Force user to lock file in SVN before editing

Question

We have some files in our project that can't be merged and hence the files must be locked by the users before editing them. Is there a way to force the user to lock a file before editing?

We are using Subversion and TortoiseSVN / VisualSVN.

Answer 1

Two steps:

• put the svn:needs-lock property on those files. That way they are check out read-only
• when such a file must be modified, use the svn lock command and commit as usual

links:

• http://svnbook.red-bean.com/nightly/en/svn.advanced.locking.html
• http://tortoisesvn.net/docs/release/TortoiseSVN_en/tsvn-dug-locking.html

Answer 2

More specifically, if you have TortoiseSVN installed,

1. Right-click the file in Windows Explorer, select TortoiseSVN->Properties
2. Click New->NeedsLock
3. Choose Locking required in the dialog:
4. Click OK
5. Commit the file
6. Done!