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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /><title>The Subversion Command Line Client: svn</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="styles.css" type="text/css" /><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.73.2" /><link rel="start" href="index.html" title="Version Control with Subversion" /><link rel="up" href="svn.ref.html" title="Chapter 9. Subversion Complete Reference" /><link rel="prev" href="svn.ref.html" title="Chapter 9. Subversion Complete Reference" /><link rel="next" href="svn.ref.svn.c.add.html" title="svn add" /></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">The Subversion Command Line Client: <span class="command"><strong>svn</strong></span></th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="svn.ref.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">Chapter 9. Subversion Complete Reference</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="svn.ref.svn.c.add.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr /></div><div class="sect1" lang="en" xml:lang="en"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both"><a id="svn.ref.svn"></a>The Subversion Command Line Client: <span class="command"><strong>svn</strong></span></h2></div></div></div><p>To use the command line client, you type
<span class="command"><strong>svn</strong></span>, the subcommand you wish to use
<sup>[<a id="id413132" href="#ftn.id413132" class="footnote">58</a>]</sup>, and any options or targets that
you wish to operate on—there is no specific order that the
subcommand and the options must appear in. For example, all of
the following are valid ways to use <span class="command"><strong>svn
status</strong></span>:</p><pre class="screen">
$ svn -v status
$ svn status -v
$ svn status -v myfile
</pre><p>You can find many more examples of how to use most client
commands in <a class="xref" href="svn.tour.html" title="Chapter 2. Basic Usage">Chapter 2, <i>Basic Usage</i></a> and commands for managing
properties in <a class="xref" href="svn.advanced.props.html" title="Properties">the section called “Properties”</a>.</p><div class="sect2" lang="en" xml:lang="en"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a id="svn.ref.svn.sw"></a><span class="command"><strong>svn</strong></span> Options</h3></div></div></div><p>While Subversion has different options for its
subcommands, all options are global—that is, each
option is guaranteed to mean the same thing regardless of
the subcommand you use it with. For example,
<code class="option">--verbose</code> (<code class="option">-v</code>) always
means “<span class="quote">verbose output</span>”, regardless of the
subcommand you use it with.</p><div class="variablelist"><dl><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">--accept</code>
<em class="replaceable"><code>ACTION</code></em></span></dt><dd><p>Specify action for automatic conflict resolution.
Possible actions are (<code class="literal">postpone</code>,
<code class="literal">base</code>, <code class="literal">mine</code>,
<code class="literal">theirs</code>, <code class="literal">edit</code>, and
<code class="literal">launch</code></p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">--auto-props</code></span></dt><dd><p>Enables auto-props, overriding the
<code class="literal">enable-auto-props</code> directive in the
<code class="filename">config</code> file.</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">--change</code> (<code class="option">-c</code>)
<em class="replaceable"><code>ARG</code></em></span></dt><dd><p>Used as a means to refer to a specific
“<span class="quote">change</span>” (aka a revision), this option is
syntactic sugar for “<span class="quote">-r ARG-1:ARG</span>”.</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">--changelist</code>
<em class="replaceable"><code>ARG</code></em></span></dt><dd><p>Operate only on members of changelist named
<em class="replaceable"><code>ARG</code></em>.</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">--config-dir</code>
<em class="replaceable"><code>DIR</code></em></span></dt><dd><p>Instructs Subversion to read configuration
information from the specified directory instead of the
default location (<code class="filename">.subversion</code> in
the user's home directory).</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">--depth</code>
<em class="replaceable"><code>ARG</code></em></span></dt><dd><p>Set the depth on a directory in a working copy to
one of <code class="literal">empty</code>,
<code class="literal">files</code>, <code class="literal">immediates</code>,
or <code class="literal">infinity</code>.</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">--diff-cmd</code>
<em class="replaceable"><code>CMD</code></em></span></dt><dd><p>Specifies an external program to use to show
differences between files. When <span class="command"><strong>svn
diff</strong></span> is invoked without this option, it uses
Subversion's internal diff engine, which provides
unified diffs by default. If you want to use an
external diff program, use <code class="option">--diff-cmd</code>.
