Tortoise SVN - How Working Copies Track the Repository

 

For each file in a working directory, Subversion records two essential pieces of information in the .svn/ administrative area:

• what revision your working file is based on (this is called the file's working revision), and

• a timestamp recording when the local copy was last updated by the repository.

Given this information, by talking to the repository, Subversion can tell which of the following four states a working file is in:

Unchanged, and current

The file is unchanged in the working directory, and no changes to that file have been committed to the repository since its working revision. A commit of the file will do nothing, and an update of the file will do nothing.

Locally changed, and current

The file has been changed in the working directory, and no changes to that file have been committed to the repository since its base revision. There are local changes that have not been committed to the repository, thus a commit of the file will succeed in publishing your changes, and an update of the file will do nothing.

Unchanged, and out-of-date

The file has not been changed in the working directory, but it has been changed in the repository. The file should eventually be updated, to make it current with the public revision. A commit of the file will do nothing, and an update of the file will fold the latest changes into your working copy.

Locally changed, and out-of-date

The file has been changed both in the working directory, and in the repository. A commit of the file will fail with an out-of-date error. The file should be updated first; an update command will attempt to merge the public changes with the local changes. If Subversion can't complete the merge in a plausible way automatically, it leaves it to the user to resolve the conflict.