[svn] Using TortoiseSVN via the command line

I want to use commandline SVN options. I use TortoiseSVN, and I run several commands and I get the following error.

'svn' is not recognized as an internal or external command

I used the command

svn checkout [-N] [--ignore-externals] [-r rev] URL PATH

I think I should add some environment variable or something else.

What should I do or can't TortoiseSVN be used from the command line?

You can have both TortoiseSVN and the Apache Subversion command line tools installed. I usually install the Apache SVN tools from the VisualSVN download site: https://www.visualsvn.com/downloads/

Once installed, place the Subversion\bin in your set PATH. Then you will be able to use TortoiseSVN when you want to use the GUI, and you have the proper SVN command line tools to use from the command line.

TortoiseSVN has a command-line interface that can be used for TortoiseSVN GUI automation and it's different from the normal Subversion one.

You can find information about the command-line options of TortoiseSVN in the documentation: Appendix D. Automating TortoiseSVN. The main program to work with here is TortoiseProc.exe.

But a note pretty much at the top there already says:

Remember that TortoiseSVN is a GUI client, and this automation guide shows you how to make the TortoiseSVN dialogs appear to collect user input. If you want to write a script which requires no input, you should use the official Subversion command line client instead.

Another option would be that you install the Subversion binaries. Slik SVN is a nice build (and doesn't require a registration like Collabnet). Recent versions of TortoiseSVN also include the command-line client if you choose to install it.

In case you have already installed the TortoiseSVN GUI and wondering how to upgrade to command line tools, here are the steps...

1. Go to Windows Control Panel ? Program and Features (Windows 7+)
2. Locate TortoiseSVN and click on it.
3. Select "Change" from the options available.

4. Refer to this image for further steps.

   

5. After completion of the command line client tools, open a command prompt and type svn help to check the successful install.

There is a confusion that is causing a lot of TortoiseSVN users to use the wrong command line tools when they actually were looking for svn.exe command line client.

What should I do or can't TortoiseSVN be used from the command line?

svn.exe

If you want to run Subversion commands from the command prompt, you should run the svn.exe command line client. TortoiseSVN 1.6.x and older versions did not include SVN command-line tools, but modern versions do.

If you want to get SVN command line tools without having to install TortoiseSVN, check the SVN binary distributions page or simply download the latest version from VisualSVN downloads page.

If you have SVN command line tools installed on your system, but still get the error 'svn' is not recognized as an internal or external command, you should check %PATH% environment variable. %PATH% must include the path to SVN tools directory e.g. C:\Program Files (x86)\VisualSVN\bin.

TortoiseProc.exe

Apart from svn.exe, TortoiseSVN comes with TortoiseProc.exe that can be called from command prompt. In most cases, you do not need to use this tool, because it should be only used for GUI automation. TortoiseProc.exe is not a replacement for SVN command-line client.

After some time, I used this workaround...

(at the .bat file)

SET "CHECKOUT=http://yoururl.url";
SET "PATH=your_folder_path"

start "C:\Program Files\TortoiseSVN\bin" svn.exe checkout %CHECKOUT% %PATH%

To enable svn run the TortoiseSVN installation program again, select "Modify" (Allows users to change the way features are installed) and install "command line client tools".

After selecting "SVN command line tools" it will become like this:

To use command support you should follow this steps:

1. Define Path in Environment Variables:

   • open 'System Properties';
   • on the tab 'Advanced' click on the 'Environment Variables' button
   • in the section 'System variables' select 'Path' option and click 'edit'

   • append variable value with the path to TortoiseProc.exe file, for example:

     C:\Program Files\TortoiseSVN\bin

2. Since you have registered TortoiseProc, you can use it in according to TortoiseSVN documentation.

   Examples:

   TortoiseProc.exe /command:commit /path:"c:\svn_wc\file1.txt*c:\svn_wc\file2.txt" /logmsg:"test log message" /closeonend:0

   TortoiseProc.exe /command:update /path:"c:\svn_wc\" /closeonend:0

   TortoiseProc.exe /command:log /path:"c:\svn_wc\file1.txt" /startrev:50 /endrev:60 /closeonend:0

P.S. To use friendly name like 'svn' instead of 'TortoiseProc', place 'svn.bat' file in the directory of 'TortoiseProc.exe'. There is an example of svn.bat:

TortoiseProc.exe %1 %2 %3

My solution was to use DOSKEY to set up some aliases to for the commands I use the most:

DOSKEY svc=TortoiseProc.exe /command:commit /path:.
DOSKEY svu=TortoiseProc.exe /command:update /path:.
DOSKEY svl=TortoiseProc.exe /command:log /path:.
DOSKEY svd=TortoiseProc.exe /command:diff /path:$*

Google "doskey persist" for tips on how to set up a .cmd file that runs every time you open the command prompt like a .*rc file in Unix.

As Joey pointed out, TortoiseSVN has a commandline syntax of its own. Unfortunately it is quite ugly, if you are used to svn commands, and it ignores the current working directory, thus it is not very usable - except for scripting.

I have created a little Python program (tsvn) which mimics the svn commandline syntax as closely as possible and calls TortoiseSVN accordingly. Thus, the difference between calling the normal commandline tools and calling TortoiseSVN is reduced to a little letter t at the beginning.

My tsvn program is not yet complete but already useful. It can be found in the cheeseshop (https://pypi.python.org/pypi/tsvn/)

My fix for getting SVN commands was to copy .exe and .dll files from the TortoiseSVN directory and pasting them into system32 folder.

You could also perform the command from the TortoiseSVN directory and add the path of the working directory to each command. For example:

C:\Program Files\TortoiseSVN\bin> svn st -v C:\checkout

Adding the bin to the path should make it work without duplicating the files, but it didn't work for me.