Sometimes when I start a project I already have some folder structure and code in place that I want to put into Subversion. However there are also already some files and folders present that I want to ignore on import. Subversion does not provide a way to ignore files on svn:import using the command line. But by using the global-ignores feature you can ignore files on svn:import when you follow these steps.
1. First locate the Subversion config file. Most probably you will find it at ${HOME}/.subversion/config. In the file locate the global-ignores line and add the patterns you wish to exclude from the import, typically these are generated files like .class files etc. For instance in a Maven, Java, Eclipse project you would put: global-ignores = target .classpath .project .settings
2. Run svn:import [PATH] URL. Now everything you put in the global-ignores line is excluded from the import.
3. You still do not have a working copy though since svn:import does not replace the local files with the working copy. To achieve this you can run svn co --force URL [PATH]
4. Now the files you put in global-ignores on your local file system are not ignored on your colleagues machine when they do a fresh checkout. So they could be temped to check-in the generated files. To prevent this you need to add the files to the svn:ignore list of the parent folder using the propset (or propedit) command. To achieve this you first need to comment out the global-ignores line in your config file. Then add the generated files to svn:ignore and check the code in.
This way you can check-in new code into subversion without having to manually remove all the generated files first. It would be nice though if Subversion provided a way to ignore files on import and checkout the code in a single command.
Ran into the same problem once, deleting is a pain. Don’t have Linux but will check out the possibilities on Windows, good post!
Nice one. Works well with Subclipse too, if you want to dispense with the command-line wizardry.