Major Description
In 'svn copy <wc-path1> <wc-path2>', when <wc-path1> includes a readily checked-out file external, the copy will create an actual first-class node in <wc-path2>, copied from the external's source URL. In consequence, if the svn:externals definition for such file external is also within <wc-path1> (so that the svn:externals property is copied into <wc-path2> as well), a commit and subsequent checkout of wc-path2 has a collision between the first-class file node and the external definition. This problem was mentioned in issue #3589, but particularly, the issue seems to talk about a failing commit, as does its duplicate (#3878). Since I don't see a failing commit, I decided to open this distinct issue about the indesired first-class file node. Reproduce: [[[ svnadmin create /tmp/repos svn co file:///tmp/repos /tmp/wc cd /tmp/wc echo a > a svn add a svn mkdir X svn ci -mm svn up svn ps svn:externals "^/a xa" X svn ci -mm svn up svn cp X Y svn ci -mm svn log -vl1 ^/ svn co file:///tmp/repos /tmp/wc2 ]]] With the result snippets: X/xa was a checked-out file external of ^/a, and was copied to Y/xa as a first-class file node: [[[ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ r3 | neels | 2011-09-02 04:00:08 +0200 (Fri, 02 Sep 2011) | 1 line Changed paths: A /Y (from /X:2) A /Y/xa (from /a:2) ]]] In a subsequent checkout, the two collide: [[[ Fetching external item into '/tmp/wc2/Y/xa': svn: warning: W195017: The file external from 'file:///tmp/repos/a' cannot overwrite the existing versioned item at '/tmp/wc2/Y/xa' ]]]
Original issue reported by neels