Question

I am trying to delete a folder within my Subversion repository. My TortoiseSVN client gives me the following error message when I try to commit this change:

Commit Failed (details follow):

User {username} does not own lock on {path}

page {filename} currently locked by {another user}

If you want to break the lock, use the ‘Check for modifications’ dialog.

I do want to break the lock and delete the folder, but I can’t see an obvious way to do it from the Check for Modifications folder. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Answer 1

From Pedro’s answer, I was able to figure out how to do this from within Tortoise SVN. You can find the full instructions in this tread on the SVN Forum:
http://www.svnforum.org/threads/39826-Commit-problem-User-does-not-own-lock-on-path

The short version is:

1. Open the Check for Modifications dialog
2. Click the Check Repository button
3. You should now see the name of the user that holds the lock in the Lock column (you may need to scroll right to see this column in your list.)
4. Right click on the file with the lock. You should now see the Break Lock option on the context menu.

If you have a lot of files, you can select all files in your list (Ctrl-A) and apply the Break Lock for everything, as described here:
How can I release locks in Subversion recursively?