reparing svn revision files (was: Re: follow symlinks)

On Wed, Nov 06, 2013 at 10:49:31PM +0100, Dirk wrote:
> Another Problem I have with subversion is that everything is stored in
> binary files. It is not like that I damage my repositories all the time. It
> happens maybe once every couple of years. But when it happens there is
> nothing else to do that to start a new repository with whatever is left in
> the local copy.
>
> I'd like to point out that CVS can, under any circumstance, be fixed with a
> standard text editor. I just never had it that I has to reimport a CVS
> repository to fix a broken one.

I have fixed many corrupt Subversion revision files with Vim.
Granted, hexdump helps to figure out where to jump to in the editor.

The format is more complex than RCS, but fully documented.
https://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/subversion/trunk/subversion/libsvn_fs_base/notes/fs-history
https://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/subversion/trunk/subversion/libsvn_fs_fs/structure

There are scripts that support analysis and can even fix some known
forms of corruption.
https://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/subversion/trunk/contrib/server-side/fsfsverify.py
https://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/subversion/trunk/contrib/server-side/fsfsfixer

Still, keeping known-good backups is recommended, of course.
Received on 2013-11-06 23:14:41 CET