Apologies if this is already covered somewhere, but couldn't find an existing answer at least on a short search.
- I use TortoiseSVN on a repository which has very many (historical and otherwise) branches, of which I need only a few new ones.
- I would want to be able to update these select branches with one "SVN Update" right-click menu command from the root level.
- I would like to be able to add a new branch to this selection of used branches later and still be able to update all thse with one command as above.
The last bullet is my current problem. I solved the middle bullet earlier by using the "Choose Items" option when doing the initial check-out from the repository root, which resulted in a folder structure like this:
Now when I clicked "SVN Update" from "Top" it works nicely to update all three locations (V12_0, Feature_A and trunk).
But then the last bullet's problem comes when later a new branch called V12_1 is added. The tree would look like this:
I can get the tree to look like this by doing an "SVN Checkout" from the "branches" node and selecting the V12_1, but when I then try to do an "SVN Update" from "Top", it still only updates the original three locations, but not the new V12_1.
I know I could get this to work by deleting the local checkout completely and doing again from the "Top" level the "SVN Checkout" and with "Choose Items" selecting all the branches (V12_0, V12_1, Feature_A and trunk), but since the branches are big, this would take time, and anyway I'd be interested to know if there would be a more elegant way to achieve this.
Finally, a bonus question (this I haven't tried yet): What about deleting a branch locally when it's become obsolete? So assume I don't need V12_0 anymore - can I just delete the folder locally, or if I do so and then take "SVN Update" from "Top", will it bring the V12_0 back?
Don't do "checkout" to add the folder. That is creating a new, nested working copy that is completely separate from your top-level working copy.
Instead, use "update to revision..." and there will be another "choose items" button which you can use exactly as before when you first created your working copy.
Alternately, from the repository browser, if you right-click the branch you want, you should be able to "update item to this revision" to pull it down into your existing working copy.
For deleting a branch from your local copy, you should right-click that branch, and use the "update to revision..." dialog again. From there, set depth to "exclude". Otherwise, when you do an update, TortoiseSVN will restore the branch.