Insert revision into file history

Hello,

I would like to insert an older version of a file that is already in a
repository as a specific revision of that repository.

I have searched in the SVN book, searched with Google with keywords like
"subversion file history", asked in a local newsgroup, and scanned through
the messages here since mid of March to no avail.

I think my problem is a rather complex one to describe, so I am trying to be
concise. If you need more details to give me a hint, just ask and I'll
provide them.

One should probably usually not do what I ask about, but I needed to do it,
might need to do it again, and this is why:

I have a rather old project where I did not use Subversion from the start.
Instead, I made backup copies in backup directories, one for each file,
before I did major changes in the original file. Once I became aware of the
benefits of SVN, I wanted to migrate everything into a repository, to have
the full project history in there. So I wrote a shell script that copied
the backup copies to my new working copy and committed the files in the
correct order, setting svn:date accordingly.

The problem was that this script missed to commit the first version of a
file, and I noticed that only after I had already worked with the repository
for quite a while. This is how I solved it (apparently, somewhat):

On the server:

 1. Backup the entire repository $PROJECT to $BACKUP.
 2. svnadmin dump $BACKUP -r 0:6 > $PROJECT-0-6.svndump
    (6 was the revision with an svn:date just before the date of the old
     version to be inserted)
 3. Delete $PROJECT.
 4. svnadmin create $PROJECT, restore config and hooks (except post-commit).
 5. svnadmin load $PROJECT < $PROJECT-0-6.svndump

On the client:

 6. svn checkout svn://$HOST/$PATH/$PROJECT/trunk .
 7. Copy older version from backup directory to working copy,
    svn add ..., svn commit.

Back on the server:

 8. svnadmin dump $BACKUP -r 7:15 --incremental > $PROJECT-7-15.svndump
    (16 was the revision where the file was previously first committed,
     no other changes in that revision)

 9. svnadmin load $PROJECT < $PROJECT-7-15.svndump
10. svnadmin dump $BACKUP -r 16 > $PROJECT-16.svndump
11. Edit $PROJECT-16.svndump to change

      Node-action: add

    into

      Node-action: change

    (otherwise `svnadmin load' would error out "path already exists")

12. svnadmin load $PROJECT < $PROJECT-16.svndump
13. svnadmin dump $BACKUP -r 17:HEAD --incremental >
      $PROJECT-17-HEAD.svndump
14. svnadmin load $PROJECT < $PROJECT-17-HEAD.svndump
15. Update svn:date of new revision 7, restore of post-commit hook.

However, the issues I have with my solution are:

 1. It is rather tedious to implement and eats up time better spent for
    development.

 2. I don't see how it could be automated.

 3. I have noticed that the working copies can no longer be
    updated/committed as the checksum does not match. This is a big problem
    if I want to go fully open source with that project, as potential
    contributors would need to rebuild their working copies every time
    I find another such glitch.

SVN version on the client was/is 1.6.11 (Debian package); the server runs
`svnserve -d' from SVN 1.5.1 (Debian package).

Which better/easier/faster way to do this am I missing? Thank you very much
in advance for any suggestions.

Regards,

PointedEars
Received on 2010-06-03 21:40:46 CEST