Over in the google-code-hosting discussion group, we see a lot of users asking us to 'reset' their Subversion repositories back to an empty revision 0, tossing away all data and history. Sometimes there are good reasons for doing this; however, much of the time we're getting these requests for the wrong reasons.
Users who are new to Subversion often get the idea that the global revision number has some sort of special meaning — that it somehow measures the "maturity" of the software. In fact, the revision number is just a dumb counter that measures moments in time; it actually has no special meaning. If you accidentally mess up a code import or don't like the way things are arranged then just rearrange things with 'svn mv' or delete everything with 'svn rm' and start over! There's no need for the repository's history to be "pure." The repository is simply tracking changes over time (even restarts and mistakes), not describing the evolution of flawless software.
There are typically only three legitimate reasons for resetting a repository:
- Something really sensitive, confidential, or illegal was accidentally committed, and now exists in the history forever.
- Some HUGE garbage file was accidentally committed, and now a ridiculous amount of disk quota is wasted.
- A project owner wants to replicate a prior repository into the repository, using the 'svnsync' tool (which requires an empty repository at revision 0).
If your request fits one of these categories, then please drop the Project Hosting team a note on the public googlegroup, or, if it's a sensitive matter, mail us privately. We'll ask you to remove everything in the repository, thus proving you're a legitimate project owner and not someone forging emails, and then we'll reset your repository.
Another tip: when a project is first created, it begins life at revision 1, with empty /trunk, /branches, and /tags directories. A project at revision 1 can be reset to revision 0 by project owners themselves; you'll see a bubble on the right side of the 'Source' tab advertising this fact. (This feature makes it easy for newly-created projects to prep the repository for receiving data from 'svnsync'.) Once a repository is changed and goes beyond revision 1, however, resetting a repository is no longer self-serve; you'll have to ask the administrative team for a reset.
One final tip: the wiki feature saves wiki pages into the /wiki directory of the Subversion repository. This means that if you make a wiki change while svnsync is populating your repository, you'll break the sync halfway through. You'll have to request a repository reset and start the sync all over. Be careful!
