svn+import+checkout

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/678437/svn-in-place-import-and-checkout

Yes, you can import an existing directory (with contents) into an svn repository, and use the current location as your version controlled working copy. Go at it as follows:

suppose your (un-versioned) project sources are in /home/user/projectx, and your repository is ready at file:///svnrepo

1. first, create an empty directory somewhere outside of your project tree, say, /tmp/empty.  Import that empty directory in your subversion repository.

   cd /tmp/empty

   svn import . file:///svnrepo/projectx

2. go into your populated project directory. Now checkout the repository location you created in step 1.

   cd /home/user/                     projectx is under this directory

   svn checkout file:///svnrepo/projectx .

This will add the .svn files to your populated project directory, but it will not do anything else, so your existing files are safe.

1. Next, add  the directory with your files to the repository

   svn add *

   svn commit -m 'initial commit'

Done.