Properties and Metadata

What Are Properties

SVN properties are name/value pairs attached to files and folders, written with svn propset and viewed with svn proplist.

Essential Properties

svn propset svn:ignore "target" .
svn propset svn:mime-type text/plain readme.txt
svn propset svn:keywords "Date Revision" src/version.c
svn propset svn:eol-style native script.sh

• svn:ignore - Patterns that never show as unversioned.
• svn:mime-type - Text vs binary handling.
• svn:keywords - Automatic $Id$, $Revision$ expansion.
• svn:eol-style - Line-ending normalization.
• svn:needs-lock - Forces check-out locking for edits.

Editing Properties

svn propedit svn:ignore .     # opens your editor
svn propedit svn:ignore --editor-cmd notepad .

Why Properties Matter

svn:ignore keeps build artifacts out of commits, svn:keywords stamps versions into files automatically, and svn:needs-lock protects binary files from clashing edits. They are SVN's native answer to problems Git solves differently with .gitignore and attributes.

Key Points

• Properties are per-path metadata.
• svn:ignore filters busy build output.
• Keywords auto-embed revision info.
• needs-lock enforces file locking.