Why is this PowerShell script deleting svn:mergeinfo from the root directory?

Question

We have a script to delete the svn:mergeinfo property from all folders inside a Subversion working copy, but not the working copy root directory itself. It's currently an NAnt build script invoked via a separate batch file, so I'm trying to replace it with a simpler PowerShell script. I've had three attempts at it, ranging from the naïve to the slightly more sophisticated. All three fail my criteria, outputting the line property 'svn:mergeinfo' deleted from '.'.

Checking the SVN properties of the working copy root indicates that the svn:mergeinfo property has indeed been removed from this folder which is not what I want. Each version is designed to be run from the working copy root.

Attempt 1:

# I understand why this one fails, it's a poor attempt.
Get-ChildItem -Recurse | svn propdel svn:mergeinfo -R $_

Attempt 2:

# This one correctly lists everything except the working copy root, but
# still removes the svn:mergeinfo property from the working copy root.
Get-ChildItem -Recurse -Exclude $pwd | svn propdel svn:mergeinfo -R $_

Attempt 3:

# Again, this one works fine until the svn propdel is added.
Get-ChildItem | ForEach-Object { ls -R $_ } | svn propdel svn:mergeinfo -R $_

Any thoughts on where the flaw in my logic is?

Roman Kuzmin · Accepted Answer · 2010-10-28 12:02:15Z

3

svn is an external application and you cannot use PowerShell piping technique directly with it. I am not familiar with svn syntax and can be wrong about the details but all your commands presumably should use ForEach-Object (%). That is:

... | %{ svn propdel svn:mergeinfo -R $_ }

Then svn should “understand” the $_ correctly. Also, it is quite possible that you should use something like $_.FullName or $_.Name instead of $_ (again, because svn is an external application and it expects a string (e.g. $_.FullName/$_.Name), not an object $_). NB: $_ is often converted to strings as expected automatically but this is not always the case.

edited Oct 28, 2010 at 12:02

answered Oct 28, 2010 at 11:43

Roman Kuzmin

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3 Comments

alastairs Over a year ago

Nice catch, thanks. Do I still need the middle term, then? The foreach-object { ls -R %_ }? It seems like the second attempt, which is much nicer and more concise, would work correctly with this fix.

Roman Kuzmin Over a year ago

AFAIK, there is no %_ construct. Anyway, I would recommend just to experiment a little bit on your own. Use cmd instead of svn: ... | %{ cmd /c echo $_.FullName } etc. and see what you get. If svn can accept a list of parameters after -R then there are other solutions, too.

alastairs Over a year ago

Typo, sorry; I meant $_. Thanks for the tip.

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