Sparse Checkout

Sometimes you need to check out only certain parts of a directory tree. For this you can check out the top directory (the action Check out from the Repositories view) and then update recursively only the needed directories (the action Update from the Working Copy view). Now, each directory has a depth set to it, which has four possible values:

For some operations, you can use as depth the current depth registered on the directories from the working copy (the value Current depth). This is the depth value defined in a previous check out or update operation.

The sparse checked out directories are presented in the Working Copy view with a marker corresponding to each depth value, in the top left corner, as follows:

A depth set on a directory means that some operations process only items within the specified depth range. For example, Synchronize on a working copy directory reports the repository modified items within the depth set on the directory and those existing in the working copy outside of this depth.

The depth information is also presented in the SVN Information dialog box and in the tool tip displayed when hovering a directory in the Working Copy view.

This feature requires the SVN client to support SVN 1.5 or above and will work most efficiently if the server is 1.5 or above. The client will work also with a 1.4 server or lower but will be less efficient.