Version Control with Subversion, 2nd Edition

svnsync

svnsync is the Subversion remote repository mirroring tool. Put simply, it allows you to replay the revisions of one repository into another one.

In any mirroring scenario, there are two repositories: the source repository, and the mirror (or “sink”) repository. The source repository is the repository from which svnsync pulls revisions. The mirror repository is the destination for the revisions pulled from the source repository. Each of the repositories may be local or remote—they are only ever addressed by their URLs.

The svnsync process requires only read access to the source repository; it never attempts to modify it. But obviously, svnsync requires both read and write access to the mirror repository.

Warning

svnsync is very sensitive to changes made in the mirror repository that weren’t made as part of a mirroring operation. To prevent this from happening, it’s best if the svnsync process is the only process permitted to modify the mirror repository.

svnsync Options

Options in svnsync are global, just as they are in svn and svnadmin:

--config-dir DIR

Instructs Subversion to read configuration information from the specified directory instead of the default location (.subversion in the user’s home directory).

--no-auth-cache

Prevents caching of authentication information (e.g., username and password) in the Subversion runtime configuration directories.

--non-interactive

In the case of an authentication failure or insufficient credentials, prevents prompting for credentials (e.g., ...