What does "svn: warning: W155010: The node is not an external" mean?

Question

I am trying to use svn:externals to automatically check out a copy of a certain directory under another directory. Here's an example of my project's directories in the repository:

trunk
  releases
    releases_1_4
      database
      conf
      resources
      etl_machines
      workflows

I then wanted to create an alias called release_1_4_1 that would be a copy of release_1_4, so I added an externals property to releases like so:

$ svn propset svn:externals 'http://server/svn/repos/MAIN/releases/branches/2012-09-13_branch/releases/release_1_4@38320 release_1_4_1'

Now if I check in that property change, then do an update, I get the error shown below:

$ svn update
Updating '.':

Fetching external item into 'release_1_4_1':
A    release_1_4_1/a_file
A    release_1_4_1/database
A    release_1_4_1/database/a.sql
A    release_1_4_1/database/b.sql
A    release_1_4_1/database/c.sql
A    release_1_4_1/conf
A    release_1_4_1/conf/prod.properties
A    release_1_4_1/conf/dev.properties
A    release_1_4_1/conf/test.properties
A    release_1_4_1/resources
A    release_1_4_1/resources/a
A    release_1_4_1/resources/a/install.groovy
A    release_1_4_1/etl_machines
A    release_1_4_1/etl_machines/b
A    release_1_4_1/etl_machines/b/start_services.groovy
A    release_1_4_1/etl_machines/b/install.groovy
A    release_1_4_1/workflows
A    release_1_4_1/workflows/cm
A    release_1_4_1/workflows/cm/install.groovy
Updated external to revision 38320.

svn: warning: W200000: Error handling externals definition for 'release_1_4_1/etl_machines':
svn: warning: W155010: The node '/home/user/wcs/trunk/releases/release_1_4_1/etl_machines' is not an external.
svn: warning: W200000: Error handling externals definition for 'release_1_4_1/workflows':
svn: warning: W155010: The node '/home/user/wcs/trunk/releases/release_1_4_1/workflows' is not an external.
svn: warning: W200000: Error handling externals definition for 'release_1_4_1/cm':
svn: warning: W155010: The node '/home/user/wcs/trunk/releases/release_1_4_1/cm' is not an external.
svn: warning: W200000: Error handling externals definition for 'release_1_4_1/database':
svn: warning: W155010: The node '/home/user/wcs/trunk/releases/release_1_4_1/database' is not an external.
svn: warning: W200000: Error handling externals definition for 'release_1_4_1/conf':
svn: warning: W155010: The node '/home/user/wcs/trunk/releases/release_1_4_1/conf' is not an external.
svn: warning: W200000: Error handling externals definition for 'release_1_4_1/resources':
svn: warning: W155010: The node '/home/user/wcs/trunk/releases/release_1_4_1/resources' is not an external.
At revision 43894.
svn: E205011: Failure occurred processing one or more externals definitions

Any idea what I'm doing wrong here? (svn version 1.8.1)

Answer 1

I am solving the same issue (2 years later ;-) ) Did you create and commit the folder "release_1_4_1" before update? If so, than it seems, the error you are facing arises. However, the source should be updated anyway.

It seems the solution is to delete and unversion "release_1_4_1" folder - if created - and recreate the external.

Answer 2

For me it was sufficient to delete the working copy and perform a new checkout.