Question

I’m about to start working on a large svn repository. Before doing so I’d like to know what are some dangerous svn commands that I should be careful around. By dangerous I mean things that cannot be undone, or are difficult to undo.

Also what are some commands that can become dangerous with small typos.

Answer 1

Don’t use “admin mode” (svnadmin) commands unless absolutely necessary. “user mode” commands are quite safe and can be undone, unlike “admin mode” commands which you should almost never use.

One important thing common to all versioning systems is that you shouldn’t panic and try to rewrite the history when you make a small mistake. One kind of questions typical on SO is “oh, I committed a lot of bad changes, how do I erase them from the repository” – that’s when you’re tempted to use “admin mode” commands and risk screwing it. In most cases you don’t need to remove those changes (unless you uploaded some sensitive data) – just revert them and move on.