Safely move file in SVN

Question

Currently I'm in a situation where I need to move some files from one folder to another, while the other person is working with these files. The problem is after I execute svn move and commit my changes, the other person gets a tree conflict when updating. Now he has two options - either remove his local file and lose all his changes or keep the local file and end up with two files in different locations.

The only solution we've got so far is that I do not move the file until he's done editing it. I was wondering if there is a better way for dealing with such changes.

Answer 1

The reason the other person is getting a conflict is that there is a conflict:

• You moved a file
• The other person was editing that file

This would be like you and the other person changing the same line in the file. There's no way around the conflict, and there's no automated mechanism to resolve the conflict. There isn't much you can do except a bit better coordination of your changes.

Being an CM, much of the work I end up doing is refactoring the repository, so I spend a lot of time with moving files from one location to another. I find if I let the developers know I'll be moving files around, I can work out with them the best time to do that. As long as everyone is prepared for the change, everything goes fairly smoothly.