Question

Recently our Subversion (SVN) server was changed and we did a svn switch.

Since the working copy had a huge amount of unversioned resources, the working copy got locked and we started switching folder by folder for all folders under SVN, which works perfectly fine.

But at the topmost level of the repository, when I try to update files, I get an error that says svn: Working copy '.' locked. Trying to do cleanup does not help either; it causes errors like svn: 'content' is not a working copy directory.

A fresh checkout is not an option at all. How else can I clean up and release the locks and complete the svn switch process?

Answer 1

If you get a "not a working copy" when doing a recursive svn cleanup, you likely have a subdirectory which should be a working copy (i.e. the .svn directory at the top level says so), but the subdirectory is missing its own .svn directory.

In that case, you could move or delete that directory and then do a local update. To delete the directory,

rm -rf content svn checkout content 

WARNING: rm -rf deletes the folder content permanently.

If you get a not a working copy error, it means that Subversion cannot find a proper .svn directory in the content subdirectory. Check to see if there is an .svn directory in content.

The ideal solution is a fresh checkout, if possible.