Version Control with Subversion - Basic Work Cycle -

You'll probably use the svn status command more than any other Subversion command.

If you run svn status at the top of your working copy with no arguments, it will detect all file and tree changes you've made. Below are examples of the different status codes that svn status can return. (Note that the text following # is not actually printed by svn status .)

In this output format svn status prints five columns of characters, followed by several whitespace characters, followed by a file or directory name. The first column tells the status of a file or directory and/or its contents. The codes printed here are:

A item: The file, directory, or symbolic link item has been scheduled for addition into the repository.
C item: The file item is in a state of conflict. That is, changes received from the server during an update overlap with local changes that you have in your working copy. You must resolve this conflict before committing your changes to the repository.
D item: The file, directory, or symbolic link item has been scheduled for deletion from the repository.
M item: The contents of the file item have been modified.
R item: The file, directory, or symbolic link item has been scheduled to replace item in the repository. This means that the object is first deleted, then another object of the same name is added, all within a single revision.
X item: The directory item is unversioned, but is related to a Subversion externals definition. To find out more about externals definitions, see the section called “Externals Definitions”.
? item: The file, directory, or symbolic link item is not under version control. You can silence the question marks by either passing the --quiet (-q) switch to svn status , or by setting the svn:ignore property on the parent directory. For more information on ignored files, see the section called “svn:ignore”.
! item: The file, directory, or symbolic link item is under version control but is missing or somehow incomplete. The item can be missing if it's removed using a non-Subversion command. In the case of a directory, it can be incomplete if you happened to interrupt a checkout or update. A quick svn update will refetch the file or directory from the repository, or svn revert file will restore a missing file.
~ item: The file, directory, or symbolic link item is in the repository as one kind of object, but what's actually in your working copy is some other kind. For example, Subversion might have a file in the repository, but you removed the file and created a directory in its place, without using the svn delete or svn add command.
I item: The file, directory, or symbolic link item is not under version control, and Subversion is configured to ignore it during svn add , svn import and svn status operations. For more information on ignored files, see the section called “svn:ignore”. Note that this symbol only shows up if you pass the --no-ignore option to svn status —otherwise the file would be ignored and not listed at all!

The second column tells the status of a file or directory's properties (see the section called “Properties” for more information on properties). If an M appears in the second column, then the properties have been modified, otherwise a whitespace will be printed.

The third column will only show whitespace or an L which means that Subversion has locked the directory's .svn working area. You will see an L if you run svn status in a directory where an svn commit is in progress—perhaps when you are editing the log message. If Subversion is not running, then presumably Subversion was interrupted and the lock needs to be cleaned up by running svn cleanup (more about that later in this chapter).

The fourth column will only show whitespace or a + which means that the file or directory is scheduled to be added or modified with additional attached history. This typically happens when you svn move or svn copy a file or directory. If you see A +, this means the item is scheduled for addition-with-history. It could be a file, or the root of a copied directory. + means the item is part of a subtree scheduled for addition-with-history, i.e. some parent got copied, and it's just coming along for the ride. M + means the item is part of a subtree scheduled for addition-with-history, and it has local modifications. When you commit, first the parent will be added-with-history (copied), which means this file will automatically exist in the copy. Then the local modifications will be uploaded into the copy.

The fifth column will only show whitespace or an S. This signifies that the file or directory has been switched from the path of the rest of the working copy (using svn switch ) to a branch.

If you pass a specific path to svn status , it gives you information about that item alone:

svn status also has a --verbose (-v) switch, which will show you the status of every item in your working copy, even if it has not been changed:

This is the “long form” output of svn status . The first column remains the same, but the second column shows the working-revision of the item. The third and fourth columns show the revision in which the item last changed, and who changed it.

None of the above invocations to svn status contact the repository, they work only locally by comparing the metadata in the .svn directory with the working copy. Finally, there is the --show-updates (-u) switch, which contacts the repository and adds information about things that are out-of-date:

Notice the two asterisks: if you were to run svn update at this point, you would receive changes to README and trout.c. This tells you some very useful information—you'll need to update and get the server changes on README before you commit, or the repository will reject your commit for being out-of-date. (More on this subject later.)