Quick Tip: Use rsync to recursively remove .svn folders from a directory [Field Notes]

Problem

I have a directory structure that contains Subversion metadata folders (folders named “.svn”).

I would like to remove those folders but “svn export” won’t work.

Solution

Rsync to the rescue. Let’s say the folder containing .svn folder structures is named problemfolder. Do the following:

• In the same directory as the problem folder, create a “clean” folder to output the contents of problemfolder to eventually.

"mkdir problemfolder_clean"

• Run rsync, excluding .svn folders and their contents, to copy the problem directory to the clean directory.

rsync -avr --exclude='.svn*' /path/to/problemfolder/ path/to/problemfolder_clean

At this point, the contents of problemfolder (minus the .svn folders) will be in the clean folder you created.