You can get new files into your Subversion repository in two ways: svn import and svn add. We'll discuss svn import now and will discuss svn add later in this chapter when we review a typical day with Subversion.
The svn import command is a quick way to copy an unversioned tree of files into a repository, creating intermediate directories as necessary. svn import doesn't require a working copy, and your files are immediately committed to the repository. You typically use this when you have an existing tree of files that you want to begin tracking in your Subversion repository. For example:
$ svnadmin create /var/svn/newrepos
$ svn import mytree file:///var/svn/newrepos/some/project \
-m "Initial import"
Adding mytree/foo.c
Adding mytree/bar.c
Adding mytree/subdir
Adding mytree/subdir/quux.h
Committed revision 1.
The previous example copied the contents of directory
mytree under the directory
some/project in the repository:
$ svn list file:///var/svn/newrepos/some/project bar.c foo.c subdir/
Note that after the import is finished, the original tree is not converted into a working copy. To start working, you still need to svn checkout a fresh working copy of the tree.
While Subversion's flexibility allows you to lay out your
repository in any way that you choose, we recommend that you
create a trunk directory to hold the
“main line” of development, a
branches directory to contain branch
copies, and a tags directory to contain tag
copies. For example:
$ svn list file:///var/svn/repos /trunk /branches /tags
You'll learn more about tags and branches in Chapter 4, Branching and Merging. For details and how to set up multiple projects, see the section called “Repository Layout” and the section called “Planning Your Repository Organization” to read more about project roots.