Commit symlink into subversion

Question

I'm tring to commit a symlink into subversion, but I get this error when I try to add the actual symlink:

Can't replace 'path/to/symlink' with a node of a differing type; the deletion must be committed and the parent updated before adding 'path/to/symlink'

Cini

If you are on a legacy system (ie svn version 1.6.x) see below – Discretionary

Answer 1

I read it as - you have to remove the file, commit, update, create symlink, add it, commit.

And my guess is that you're trying to remove the file, create symlink, commit in one go.

Cholecalciferol

I did delete something earlier that was previously in the place I'm tring to symlink to but I committed my change before trying to add the symlink to subversion. – Cini

"and the parent update". Maybe you need to svn update for whatever reason? – Cholecalciferol

I've edited the update step into my answer for future sufferers. – Cholecalciferol

When removing, a "svn delete --keep-local" might be useful. – Adequate

Answer 2

1. svn delete x
2. svn ci -m'blah'
3. svn update
4. ln -s blee x
5. svn add x

Urrutia

Answer 3

find . -type l | xargs -i -x svn propset svn:special on {}

Hunks

Answer 4

The error I got on svn 1.6.11 reads

svn: Commit failed (details follow):
svn: Entry '/path/to/symlink' has unexpectedly changed special status

I fixed it by simply

svn propset svn:special on /path/to/symlink

And then rerunning the commit. Apparently no need to delete, update, etc....

Discretionary