Re: migrating to SVN from previous non-version controlled backups

Hi John,

On 10/04/07, John Walker <ronnystalker@gmail.com> wrote:
> I have just been introduced to the whole concept of revision control
> after 5 years of developping a website without it. I'm thinking, "i
> wish i had this 5 years ago". So, I'm trying to 'fake' a Subversion
> history using my old backup folders. I have a collection of copies of
> my website documents which are instances of my site saved in folders
> like "MySite_copy_2001_03_1", "MySite_copy_2004_11_05",
> "MySite_copy_2007_02_28" etc. I have played around with a test
> repository by, say, pasting the contents of MySite_copy_2001_03_1
> into a folder in my working directory call "MySite", then committing
> that. Then deleting all files in that directory and pasting in files
> from MySite_copy_2007_02_28, and soon. This doesn't seem to work 'cos
> I'm getting told to execute a cleanup command. Does anyone know how
> to "fake" a revision history in any other way?

In principle the approach is fine, however I would try to restrict the
deletion of files to only those that are actually deleted in the newer
version of the site. When deleting files that are under version
control, you have to make sure that you use the SVN Delete, not the
regular Explorer delete.

Also keep in mind that you should not delete (or modify in any way)
the hidden .svn folders in your working copy. If you mess with them,
you are bound to corrupt the working copy.

Once you have SVN-deleted the files that are no longer present in the
newer version, just copy the entire backup folder tree on top of the
working copy. SVN will then automatically detect which files were
modified.

When you commit the changes, TSVN will allow you to Add all new files
in the commit window (by default they are not checked, but checking
them in the commit window will do an SVN Add prior to the commit).

-- 
Regards,
Jean-Marc
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