You can pass options to the diff program with the
<code class="option">--extensions</code> option (more on that later
in this section).</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">--diff3-cmd</code>
<em class="replaceable"><code>CMD</code></em></span></dt><dd><p>Specifies an external program to use to merge files.</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">--dry-run</code></span></dt><dd><p>Goes through all the motions of running a command,
but makes no actual changes—either on disk or in
the repository.</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">--editor-cmd</code>
<em class="replaceable"><code>CMD</code></em></span></dt><dd><p>Specifies an external program to use to edit a log message
or a property value. See the <code class="literal">editor-cmd</code>
section in <a class="xref" href="svn.advanced.confarea.html#svn.advanced.confarea.opts.config" title="Config">the section called “Config”</a>
for ways to specify a default editor.</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">--encoding</code> <em class="replaceable"><code>ENC</code></em></span></dt><dd><p>Tells Subversion that your commit message is encoded
in the charset provided. The default is your operating
system's native locale, and you should specify the
encoding if your commit message is in any other
encoding.</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">--extensions</code> (<code class="option">-x</code>)
<em class="replaceable"><code>ARGS</code></em></span></dt><dd><p>Specifies an argument or arguments that Subversion
should pass to an external diff command. This option is
valid only when used with the <span class="command"><strong>svn
diff</strong></span> or <span class="command"><strong>svn merge</strong></span> commands,
with the
<code class="option">--diff-cmd</code> option.
If you wish to pass multiple
arguments, you must enclose all of them in quotes (for
example, <span class="command"><strong>svn diff --diff-cmd /usr/bin/diff -x
"-b -E"</strong></span>).</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">--file</code> (<code class="option">-F</code>)
<em class="replaceable"><code>FILENAME</code></em>
</span></dt><dd><p>Uses the contents of the named file for the
specified subcommand, though different subcommands do
different things with this content. For example,
<span class="command"><strong>svn commit</strong></span> uses the content as a
commit log, whereas <span class="command"><strong>svn propset</strong></span> uses
it as a property value.</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">--force</code></span></dt><dd><p>Forces a particular command or operation to run.
There are some operations that Subversion will prevent
you from doing in normal usage, but you can pass the
force option to tell Subversion “<span class="quote">I know what I'm
doing as well as the possible repercussions of doing it,
so let me at 'em</span>”. This option is the
programmatic equivalent of doing your own electrical
work with the power on—if you don't know what
you're doing, you're likely to get a nasty shock.</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">--force-log</code></span></dt><dd><p>Forces a suspicious parameter passed to the
<code class="option">--message</code> (<code class="option">-m</code>) or
<code class="option">--file</code> (<code class="option">-F</code>) options to
be accepted as valid. By default, Subversion will
produce an error if parameters to these options look
like they might instead be targets of the subcommand.
For example, if you pass a versioned file's path to the
<code class="option">--file</code> (<code class="option">-F</code>) option,
Subversion will assume you've made a mistake, that the
path was instead intended as the target of the
operation, and that you simply failed to provide some
other—unversioned—file as the source of your log
message. To assert your intent and override these types
of errors, pass the <code class="option">--force-log</code> option
to subcommands that accept log messages.</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">--help</code> (<code class="option">-h</code> or
<code class="option">-?</code>)
</span></dt><dd><p>If used with one or more subcommands, shows the
built-in help text for each subcommand. If used alone,
it displays the general client help text.</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">--ignore-ancestry</code></span></dt><dd><p>Tells Subversion to ignore ancestry when calculating
differences (rely on path contents alone).</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">--ignore-externals</code></span></dt><dd><p>Tells Subversion to ignore external definitions and
the external working copies managed by them.</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">--incremental</code></span></dt><dd><p>Prints output in a format suitable for
concatenation.</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">--keep-changelist</code></span></dt><dd><p>Don't delete changelist after commit.</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">--keep-local</code></span></dt><dd><p>Keep the local copy of a file or directory (used
with the <span class="command"><strong>svn delete</strong></span> command).</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">--limit</code>
<em class="replaceable"><code>NUM</code></em></span></dt><dd><p>Show only the first <em class="replaceable"><code>NUM</code></em>
log messages.</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">--message</code> (<code class="option">-m</code>)
<em class="replaceable"><code>MESSAGE</code></em>
</span></dt><dd><p>Indicates that you will specify a either a log
message or a lock comment on the command line, following
this option. For example:</p><pre class="screen">
$ svn commit -m "They don't make Sunday."
