SVN import doesn't create .svn folder?

Question

I've created a repo, and then I ran svn import . https://myrepo. It seems to have checked everything in nicely, and I can check it out on my other machine. However, it doesn't seem to create the .svn folder, so I can't run any svn ci commands at a later date.

This creates massive headaches to try and sync up later, because now all my stuff is already in the repo, but it conflicts with the changes I'm trying to commit.

What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

I never use import because it's uncomfortable. Import doesn't create .svn directories, you'll have to run an additional checkout of the newly imported directory.

Instead of importing files I first create an empty directory in the repo and check it out into my existing project's directory that I want to "import". Then you can simply run commit and it'll add all files.

Answer 2

Only a working copy will have an .svn folder. Import doesn't create a working copy. (Why not? Well suppose for example you were trying to import from media where you don't have write permissions. In that case if import tried to create a working copy, it would fail). To create a working copy, you must use checkout.

Put another way, import pushes information to the repository. That's all it's intended to do, it has no impact on the original files. Most subversion commands only work in one direction: checkout, export, and update modify files on the local system/working copy. import and commit only update the repository. Aside from [un]lock operations, I can't think of a command which simultaneously impacts both the repository and the working copy.