svn:externals, symbolic link and same repository

Hi,

I was wondering if it is possible to have a svn:externals but on the same
repository (but using relative path)
let's say I have the following repository

/
 products/
  prod_a/
   trunk/
    src/...
  prod_b/
   trunk/
    src/...

I wanted to have /products/prod_b/trunk/src_prod_a which is a "link" to
"../../prod_a/trunk/src"
Then having something similar to

    svn co svn://SVNURL/repo/products products
    svn co svn://SVNURL/repo/products/prod_a/trunk/srcproducts/prod_b/trunk/src/src_prod_a

(But, it is not nice, since svn status, and other operation won't process
the src_prod_a)

I tried using symbolic link, I thought on windows the checkout would
checkout the complete folder prod_a/trunk/src under prod_b/trunk/src_prod_a
but instead it will checkout a file with text content = "link
../../prod_a/trunk/src"

So to do what I'd like, the only way I can see is to use svn:externals
I tried to put svn:externals "src_prod_a ../../prod_a/trunk/src", but this
is misleading, because it use the relative path from where you call the svn
up
this is not the relative path from the related folder. (anyway the
documentation specifies one should not use relative path for externals)

And I don't want to use true svn:externals, since I will lose the
authentification.

Is there a kind of svn:internals property which would allow this "internal"
pseudo link ?
This would be really great, one would use it as following

     svn:internals "src_prod_a /products/prod_a/trunk/src"

Anyway, for now I think the only way to do what I want .. is not doing it
and restructuring my repository. (which is, in final, the cleaner way to do
that)

Any thought on that, a kind of "svn:internals" feature which would keep the
same authentification ?
or if a solution exists, I would be happy to learn it.

Regards,
Jocelyn
Received on Fri Nov 25 12:37:22 2005