Description

svn update brings changes from the repository into your working copy. If no revision is given, it brings your working copy up to date with the HEAD revision. Otherwise, it synchronizes the working copy to the revision given by the --revision (-r) option. As part of the synchronization, svn update also removes any stale locks (see the section called “Sometimes You Just Need to Clean Up”) found in the working copy.

For each updated item, it prints a line that starts with a character reporting the action taken. These characters have the following meaning:

A character in the first column signifies an update to the actual file, whereas updates to the file's properties are shown in the second column. Lock information is printed in the third column.

As with most subcommands, you can limit the scope of the update operation to a particular tree depth using the --depth option. Alternatively, you can use the --set-depth option to set a new “sticky” working copy depth on the update target.

Options

--accept ACTION
--changelist (--cl) ARG
--depth ARG
--diff3-cmd CMD
--editor-cmd CMD
--force
--ignore-externals
--parents
--quiet (-q)
--revision (-r) REV
--set-depth ARG

Examples

Pick up repository changes that have happened since your last update:

$ svn update
Updating '.':
A    newdir/toggle.c
A    newdir/disclose.c
A    newdir/launch.c
D    newdir/README
Updated to revision 32.

You can also “update” your working copy to an older revision (Subversion doesn't have the concept of “sticky” files like CVS does; see Appendix B, Subversion for CVS Users):

$ svn update -r30
Updating '.':
A    newdir/README
D    newdir/toggle.c
D    newdir/disclose.c
D    newdir/launch.c
U    foo.c
Updated to revision 30.

	Tip
	If you want to examine an older revision of a single file, you may want to use svn cat instead—it won't change your working copy.

svn update is also the primary mechanism used to configure sparse working copies. When used with the --set-depth, the update operation will omit or reenlist individual working copy members by modifying their recorded ambient depth to the depth you specify (fetching information from the repository as necessary). See the section called “Sparse Directories” for more about sparse directories.

You can update multiple targets with a single invocation, and Subversion will not only gracefully skip any unversioned targets you provide it, but as of Subversion 1.7 will also include a post-update summary of all the updates it performed:

$ cd my-projects
$ svn update *
Updating 'calc':
U    button.c
U    integer.c
Updated to revision 394.
Skipped 'tempfile.tmp'
Updating 'paint':
A    palettes.c
U    brushes.c
Updated to revision 60.
Updating 'ziptastic':
At revision 43.
Summary of updates:
  Updated 'calc' to r394.
  Updated 'paint' to r60.
  Updated 'ziptastic' to r43.
Summary of conflicts:
  Skipped paths: 1
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