svn: E155021: This client is too old to work with the working copy at xxx (format '31') - spring

Question

I am trying to import some gradle projects in my Spring Tool Suite . I have installed Subclipse 1.10.5 in my STS and svn client installed in my machine is 1.8.8 . I have tried downgrading to 1.7.10 on my mac but still I get the same problem while importing .
For others SVN 1.7.10 and Subclipse 1.10.5 seems to work fine but in my machine I am getting the error
svn: E155021: This client is too old to work with the working copy at
'/Users/agarg/Documents/Mars/trunk' (format '31')
Stuck here for some time now and unable to resolve this . Tried a lot of things as I found over the net but still stuck.

Answer 1

I had this problem on Mac OS Yosemite with Webstorm and IntelliJ.
svn --version on the command line printed 1.8, but even with command line client option enabled with value svn in Webstorm/IntelliJ I was getting the warning.
Running which svn and pasting the value (/usr/local/bin/svn for me) into WebStorm->Preferences->Version Control->Subversion->Use command line client removed the warning and fixed the issues I was having in Webstorm and IntelliJ.

Answer 2

The working copy has format understandable by SVN 1.8 client, but your client is SVN 1.7 or older.
You should double-check what Subclipse / SVNKit / svn.exe client versions you have on your system.
Try accessing the working copy from command-line and see whether you get the same error.

Answer 3

If you definitely have svn installed and running at the correct version you want, this error means the metadata in your project refers to an older version of subversion. Upgrade it by following this guide: http://www.robsearles.com/2008/12/svn-client-is-too-old-to-work-with-working-copy-solution-using-rsync/

Answer 4

I had this same issue on OSX. I have been able to upgrade the SVN by following the step by step guide here:
URL: http://andowebsit.es/blog/noteslog.com/post/how-to-upgrade-subversion-on-osx/
First check which svn version you have:
$ svn --version
svn, version 1.7.17 (r1591372)
compiled Aug 7 2014, 17:03:25
...
Seems like its old version, so update it.
$ brew update
$ brew install subversion
This will take some seconds to install. Now check how many svn you have. You will see the another entry belew.
$ which -a svn
/usr/bin/svn
/usr/local/bin/svn
Edit the ~/.bash_profile with
export PATH="/usr/local/bin:$PATH"
And then
$ source ~/.bash_profile
$ svn --version
svn, version 1.8.10 (r1615264)
compiled Aug 25 2014, 10:57:58 on x86_64-apple-darwin13.3.0
...
Now you will see the SVN verison is upgraded from 1.7 to 1.8.

Answer 5

Same problem here (SVN 1.8 client on W7, STS 3.6.3, eclipse-plugin: subversive SVN Team provider 1.1.x and SVNKit Implementation 3.0.x).
Upgrading (in STS) the SVN Team provider to 2.03.x and SVNKit to 4.1.2 solved the problem.

Answer 6

Got this error ON MAC OS X but you believe you have available the right version?
First look at how many svn
$ which -a svn
/usr/local/bin/svn
/usr/bin/svn
/usr/local/bin/svn
Look at the output for each of the output using the --version flag. You might notice that the default which output is not the same as the default command output:
$ command -v svn
/usr/bin/svn
$ which svn
/usr/local/bin/svn
You might be tempted to update some symlinks or your PATH variable but before doing so try from a new console, it might be just that you are hitting a console open before you installed the latest version. I would even try restarting before attempting to change PATH or symlinks.

Answer 7

Easiest way:
1. execute which -a svn in terminal;
2. modify the enviroment file(like ~/.bash_profile), and use the older version svn;
3. checkout svn code with your older svn;
4. import it into your IDE;
5. DONE.

Answer 8

I had similar issue in my program while checking out code from SVN through my Java program .
TO resolve i closed the eclipse workspace and deleted the folder in which i was checking out the files on my local directory.It worked for me.

Answer 9

Thanks to all for their solution. I was struggling with this issue for couple of days. I had installed old version 1.7 with PC login of Cygwin environment.
Later i had to install version 1.9 because i wanted to use svn command. For most of the time i was looking for a file /.bash_profile on my PC or file which would have path usr/local/bin.
But i always found path cygwin/usr/local/bin. I kept neglecting it.
After doing so many trial and error, i took simple chance.
Went to Environment Variable PATH, and cut path "C:\Program Files\TortoiseSVN\bin\bin" and pasted before "cygwin/usr/local/bin"
And later svn --version detected my latest version 1.9 :)