Question

Due to a change in developers, I need to destroy my trunk (but keep for posterity) and then load in a local copy to replace it.

I have a couple of thought on how to do this.

1) Delete every file from trunk
2) Commit the deletions
3) Copy the “new” trunk into the working copy
4) Add recursively all files
5) Commit

OR

1) Move trunk to a tag
2) Commit
3) Do a SVN import on the “new” trunk

Which is the best way to proceed? Is there a better way to handle this situation?

I need to capture the deletion of any files that are no longer in the “new” trunk as well as all changes and adds.

Answer 1

If I understand you correctly the best way is your first option. So you delete all files in your current trunk and commit the result. So you have a somehow “clean” (means empty) trunk now. Now you import the “new” trunk. Your trunk only consists of the new local copy. You commit the result and thats it.
If you ever need files from the old trunk you can get them via Subversion.

I don’t think that tagging is a good idea in your case. Because the files are still in the repository and, as far as I understand you, the should go away.