Question

In my SVN folder someone deleted our project source code. Using SVN history we are unable to identify person who deleted those files. Project related none of the activity shown under history.

1. is there any option to delete a folder from SVN without log in history?
2. is there any option under SVN server to recover those files?

Thanks

Answer 1

All deletions will show up in the log unless the repo is seriously mangled. My guess is that you are querying the wrong path, possibly by issuing svn log from a working copy. The subcommand accepts a URL so you can simply:

svn log https://example.com/svn/project/

instead of

svn log 

… or:

svn log https://example.com/svn/project/trunk/

Of course, if you know the directory path and know a revision number where it still existed, you can simply:

svn log https://example.com/svn/project/trunk/foo/bar@314 --revision 314:HEAD

---

Update: Despite Lazy Badger’s surprising claims, revision history is a core feature of Subversion and does not depend on the repository access method:

E:\test>svnadmin create myrepo

E:\test>svn checkout file:///E:/test/myrepo mywc
Checked out revision 0.

E:\test>svn mkdir mywc\mydirectory
A         mywc\mydirectory

E:\test>svn commit -m "Add a directory" mywc
Adding         mywc\mydirectory

Committed revision 1.

E:\test>svn delete mywc\mydirectory
D         mywc\mydirectory

E:\test>svn commit -m "Remove the directory" mywc
Deleting       mywc\mydirectory

Committed revision 2.

E:\test>svn log -r2 -v file:///E:/test/myrepo/
------------------------------------------------------------------------
r2 | ALVARO.GONZALEZ | 2012-04-03 17:00:34 +0200 (mar, 03 abr 2012) | 1 line
Changed paths:
   D /mydirectory

Remove the directory
------------------------------------------------------------------------

E:\test>

And it makes sense: not being able to track changes would render Subversion totally useless as version control tool. The commenter is probably confusing the log in svn log with the access log maintained by Apache, which is an entirely different thing and cannot even be read though Subversion commands.

Any deletion committed to the repository will show up in the revision log, no matter how it was committed, unless (I as I already pointed out) the repository itself has been damaged.