Synopsis

svn switch URL[@PEGREV] [PATH]

switch --relocate FROM TO [PATH...]

Description

The first variant of this subcommand (without the --relocate option) updates your working copy to point to a new URL—usually a URL that shares a common ancestor with your working copy, although not necessarily. This is the Subversion way to move a working copy to a new branch. If specified, PEGREV determines in which revision the target is first looked up. See the section called “Traversing Branches” for an in-depth look at switching.

If --force is used, unversioned obstructing paths in the working copy do not automatically cause a failure if the switch attempts to add the same path. If the obstructing path is the same type (file or directory) as the corresponding path in the repository, it becomes versioned but its contents are left untouched in the working copy. This means that an obstructing directory's unversioned children may also obstruct and become versioned. For files, any content differences between the obstruction and the repository are treated like a local modification to the working copy. All properties from the repository are applied to the obstructing path.

As with most subcommands, you can limit the scope of the switch operation to a particular tree depth using the --depth option. Alternatively, you can use the --set-depth option to set a new “sticky” working copy depth on the switch target. Currently, the depth of a working copy directory can only be increased (telescoped more deeply); you cannot make a directory more shallow.

The --relocate option causes svn switch to do something different: it updates your working copy to point to the same repository directory, only at a different URL (typically because an administrator has moved the repository to another server, or to another URL on the same server).

Alternate names

sw

Changes

Working copy

Accesses repository

Yes

Options

--accept ARG
--depth ARG
--diff3-cmd CMD
--force
--ignore-externals
--quiet (-q)
--relocate
--revision (-r) REV
--set-depth ARG

Examples

If you're currently inside the directory vendors, which was branched to vendors-with-fix, and you'd like to switch your working copy to that branch:

$ svn switch http://svn.red-bean.com/repos/branches/vendors-with-fix .
U  myproj/foo.txt
U  myproj/bar.txt
U  myproj/baz.c
U  myproj/qux.c
Updated to revision 31.

To switch back, just provide the URL to the location in the repository from which you originally checked out your working copy:

$ svn switch http://svn.red-bean.com/repos/trunk/vendors .
U  myproj/foo.txt
U  myproj/bar.txt
U  myproj/baz.c
U  myproj/qux.c
Updated to revision 31.

Sometimes an administrator might change the location (or apparent location) of your repository—in other words, the content of the repository doesn't change, but the repository's root URL does. For example, the hostname may change, the URL scheme may change, or any part of the URL that leads to the repository itself may change. Rather than check out a new working copy, you can have the svn switch command “rewrite” your working copy's administrative metadata to refer to the new repository location. If you use the --relocate option to svn switch, Subversion will contact the repository to validate the relocation request (looking for the repository at the new URL, of course), and then do this metadata rewriting. No file contents will be changed as the result of this type of switch operation—this is a metadata-only modification to the working copy.

$ svn checkout file:///var/svn/repos test
A  test/a
A  test/b
…

$ mv repos newlocation
$ cd test/

$ svn update
svn: Unable to open an ra_local session to URL
svn: Unable to open repository 'file:///var/svn/repos'

$ svn switch --relocate file:///var/svn/repos file:///tmp/newlocation .
$ svn update
At revision 3.