svn: ‘wp-content/plugins/akismet’ is not a working copy

Maybe you’ve been upgrading your Wordpress installation using the Subversion method (sweet and easy! if you like the command line). If so, in the update to v2.6.1 or so, perhaps you’ve gotten this error message:

Fetching external item into ‘wp-content/plugins/akismet’
svn: ‘wp-content/plugins/akismet’ is not a working copy
svn: Can’t open file ‘wp-content/plugins/akismet/.svn/entries’: No such file or directory

Yeah, me too.

This isn’t a big deal, btw. Your wordpress installation will work just fine, it’s just more of an annoyance. Below I explain how to remove it.

Explanation

Previously, the WP guys used Subversions “externals” feature to pull in the akismet plugin automaticall from a different part of their subversion repository. In v2.6, the Plugin upgrade system was added, and now Akismet can be upgraded from the admin interface. So they removed the svn property that brought in the Akismet code because it was not needed any longer. This is what caused the error message.

Update: Actually, I just created a new blog, and it is pulling Akismet in via the svn:externals. So I am not sure exactly what happened–it seems to be an issue from an existing SVN install, being updated to 2.6.1 or above. Strange. Anyway, the “fix” below seems to be sufficient, if you don’t mind upgrading Akismet via the admin UI.

To fix it:

1. in a terminal window, change directories so that you are in the wp-content/plugins directory.

2. remove the svn:externals property.

$ cd blog/wp-content/plugins

 

$ svn propget svn:externals 

akismet http://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/akismet/trunk/

$ svn propdel svn:externals

property ’svn:externals’ deleted from ‘.’.

$

 

Update Akismet from inside WP

Now you get to use WP’S snazzy new plugin update features. In your admin, go to the Plugins section. If you haven’t already done the upgrade, there will be an upgrade notice beneath the Akismet Plugin information.

Click “upgrade automatically” to activate the update. Easy!