This documentation was written to describe the 1.7.x series of Apache™ Subversion®. If you are running a different version of Subversion, you are strongly encouraged to visit http://www.svnbook.com/ and instead consult the version of this documentation appropriate for your version of Subversion.
svnlook is a command-line utility for examining different aspects of a Subversion repository. It does not make any changes to the repository—it's just used for “peeking.” svnlook is typically used by the repository hooks, but a repository administrator might find it useful for diagnostic purposes.
Since svnlook works via direct repository access (and thus can be used only on the machine that holds the repository), it refers to the repository with a path, not a URL.
If no revision or transaction is specified, svnlook defaults to the youngest (most recent) revision of the repository.
Options in svnlook are global, just as they are in svn and svnadmin; however, most options apply to only one subcommand since the functionality of svnlook is (intentionally) limited in scope:
--copy-info
Causes svnlook changed to show detailed copy source information.
--diff-copy-from
Print differences for copied items against the copy source.
--extensions (-x) ARG
Specifies customizations which Subversion should make when performing difference calculations. Valid extensions include:
--ignore-space-change (-b)
Ignore changes in the amount of white space.
--ignore-all-space (-w)
Ignore all white space.
--ignore-eol-style
Ignore changes in EOL (end-of-line) style.
--show-c-function (-p)
Show C function names in the diff output.
--unified (-u)
Show three lines of unified diff context.
The default value is -u.
Note that when Subversion is configured to invoke an
external diff command, the value of
the --extension (-x)
option isn't restricted to the previously mentioned
options, but may be any additional
arguments which Subversion should pass to that command.
If you wish to pass multiple arguments, you must enclose
all of them in quotes.
--full-paths
Causes svnlook tree to display full paths instead of hierarchical, indented path components.
--limit (-l) ARG
Limit output to a maximum number of
ARG items.
--no-diff-deleted
Prevents svnlook diff from printing differences for deleted files. The default behavior when a file is deleted in a transaction/revision is to print the same differences that you would see if you had left the file but removed all the content.
--no-diff-added
Prevents svnlook diff from printing differences for added files. The default behavior when you add a file is to print the same differences that you would see if you had added the entire contents of an existing (empty) file.
--non-recursive (-N)
Operate on a single directory only.
--revision (-r) REV
Specifies a particular revision number that you wish to examine.
--revprop
Operates on a revision property instead of a
property specific to a file or directory. This option
requires that you also pass a revision with the
--revision (-r)
option.
--transaction (-t) ID
Specifies a particular transaction ID that you wish to examine.
--show-ids
Shows the filesystem node revision IDs for each path in the filesystem tree.
--verbose (-v)
Be verbose. When used with svnlook proplist, for example, this causes Subversion to display not just the list of properties, but their values also.
--xml
Prints output in XML format.