</pre></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">--new</code> <em class="replaceable"><code>ARG</code></em></span></dt><dd><p>Uses <em class="replaceable"><code>ARG</code></em> as the newer
target (for use with <span class="command"><strong>svn diff</strong></span>).</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">--no-auth-cache</code></span></dt><dd><p>Prevents caching of authentication information
(e.g. username and password) in the Subversion
administrative directories.</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">--no-auto-props</code></span></dt><dd><p>Disables auto-props, overriding the
<code class="literal">enable-auto-props</code> directive in the
<code class="filename">config</code> file.</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">--no-diff-deleted</code></span></dt><dd><p>Prevents Subversion from printing differences for
deleted files. The default behavior when you remove a
file is for <span class="command"><strong>svn diff</strong></span> to print the
same differences that you would see if you had left
the file but removed all the content.</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">--no-ignore</code></span></dt><dd><p>Shows files in the status listing that would
normally be omitted since they match a pattern in the
<code class="literal">global-ignores</code> configuration option
or the <code class="literal">svn:ignore</code> property. See <a class="xref" href="svn.advanced.confarea.html#svn.advanced.confarea.opts.config" title="Config">the section called “Config”</a> and <a class="xref" href="svn.advanced.props.special.ignore.html" title="Ignoring Unversioned Items">the section called “Ignoring Unversioned Items”</a> for more
information.</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">--no-unlock</code></span></dt><dd><p>Don't automatically unlock files (the default commit
behavior is to unlock all files listed as part of the
commit). See <a class="xref" href="svn.advanced.locking.html" title="Locking">the section called “Locking”</a> for
more information.</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">--non-interactive</code></span></dt><dd><p>In the case of an authentication failure, or
insufficient credentials, prevents prompting for
credentials (e.g. username or password). This is useful
if you're running Subversion inside of an automated
script and it's more appropriate to have Subversion fail
than to prompt for more information.</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">--non-recursive</code> (<code class="option">-N</code>)</span></dt><dd><p><span class="emphasis"><em>Deprecated</em></span>. Stops a subcommand
from recursing into subdirectories. Most subcommands
recurse by default, but some subcommands—usually
those that have the potential to remove or undo your
local modifications—do not.</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">--notice-ancestry</code></span></dt><dd><p>Pay attention to ancestry when calculating
differences.</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">--old</code> <em class="replaceable"><code>ARG</code></em></span></dt><dd><p>Uses <em class="replaceable"><code>ARG</code></em> as the older
target (for use with <span class="command"><strong>svn diff</strong></span>).</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">--parents</code></span></dt><dd><p>Create and add non-existent or non-versioned parent
subdirectories to the working copy or repository as part
of an operation. This is useful for automatically
creating multiple subdirectories where none currently
exist. If performed on a URL, all the directories will
be created in a single commit.</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">--password</code>
<em class="replaceable"><code>PASS</code></em></span></dt><dd><p>Indicates that you are providing your password for
authentication on the command line—otherwise, if
it is needed, Subversion will prompt you for
it.</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">--quiet</code> (<code class="option">-q</code>)</span></dt><dd><p>Requests that the client print only essential
information while performing an operation.</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">--record-only</code></span></dt><dd><p>Mark revisions as merged (for use with
<code class="option">--revision</code> (<code class="option">-r</code>)</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">--recursive</code> (<code class="option">-R</code>)</span></dt><dd><p><span class="emphasis"><em>Deprecated</em></span>. Makes a subcommand
recurse into subdirectories. Most subcommands recurse
by default.</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">--relocate</code> <em class="replaceable"><code>FROM TO
[PATH...]</code></em></span></dt><dd><p>Used with the <span class="command"><strong>svn switch</strong></span>
subcommand, changes the location of the repository that
your working copy references. This is useful if the
location of your repository changes and you have an
existing working copy that you'd like to continue to
use. See <span class="command"><strong>svn switch</strong></span> for an
example.</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">--remove</code>
<em class="replaceable"><code>ARG</code></em></span></dt><dd><p>Disassociate <em class="replaceable"><code>ARG</code></em> from a
changelist</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">--revision</code> (<code class="option">-r</code>)
<em class="replaceable"><code>REV</code></em>
</span></dt><dd><p>Indicates that you're going to supply a revision (or
range of revisions) for a particular operation. You can
provide revision numbers, revision keywords or dates (in
curly braces), as arguments to the revision option. If
you wish to provide a range of revisions, you can
provide two revisions separated by a colon. For
example:</p><pre class="screen">
$ svn log -r 1729
$ svn log -r 1729:HEAD
$ svn log -r 1729:1744
$ svn log -r {2001-12-04}:{2002-02-17}
$ svn log -r 1729:{2002-02-17}
</pre><p>See <a class="xref" href="svn.tour.revs.specifiers.html#svn.tour.revs.keywords" title="Revision Keywords">the section called “Revision Keywords”</a> for more
information.</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">--revprop</code></span></dt><dd><p>Operates on a revision property instead of a
property specific to a file or directory. This option
requires that you also pass a revision with the
<code class="option">--revision</code> (<code class="option">-r</code>)
option.</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">--show-updates</code> (<code class="option">-u</code>)</span></dt><dd><p>Causes the client to display information about
which files in your working copy are out-of-date.
