Version Control with Subversion, 2nd Edition

Name

svn delete — Delete an item from a working copy or the repository.

Synopsis

svn delete PATH...

svn delete URL...

Description

Items specified by PATH are scheduled for deletion upon the next commit. Files (and directories that have not been committed) are immediately removed from the working copy unless the --keep-local option is given. The command will not remove any unversioned or modified items; use the --force option to override this behavior.

Items specified by URL are deleted from the repository via an immediate commit. Multiple URLs are committed atomically.

Alternate names

del, remove, rm.

Changes

Working copy if operating on files; repository if operating on URLs.

Accesses repository

Only if operating on URLs.

Options

--editor-cmd EDITOR
--encoding ENC
--file (-F) FILE
--force
--force-log
--keep-local
--message (-m) TEXT
--quiet (-q)
--targets FILENAME
--with-revprop ARG

Examples

Using svn to delete a file from your working copy deletes your local copy of the file, but it merely schedules the file to be deleted from the repository. When you commit, the file is deleted in the repository:

$ svn delete myfile
D         myfile

$ svn commit -m "Deleted file 'myfile'."
Deleting       myfile
Transmitting file data .
Committed revision 14.

Deleting a URL, however, is immediate, so you have to supply a log message:

$ svn delete -m "Deleting file 'yourfile'" \
             file:///var/svn/repos/test/yourfile

Committed revision 15.

Here’s an example of how to force deletion of a file that has local mods:

$ svn delete over-there ...