Can cleaning before a build be disabled in TeamCity?

Question

We have a TeamCity build server and a rather large SVN repository hosted in different geographic regions. Every few days, TeamCity decides to trash SVN working copy and perform a clean checkout which adds over an hour to the build process.

Is it possible to disable the periodic cleaning? When can't it just perform an SVN cleanup/update on the existing working copy?

Answer 1

The phenomenon described here is an Automatic Clean Checkout, and it can be caused by several reasons. One of the possible reasons is an Automatic Checkout Directory Cleaning, that can be easily disabled. You can find more details in the documentation, by following the link.

Answer 2

Yes, there is such an option at the moment. It is a bit hidden, but still:

https://www.jetbrains.com/help/teamcity/perforce-workspace-handling-in-teamcity.html#Forced+protection+against+clean+checkout

Answer 3

It sound to me that you have one big application that consists from different modules and you're trying to build everything in one configuration. If so I would suggest to make TC configurations for every module and set dependencies from main application to modules, Dependencies are better to manage with maven repositories or TC itself (less convenient).