subversion undelete

The Subversion VCS does not have an explicit undelete command to restore files after commiting deletions.

# pwd
~/svn_work/repo/blog/sandbox
# svn delete fun.txt
D         fun.txt
# svn commit --message 'Delete fun file.' ./

To accomplish an undelete operation, first examine the directory log and select the desired commit revision of the (deleted) file to be restored.

# svn log -verbose --limit 5 ./
------------------------------------------------------------------------
r73 | timotheus | 2009-10-30 22:44:43 -0400 (Fri, 30 Oct 2009) | 1 line
Changed paths:
   D /blog/sandbox/fun.txt

Delete fun file.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
r72 | timotheus | 2009-10-30 22:44:26 -0400 (Fri, 30 Oct 2009) | 1 line
Changed paths:
   M /blog/sandbox/fun.txt
...

Here, in this example, revision 72 of fun.txt is selected to be restored. It is necessary to copy the file by repository URL because a deleted file does not exist in the work area.

# svn copy https://host/repo/blog/sandbox/fun.txt@72 ./
A         fun.txt
# svn commit --message 'Restore fun.txt file from revision 72.' ./

This operation could be performed by a single copy command, specifying the URL and bypassing the work area:

# svn copy --message 'Restore fun.txt file from revision 72.' \
      https://host/repo/blog/sandbox/fun.txt@72 \
      https://host/repo/blog/sandbox/fun.txt

The primary advantage of copying to the work area first is to undelete a group a files. If the files are first copied to the work area, then the commit of all undeleted files will be a single atomic operation.