Making the folder unmanaged by SVN

Question

Is it possible to delete the folder from repository the way it wont be removed from each user's local repository?

In my case there is a directory named 'config' that was intended to be version-controlled. Now we decided to remove that directory from version-control but leave it on each person computer (and add it to svn:ignore by the way). Problem is, if I delete that directory with "svn delete" - it will get deleted from everyone's computer and I don't want that.

Answer 1

Only way I know of is to keep it on your own working copy:

svn delete --keep-local

You're stuck because you can't ignore a version controlled file.

If it's really important and you use TortoiseSVN, then you could perform the operation in 2 phases - create a client-side pre-update hook to export the directory (or files), then in post-update (after svn:ignore has been added to working copy) copy the directory or files back again.

Sounds like a right PITA though and IMHO you're probably better off sending an email explaining the situation and giving advance notice to export config before you do the commit.

Answer 2

You'll want to add svn:ignore on the directory once it's un-version controlled; but in order to get it out of version control, I think you'll have to svn:delete it, have each dev copy it out, delete the .svn directories, do an update, then copy it back.

This related question may help also.