Have VCSCommand work with an existing TortoiseSVN checkout

Proposed tip Please edit this page to improve it, or add your comments below (do not use the discussion page).

Please use new tips to discuss whether this page should be a permanent tip, or whether it should be merged to an existing tip.

created November 6, 2011 · complexity basic · version 7.0

---

Scenario: you have an existing svn working directory created with TortoiseSVN using the svn+ssh protocol, and you want to interact with it using version control commands within Vim.

In this case, the repository server is on a non-standard SSH port; to support this, a PuTTY named session is stored in the working directory meta-info. The following procedure will address this situation as well as a normally-addressed svn+ssh checkout.

Procedure

1. Install the VCSCommand plugin as described on the script page. i.e. unpack the scripts to your plugin directory (probably C:\Program Files\vim\vimfiles\plugin). If you're only going to be using svn, you only really need vcscommand.vim and vcssvn.vim.
2. edit the subversion config file.

   Under Windows 7, this is probably c:\users\admin\AppData\Roaming\Subversion\config.

   Surprisingly, TortoiseSVN doesn't do this by itself even though it's commonly described as required in order to have TSVN work over SSH. Edit the file and under the [tunnels] section, add this line:
   ssh = $SVN_SSH "C:/Program Files/tortoisesvn/bin/tortoiseplink.exe"

   Enter it that way verbatim (assuming you've installed TSVN in the standard location). The biggest hassle with all this is getting these command lines just so - it's incredibly sensitive to correct escaping etc.

3. edit your _vimrc

   Add the following two lines. In my case, my working dir was in c:\working. Adjust the value of the second variable according to whatever yours is.

let VCSCommandSVNExec="C:\\Progra~1\\TortoiseSVN\\bin\\svn.exe"
let VCSCommandVCSTypeOverride= [['C:\\working\\*', 'SVN']]

Again, do the escaping just like that (particularly the 'progra~1' thing), or VCSCommand will refuse to work without offering any particularly helpful error messages.

Then save and close everything. To test, edit one of the files in your checkout. Try :CVSLog and tortoiseplink should open a dialog prompting you for your repo password (assuming you authenticate via password). CVSCommand should then work as described in it's docco thereafter.

Comments

Step 2 was the solution to a problem I've been working on for months. Double thanks for the info.