This doesn't actually update any of your
files—it just shows you which files will be
updated if you run <span class="command"><strong>svn update</strong></span>.
</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">--stop-on-copy</code></span></dt><dd><p>Causes a Subversion subcommand which is traversing
the history of a versioned resource to stop harvesting
that historical information when a copy—that is, a
location in history where that resource was copied from
another location in the repository—is
encountered.</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">--strict</code></span></dt><dd><p>Causes Subversion to use strict semantics, a notion
which is rather vague unless talking about specific
subcommands (namely, <span class="command"><strong>svn propget</strong></span>).</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">--targets</code>
<em class="replaceable"><code>FILENAME</code></em></span></dt><dd><p>Tells Subversion to get the list of files that you
wish to operate on from the filename you provide
instead of listing all the files on the command line.
</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">--username</code>
<em class="replaceable"><code>NAME</code></em></span></dt><dd><p>Indicates that you are providing your username for
authentication on the command line—otherwise, if
it is needed, Subversion will prompt you for
it.</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">--use-merge-history</code>
(<code class="option">-g</code>)</span></dt><dd><p>Use or display additional information from merge
history. When used with svn copy or svn move, the
client will contact the server in order to propagate
merge history information. When used with other
commands, the client will display merge history
information.</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">--verbose</code> (<code class="option">-v</code>)</span></dt><dd><p>Requests that the client print out as much
information as it can while running any subcommand.
This may result in Subversion printing out additional
fields, detailed information about every file, or
additional information regarding its actions.</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">--version</code></span></dt><dd><p>Prints the client version info. This information
not only includes the version number of the client,
but also a listing of all repository access modules
that the client can use to access a Subversion
repository. With <code class="option">--quiet</code>
(<code class="option">-q</code>) it prints only the version number
in a compact form.</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">--version</code></span></dt><dd><p>Prints the client version info. This information
not only includes the version number of the client,
but also a listing of all repository access modules
that the client can use to access a Subversion
repository. With <code class="option">--quiet</code>
(<code class="option">-q</code>) it prints only the version number
in a compact form.</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">--with-all-revprops</code></span></dt><dd><p>Used with <span class="command"><strong>svn log --xml</strong></span>, this
option will retrieve and display all revision
properties in the log output.</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">--with-revprop</code>
<em class="replaceable"><code>ARG</code></em></span></dt><dd><p>When used with any command that writes to the
repository, set the revision property, using thn
<em class="replaceable"><code>NAME=VALUE</code></em> format,
<em class="replaceable"><code>NAME</code></em> to
<em class="replaceable"><code>VALUE</code></em>. When used with
<span class="command"><strong>svn log --xml</strong></span>, display the value of
<em class="replaceable"><code>ARG</code></em> in the log output.</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">--xml</code></span></dt><dd><p>Prints output in XML format.</p></dd></dl></div></div><div class="sect2" lang="en" xml:lang="en"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a id="svn.ref.svn.c"></a><span class="command"><strong>svn</strong></span> Subcommands</h3></div></div></div><p>Here are the various subcommands:</p></div><div class="footnotes"><br /><hr width="100" align="left" /><div class="footnote"><p><sup>[<a id="ftn.id413132" href="#id413132" class="para">58</a>] </sup>Yes, yes, you don't need a subcommand to use the
<code class="option">--version</code> option, but we'll get to that in just
a minute.</p></div></div></div><div class="navfooter"><hr /><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="svn.ref.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="svn.ref.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="svn.ref.svn.c.add.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">Chapter 9. Subversion Complete Reference </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> svn add</td></tr></table></div></body></html>
