If you want to examine an earlier version of a file and not necessarily the differences between two files, you can use svn cat :

$ svn cat --revision 2 rules.txt 
Be kind to others
Freedom = Chocolate Ice Cream
Everything in moderation
Chew with your mouth open
$

You can also redirect the output directly into a file:

$ svn cat --revision 2 rules.txt > rules.txt.v2
$

You're probably wondering why we don't just use svn update --revision to update the file to the older revision. There are a few reasons why we might prefer to use svn cat .

First, you may want to see the differences between two revisions of a file using an external diff program (perhaps a graphical one, or perhaps your file is in such a format that the output of unified diff is nonsensical). In this case, you'll need to grab a copy of the old revision, redirect it to a file, and pass both that and the file in your working copy to your external diff program.

Sometimes it's easier to look at an older version of a file in its entirety as opposed to just the differences between it and another revision.