Hudson v1.313 (latest to-day) contains the Subversion plugin which in turns uses
SVNKit 1.3.0 and this in turns supports SVN 1.6.x and hence SVN externals
pointing to files as well as directories.

duplicate of Issue 3673 as well, I think...

This issue is not related to Subversion externals. The underlying problem is
with Unix symbolic links checked into Subversion. Upto version 1.310, Hudson
correctly created symbolic links on checking out from Subversion. Starting
with version 1.311, it now creates files instead.

From your comments, I suspect you work primarily on Windows. The following
"how to repeat" requires Unix (e.g., Linux). I'm using my home directory in
the following commands (/home/mrohan), substitute where appropriate:

1) Create a Subversion repository:
$ svnadmin create /home/mrohan/repos

2) Create a directory in Subversion:
$ svn mkdir -mExample file:///home/mrohan/repos/xmpl

Committed revision 1.

3) Checkout the directory:
$ svn co file:///home/mrohan/repos/xmpl
Checked out revision 1.

4) Populate with a file and symbolic link and check in:
$ cd xmpl
$ echo "This is a file" > file.txt
$ ln -s file.txt file.link
$ ls -l
total 4
lrwxrwxrwx 1 mrohan mrohan 8 2009-06-30 09:32 file.link -> file.txt
rw-rw-r- 1 mrohan mrohan 15 2009-06-30 09:32 file.txt
$ svn add *
A file.link
A file.txt
$ svn commit -mExample
Adding file.link
Adding file.txt
Transmitting file data ..
Committed revision 2.

5) Start Hudson and define a job "Symlink Test" with
5.1) Source Code in Subversion:
Repository: file:///home/mrohan/repos/xmpl
Local module: xmpl
5.2) Add an "Execute shell" build step containing
ls -l
ls -l xmpl

6) Run this job under v1.310 and v1.311, v1.312 or v1.312.

The output for v1.310 shows a symlink in the workspace. The output
for any later version show a file of 13 bytes. I'll attach my output.

This is probably a bug in SVNKit but it is a regression for Hudson.

Created an attachment (id=760)
Subversion check-out listing for v1.310

Created an attachment (id=761)
Subversion check-out listing for v1.311

Downloaded SVNKit 1.3.0.5847, made the example repository available via
http (not sure what the exact file: syntax is on Windows). jsvn successfully
checks out and creates a symlink on Unix. On Windows, since symlinks are
not supported on this platform, it instead creates a file containing
"link file.txt" (13 bytes).

It appears Hudson might be configuring SVNKit for Windows on Unix systems.

jsvn on Unix:
$ jsvn co http://10.20.96.133/repos/xmpl
A xmpl/file.link
A xmpl/file.txt
Checked out revision 2.
$ ls -l xmpl
total 4
lrwxrwxrwx 1 mrohan mrohan 8 Jun 30 14:26 file.link -> file.txt
rw-rw-r- 1 mrohan mrohan 15 Jun 30 14:26 file.txt

jsvn on Windows:
C:\mrohan\svnkit>jsvn co http://10.20.96.133/repos/xmpl
A xmpl\file.link
A xmpl\file.txt
Checked out revision 2.

C:\mrohan\svnkit>dir xmpl
Volume in drive C is MROHAN-DEV3
Volume Serial Number is 707B-3181

Directory of C:\mrohan\svnkit\xmpl

30-Jun-09 14:26 <DIR> .
30-Jun-09 14:26 <DIR> ..
30-Jun-09 14:26 13 file.link
30-Jun-09 14:26 15 file.txt
2 File(s) 28 bytes
2 Dir(s) 14,278,062,080 bytes free

C:\mrohan\svnkit>type xmpl\file.link
link file.txt

This is a Unix (Linux) specific issue.

is there a workaround for this issue, until it is fixed?

I have not been able to find a workaround. I simply reverted my instance back
to v1.309 (don't update to every version).

oh, it works in 1.309 - excellent...

It works up v1.310 and fails starting with v1.311

This bug is blocking deployment of Hudson on my project.
Please raise it's priority.

I would also like to see this fixed ...

As it stands, I am able to work around this issue by

• manually removing the work area (jobs/<project>/workspace/trunk)
• manually checking out a new trunk (svn co http://.. ../trunk)
• updating my <project> configuration to USE UPDATE
• Under "Subversion", select "Use Update" and save

From this I am able to release using the Hudson Maven Release Plugin. It would
appear that the plug-in is not directly impacted by this change ..??.. E.g. It
creates a new "checkout" directory under target which has working symlinks.

Issue #3968 appears to be a duplicate of this issue.

• • • Issue 3968 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***

• • • Issue 3904 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***

set P2

in SubversionSCM.java lines 1656-1658:
// work around for
http://www.nabble.com/Slow-SVN-Checkout-tf4486786.html
if(System.getProperty("svnkit.symlinks")==null)
System.setProperty("svnkit.symlinks","false");

could this be the cause of the problem on Hudson Unix nodes?

the SVNKit FAQ suggests to disable symlinks only for 'older' versions of SVNKit,
whilst for the latest one with proper JNA support (as in svnkit/1.3.0-hudson-1)
symlinks feature should remain enabled.

I'm not familiar with the Hudson code base, but the snippet included
suggested running Hudson with "java -Dsvnkit.symlinks=true -jar hudson.jar"
would enable symlinks. I tried this for v1.314 and I'm afraid I'm still
seeing a file containing "link file.txt". This does not invalidate the
coding suggestion, just additional info.

Have you tried turning on some debugging?
https://wiki.svnkit.com/Troubleshooting

with the file logging.properties:
svnkit.level=FINEST
svnkit-network.level=FINEST
svnkit-fsfs.level=FINEST
svnkit-wc.level=FINEST
svnkit-cli.level=FINEST
#
handlers = java.util.logging.FileHandler

#java.util.logging.FileHandler.pattern = %h/svnkit.%u.log
java.util.logging.FileHandler.pattern = svnkit.%u.log
java.util.logging.FileHandler.limit = 0
java.util.logging.FileHandler.count = 1
java.util.logging.FileHandler.append = false
java.util.logging.FileHandler.formatter = java.util.logging.SimpleFormatter

turning on some debugging for Hudson would help especially for
hudson.scm.Initializer to check if somehow svnkit.symlinks is set to false

This logging suggestion worked: my initial test of "svnkit.symlinks"
was not valid as the test job had "Use update" enabled. Disabling this,
i.e., forcing a clean checkout, with "-Dsvnkit.symlinks=true" on the
java command line generated a workspace with the expected symlinks
instead of files.

For your reference, I'm attaching the svnkit logs for the runs without
the svnkit.symlinks defn, and with the definitions.

Created an attachment (id=769)
SVNKit log file without -Dsvnkit.symlinks=true on cmd line

Created an attachment (id=770)
SVNKit log file with -Dsvnkit.symlinks=true on cmd line

I wuold like to point out that there is simple test case in
SubversionSCMTest::testSymbolicLinkCheckout() to check this problem.

I think that this problem has something to do with JNA.

After correcting my test case , I approve that solution is to remove those
lines setting svnkit.symlinks to true.
The issue with slow checkouts was solved in svnkit 1.3.0 using JNA.

As soon as I will test in on the real deployment, I will commit that change.

solved in trunk, removed obsolete workaround

If anyone else thinks they are being bit by this very old bug, please check to see if you are actually affected by https://issues.jenkins-ci.org/browse/JENKINS-14217 ... which is what was getting us.

~tommy