Automating TortoiseSVN

Since all commands for TortoiseSVN are controlled through command line parameters, you can automate it with batch scripts or start specific commands and dialogs from other programs (e.g. your favourite text editor).

Important

Remember that TortoiseSVN is a GUI client, and this automation guide shows you how to make the TortoiseSVN dialogs appear to collect user input. If you want to write a script which requires no input, you should use the official Subversion command line client instead.

TortoiseSVN Commands

The TortoiseSVN GUI program is called TortoiseProc.exe. All commands are specified with the parameter /command:abcd where abcd is the required command name. Most of these commands need at least one path argument, which is given with /path:"some\path". In the following table the command refers to the /command:abcd parameter and the path refers to the /path:"some\path" parameter.

Since some of the commands can take a list of target paths (e.g. committing several specific files) the /path parameter can take several paths, separated by a * character.

TortoiseSVN uses temporary files to pass multiple arguments between the shell extension and the main program. From TortoiseSVN 1.5.0 on and later, /notempfile parameter is obsolete and there is no need to add it anymore.

The progress dialog which is used for commits, updates and many more commands usually stays open after the command has finished until the user presses the OK button. This can be changed by checking the corresponding option in the settings dialog. But using that setting will close the progress dialog, no matter if you start the command from your batch file or from the TortoiseSVN context menu.

To specify a different location of the configuration file, use the parameter /configdir:"path\to\config\directory". This will override the default path, including any registry setting.

To close the progress dialog at the end of a command automatically without using the permanent setting you can pass the /closeonend parameter.

• /closeonend:0 don't close the dialog automatically

• /closeonend:1 auto close if no errors

• /closeonend:2 auto close if no errors and conflicts

• /closeonend:3 auto close if no errors, conflicts and merges

• /closeonend:4 auto close if no errors, conflicts and merges for local operations

The table below lists all the commands which can be accessed using the TortoiseProc.exe command line. As described above, these should be used in the form /command:abcd. In the table, the /command prefix is omitted to save space.

Table D.1. List of available commands and options

Command	Description
:about	Shows the about dialog. This is also shown if no command is given.
:log	Opens the log dialog. The /path specifies the file or folder for which the log should be shown. Three additional options can be set: /startrev:xxx, /endrev:xxx and /strict
:checkout	Opens the checkout dialog. The /path specifies the target directory and the /url specifies the URL to checkout from.
:import	Opens the import dialog. The /path specifies the directory with the data to import.
:update	Updates the working copy in /path to HEAD. If the option /rev is given then a dialog is shown to ask the user to which revision the update should go. To avoid the dialog specify a revision number /rev:1234. Other options are /nonrecursive and /ignoreexternals.
:commit	Opens the commit dialog. The /path specifies the target directory or the list of files to commit. You can also specify the /logmsg switch to pass a predefined log message to the commit dialog. Or, if you don't want to pass the log message on the command line, use /logmsgfile:path, where path points to a file containing the log message. To pre-fill the bug ID box (in case you've set up integration with bug trackers properly), you can use the /bugid:"the bug id here" to do that.
:add	Adds the files in /path to version control.
:revert	Reverts local modifications of a working copy. The /path tells which items to revert.
:cleanup	Cleans up interrupted or aborted operations and unlocks the working copy in /path.
:resolve	Marks a conflicted file specified in /path as resolved. If /noquestion is given, then resolving is done without asking the user first if it really should be done.
:repocreate	Creates a repository in /path
:switch	Opens the switch dialog. The /path specifies the target directory.
:export	Exports the working copy in /path to another directory. If the /path points to an unversioned directory, a dialog will ask for an URL to export to the directory in /path.
:merge	Opens the merge dialog. The /path specifies the target directory. For merging a revision range, the following options are available: /fromurl:URL, /revrange:string. For merging two repository trees, the following options are available: /fromurl:URL, /tourl:URL, /fromrev:xxx and /torev:xxx. These pre-fill the relevant fields in the merge dialog.
:mergeall	Opens the merge all dialog. The /path specifies the target directory.
:copy	Brings up the branch/tag dialog. The /path is the working copy to branch/tag from. And the /url is the target URL. You can also specify the /logmsg switch to pass a predefined log message to the branch/tag dialog. Or, if you don't want to pass the log message on the command line, use /logmsgfile:path, where path points to a file containing the log message.
:settings	Opens the settings dialog.
:remove	Removes the file(s) in /path from version control.
:rename	Renames the file in /path. The new name for the file is asked with a dialog. To avoid the question about renaming similar files in one step, pass /noquestion.
:diff	Starts the external diff program specified in the TortoiseSVN settings. The /path specifies the first file. If the option /path2 is set, then the diff program is started with those two files. If /path2 is omitted, then the diff is done between the file in /path and its BASE. To explicitly set the revision numbers use /startrev:xxx and /endrev:xxx. If /blame is set and /path2 is not set, then the diff is done by first blaming the files with the given revisions.
:showcompare	Depending on the URLs and revisions to compare, this either shows a unified diff (if the option unified is set), a dialog with a list of files that have changed or if the URLs point to files starts the diff viewer for those two files. The options url1, url2, revision1 and revision2 must be specified. The options pegrevision, ignoreancestry, blame and unified are optional.
:conflicteditor	Starts the conflict editor specified in the TortoiseSVN settings with the correct files for the conflicted file in /path.
:relocate	Opens the relocate dialog. The /path specifies the working copy path to relocate.
:help	Opens the help file.
:repostatus	Opens the check-for-modifications dialog. The /path specifies the working copy directory.
:repobrowser	Starts the repository browser dialog, pointing to the URL of the working copy given in /path or /path points directly to an URL. An additional option /rev:xxx can be used to specify the revision which the repository browser should show. If the /rev:xxx is omitted, it defaults to HEAD. If /path points to an URL, the /projectpropertiespath:path/to/wc specifies the path from where to read and use the project properties.
:ignore	Adds all targets in /path to the ignore list, i.e. adds the svn:ignore property to those files.
:blame	Opens the blame dialog for the file specified in /path. If the options /startrev and /endrev are set, then the dialog asking for the blame range is not shown but the revision values of those options are used instead. If the option /line:nnn is set, TortoiseBlame will open with the specified line number showing. The options /ignoreeol, /ignorespaces and /ignoreallspaces are also supported.
:cat	Saves a file from an URL or working copy path given in /path to the location given in /savepath:path. The revision is given in /revision:xxx. This can be used to get a file with a specific revision.
:createpatch	Creates a patch file for the path given in /path.
:revisiongraph	Shows the revision graph for the path given in /path.
:lock	Locks a file or all files in a directory given in /path. The 'lock' dialog is shown so the user can enter a comment for the lock.
:unlock	Unlocks a file or all files in a directory given in /path.
:rebuildiconcache	Rebuilds the windows icon cache. Only use this in case the windows icons are corrupted. A side effect of this (which can't be avoided) is that the icons on the desktop get rearranged. To suppress the message box, pass /noquestion.
:properties	Shows the properties dialog for the path given in /path.

Examples (which should be entered on one line):

TortoiseProc.exe /command:commit
                 /path:"c:\svn_wc\file1.txt*c:\svn_wc\file2.txt"
                 /logmsg:"test log message" /closeonend:0

TortoiseProc.exe /command:update /path:"c:\svn_wc\" /closeonend:0

TortoiseProc.exe /command:log /path:"c:\svn_wc\file1.txt"
                 /startrev:50 /endrev:60 /closeonend:0