As reported by a user here, http://svn.haxx.se/dev/archive-2013-06/0346.shtml, despite what our release notes (and my original design notes http://wiki.apache.org/subversion/Inheritable-Ignores-AutoProps#Auto-Props_Format) claim, whitespace separated svn:global-ignores property values don't work: 1.8.0>svn pg svn:global-ignores -vR Properties on '.': svn:global-ignores *.foo *.bar *.baz 1.8.0>echo frob > calc\trunk\file.foo 1.8.0>echo frob > calc\trunk\file.bar 1.8.0>echo frob > calc\trunk\file.baz 1.8.0>svn st ? calc\trunk\file.bar ? calc\trunk\file.baz ? calc\trunk\file.foo 1.8.0>svn add * --force ..\..\..\subversion\libsvn_client\cmdline.c:359, ..\..\..\subversion\libsvn_client\cmdline.c:355: (apr_err=SVN_ERR_RESERVED_FILENAME_SPECIFIED) svn: Skipping argument: E200025: '.svn' ends in a reserved name A calc\trunk\file.baz A calc\trunk\file.foo A calc\trunk\file.bar 1.8.0>svn revert -R . Reverted 'calc\trunk\file.bar' Reverted 'calc\trunk\file.baz' Reverted 'calc\trunk\file.foo' Newline separated patterns work fine: 1.8.0>svn pg svn:global-ignores -vR Properties on '.': svn:global-ignores *.foo *.bar *.baz 1.8.0>svn st --no-ignore I calc\trunk\file.bar I calc\trunk\file.baz I calc\trunk\file.foo 1.8.0>svn st 1.8.0>svn add * --force ..\..\..\subversion\libsvn_client\cmdline.c:359, ..\..\..\subversion\libsvn_client\cmdline.c:355: (apr_err=SVN_ERR_RESERVED_FILENAME_SPECIFIED) svn: Skipping argument: E200025: '.svn' ends in a reserved name 1.8.0>