Recovering a deleted file in Subversion

Posted on by insaniac

Many times I have been looking on the Internet to find a suitable solution for this, but in the end I’ve created my own solution.

These next steps will explain how to recover a deleted file back into the HEAD revision, in a Subversion repositry.


The following example shows how to Subversion commands should be executed.

  • At first, a test environment is created: 
    .oO( ~/trunk )Oo. svn mkdir test_dir
A         test_dir
.oO( ~/trunk )Oo. ls
test_dir

.oO( ~/trunk )Oo. cd test_dir/
.oO( ~/trunk/test_dir )Oo. ls
.oO( ~/trunk/test_dir )Oo. echo 'Regel 1'  >>file_1
.oO( ~/trunk/test_dir )Oo. svn add file_1
A         file_1
.oO( ~/trunk/test_dir )Oo. svn ci -m '-m test set up'
Adding         test_dir
Adding         test_dir/file_1
Transmitting file data .

Committed revision 14.

.oO( ~/trunk/test_dir )Oo. ls
file_1
  • Next, a certain file will be deleted: 
    .oO( ~/trunk/test_dir )Oo. svn delete file_1
D         file_1
.oO( ~/trunk/test_dir )Oo. svn ci -m '- deleting test file'
Deleting       test_dir/file_1

Committed revision 15.
  • Afterwards, a few more Subversion commands are executed to have some more logging and revision numbers: 
    .oO( ~/trunk/test_dir )Oo. echo 'Regel 1' >file_2
.oO( ~/trunk/test_dir )Oo. svn add file_2
A         file_2
.oO( ~/trunk/test_dir )Oo. svn ci -m '- added second test file'
Adding         test_dir/file_2
Transmitting file data .

Committed revision 16.
  • The svn log --verbose command shows which the commit messages, revision numbers and affected path names: 
    .oO( ~/trunk/test_dir )Oo. svn log --verbose
------------------------------------------------------------------------
r16 | jmorano | 2010-08-31 15:47:21 +0200 (Tue, 31 Aug 2010) | 1 line
Changed paths:
A /trunk/test_dir/file_2

- added second test file
------------------------------------------------------------------------
r15 | jmorano | 2010-08-31 15:46:53 +0200 (Tue, 31 Aug 2010) | 1 line
Changed paths:
D /trunk/test_dir/file_1

- deleting test file
------------------------------------------------------------------------
r14 | jmorano | 2010-08-31 15:45:52 +0200 (Tue, 31 Aug 2010) | 1 line
Changed paths:
A /trunk/test_dir
A /trunk/test_dir/file_1

-m test set up
  • Since in revision r15 the file file_1 was deleted, one revision less will be used to recover the file, using the svn update -r command. Beware that the file must be first renamed to a new filename and afterwards renamed to the original filename! 
    .oO( ~/trunk/test_dir )Oo. svn update -r14 file_1
A    file_1
Updated to revision 14.
.oO( ~/trunk/test_dir )Oo. svn rename file_1 new_file_1
A         new_file_1
D         file_1
.oO( ~/trunk/test_dir )Oo. svn status
D      file_1
A  +   new_file_1
.oO( ~/trunk/test_dir )Oo. svn ci -m '- readding'
Deleting       test_dir/file_1
Adding         test_dir/new_file_1

Committed revision 17.
  • Check the Subversion logging: 
    .oO( ~/trunk/test_dir )Oo. svn log new_file_1
------------------------------------------------------------------------
r17 | jmorano | 2010-08-31 15:53:46 +0200 (Tue, 31 Aug 2010) | 1 line

- readding
------------------------------------------------------------------------
r14 | jmorano | 2010-08-31 15:45:52 +0200 (Tue, 31 Aug 2010) | 1 line

-m test set up
------------------------------------------------------------------------
  • Rename the new filename to the original filename: 
    .oO( ~/trunk/test_dir )Oo. svn rename new_file_1 file_1
A         file_1
D         new_file_1
.oO( ~/trunk/test_dir )Oo. svn ci -m '- readding'
Adding         test_dir/file_1
Deleting       test_dir/new_file_1

Committed revision 18.
  • Check the Subversion logging: 
    .oO( ~/trunk/test_dir )Oo. svn log --verbose file_1
------------------------------------------------------------------------
r18 | jmorano | 2010-08-31 15:54:09 +0200 (Tue, 31 Aug 2010) | 1 line
Changed paths:
A /trunk/test_dir/file_1 (from /trunk/test_dir/new_file_1:17)
D /trunk/test_dir/new_file_1

- readding
------------------------------------------------------------------------
r17 | jmorano | 2010-08-31 15:53:46 +0200 (Tue, 31 Aug 2010) | 1 line
Changed paths:
A /trunk/test_dir/new_file_1 (from /trunk/test_dir/file_1:14)

- readding
------------------------------------------------------------------------
r14 | jmorano | 2010-08-31 15:45:52 +0200 (Tue, 31 Aug 2010) | 1 line
Changed paths:
A /trunk/test_dir
A /trunk/test_dir/file_1

-m test set up
------------------------------------------------------------------------