SVN checkout ignore folder

Question

Can I ignore a folder on svn checkout? I need to ignore DOCs folder on checkout at my build server.

edit: Ignore externals isn't an option. I have some externals that I need.

Answer 1

You can't directly ignore folders on a checkout, but you can use sparse checkouts in svn 1.5. For example:

$ svn co http://subversion/project/trunk my_checkout --depth immediates

This will check files and directories from your project trunk into 'my_checkout', but not recurse into those directories. Eg:

$ cd my_checkout && ls
bar/ baz foo xyzzy/

Then to get the contents of 'bar' down:

$ cd bar && svn update --set-depth infinity

Answer 2

Yes you can using SVN 1.6. You will need to do a checkout first then mark the folder for exclusion then delete the unwanted folder.

svn checkout http://www.example.com/project
cd project
svn update --set-depth=exclude docs
rm -fr docs

From now on any updates to the working copy won't repopulate the docs folder.

See http://blogs.collab.net/subversion/2009/03/sparse-directories-now-with-exclusion/ and http://subversion.apache.org/docs/release-notes/1.6.html#sparse-directory-exclusion for more details.

Tom

Answer 3

With versions prior to 1.5 I have found that if you checkout only the top most folder and then selectively update, from then on updates only effect what you have checked out. Ie.

svn co -N foo
cd foo
svn up -N bar
svn up

The -N flag makes the operation non-recursive. The above will not check out anything else at the foo level, eg. say there is a folder lala, the final svn up will not check out that folder, but it will update bar.

But at a later time you can svn up lala and thus, add it to the checkout.

Presumably this also works with 1.5.

Answer 4

This is in TortoiseSVN client 1.7.1 (might be available in some older versions as well):

• SVN checkout --> Select URL of repository

• Click on "Checkout Items" (under Checkout Depth) and select only the folders required!

Answer 5

You could put the docs folder in an external repository and then use svn checkout --ignore-externals.

Answer 6

Yes, Subversion 1.5 has a feature called Sparse checkouts that can do exactly this sort of thing.

Answer 7

I found this question looking for a way to check out the WebKit sources while excluding the regression tests. I ended up with the following:

svn checkout http://svn.webkit.org/repository/webkit/trunk WebKit \
  --depth immediates

cd WebKit
find . \
  -maxdepth 1 -type d \
  -not -name '.*' \
  -not -name '*Tests' \
  -not -name 'Examples' \
  -not -name 'Websites' \
  | (while read SUBDIR; do svn update --set-depth infinity "$SUBDIR"; done)

Note you can change the exclusions as you see fit, but .* is recommended to skip the working directory (which is already up to date) and all of the .svn directories.

Answer 8

I have recently resolved the same task. The idea is to get the immediate list of folder/files under the repository exclude the entries you need, then check out the remaining folders and update the immediate files if any. Here is the solution:

    # Path to the svn repository to be checked out
rpath=https://svn-repo.company.com/sw/trunk/ && \
    # This files are to be excluded (folders are ending with '/')
    # this is a regex pattern with OR ('|') between enties to be excluded
excludep='docs_folder/tests_folder/|huge_folder/|file1|file2' && \
    # Get list of the files/folders right under the repository path
filtered=`svn ls $rpath | egrep -v $excludep` && \
    # Get list of files out of filtered - they need to be 'uped'
files=`echo $filtered | sed 's| |\n|g' | egrep '^.*[^/]$'` && \
    # Get list of folders out of filtered - they need to be 'coed'
folders=`echo $filtered | sed 's| |\n|g' | egrep '^.*[/]$'` && \
    # Initial nonrecursive checkout of repository - just empty
    # to the current (./) working directory
svn co $rpath ./ --depth empty && \
    # Update the files
svn up $files &&\
    # Check out the all other folders finally.
svn co `echo $folders | sed "s|\<|$rpath|g"`

Change to source working directory. Copy the commands. Paste. Change appropriate URL and exclude pattern. Run the command.

Thanks,

Answer 9

No, ignore is only for adding files.
You can use sparse checkouts (if you use svn 1.5)

Answer 10

As a few others have mentioned, you can just use svn:externals properties and then the --ignore-externals option when you checkout. One thing to note, however, is that svn:externals does not necessarily need to refer to another repository. It can be a reference to some other folder in the same repo.