Sometimes you need to work directly on the repository, without having a working copy. That's what the Repository Browser is for. Just as the explorer and the icon overlays allow you to view your working copy, so the Repository Browser allows you to view the structure and status of the repository.

Figure 5.38. The Repository Browser

With the Repository Browser you can execute commands like copy, move, rename, ... directly on the repository.

At the top of the Repository Browser Window you can enter the URL of the repository and the revision you want to browse. Browsing an older revision is useful if you want to e.g. recover a previously deleted file. Use the Context Menu → Copy To... command to do that and enter the full working copy path to where you want to recover your deleted file.

The main browser window looks much like any other tree browser. You can click on the column headings at the top to change the sort order. If you right click on the File heading you can turn Numerical Sort on or off. This provides a more intelligent handling of numbers than a plain ascii sort does, and is useful for getting version number tags in the correct order. The default state of this setting can be changed in the settings dialog.

If you select two items, you can view the differences either as a unified-diff, or as a list of files which can be visually diffed using the default diff tool. This can be particularly useful for comparing two tags to see what changed.

If you select 2 tags which are copied from the same root (typically /trunk/), you can use Context Menu → Show Log... to view the list of revisions between the two tag points.

You can also use the repository browser for drag-and-drop operations. If you drag a folder from explorer into the repo browser, it will be imported into the repository. Note that if you drag multiple items, they will be imported in separate commits.

If you want to move an item within the repository, just left drag it to the new location. If you want to create a copy rather than moving the item, Ctrl left drag instead. When copying, the cursor has a “plus” symbol on it, just as it does in Explorer.

If you want to copy/move a file or folder to another location and also give it a new name at the same time, you can right drag or ctrl right drag the item instead of using left drag. In that case, a rename dialog is shown where you can enter a new name for the file or folder.

Whenever you make changes in the repository using one of these methods, you will be presented with a log message entry dialog. If you dragged something by mistake, this is also your chance to cancel the action.

Sometimes when you try to open a path you will get an error message in place of the item details. This might happen if you specified an invalid URL, or if you don't have access permission, or if there is some other server problem. If you need to copy this message to include it in an email, just right click on it and use Context Menu → Copy error message to clipboard, or simply use CTRL+C.