bug or incorrect use? copy a nonexistent directory over new one

Hi,

I am administering our SVN repository. Something very strange has happened
today, after I updated my WC: a few files in a certain folder have vanished.
When I say vanished, I mean that when I browse the repository (using Trac or
svn log -v), there's no sign of anyone deleting them.

Looking deeper, I got an some understanding of what has happened:

0. The missing files existed in a directory named "stuff".
1. The missing files last appear in revision 2844.
2. Changes in 2845 (by user A) include copying (or moving? what does "R"
mean in svn log -v ?) a directory "stuf" (misspelled) to (OVER) the
directory "stuff".
3. However, "stuf" was renamed back in revision 2830 to "stuff" (by user B).
So it doesn't exist in revision 2845.
4. Further, when looking at the log, it shows that the copy was done from
revision 2829 of "stuf".

How could this happen?

The only thing I can think of, is that user A was using an old version of
the code, probably revision 2829, when he did the copy (so he still had
"stuf" instead of "stuff", and decided to rename it). But why would SVN
allow him to commit such a change?

Please enlighten me. Am I missing something? Is it a known bug? Is it (sigh)
a feature?

Note that there's no data loss, since I can see the missing files in 2844.

Thanks,
Noam.
Received on Mon Sep 24 22:03:03 2007