directories of your working copy before committing.

The command

svn status

A sample output of the svn status command looks like this:

[sudheer@localhost trunk]$ svn status
?      application/config/config.ini
?      application/modules/default/views/scripts/test
?      application/data/logo-alpha/logo-alpha.png
?      application/data/pdfimage/side-text.png
X      library/Zend
?      util/scripts/module/Install/MyInstallerValues.php
 
Performing status on external item at 'library/Zend'
[sudheer@localhost trunk]$ 

In the above sample output the first column shows whether the file or directory was added, deleted or modified. It also indicates whether the item is under version control. Files that are present in your working copy and are not under version control are marked with the status character '?'. In our example, the directory application/modules/default/views/scripts/test is not under version control. To add that directory to the repository I can use the command svn add application/modules/default/views/scripts/test and then commit it to the repository.

Remember to check the status of your working copy before commiting.

Here's a quick cheat sheet of the status messages.

' ' no modifications
'A' Added
'C' Conflicted
'D' Deleted
'I' Ignored
'M' Modified
'R' Replaced
'X' item is unversioned, but is used by an externals definition
'?' item is not under version control
'!' item is missing (removed by non-svn command) or incomplete
'~' versioned item obstructed by some item of a different kind

You can find more information about the svn status command by typing

svn help status

You can also read about the topic in the SVN book.