Can I retrieve an SVN Log from a local copy?

Question

My organisation ran an SVN repository server for 2 years. This server died in November; we didn't loose any files thanks to the local copies, but we lost the history, which is obviously a shame.

I still have my local repository copies and I'd like to know whether I can regain the SVN Log from this local copy. Usually for running SVN log a server connection is required, so the question is, is it possible to get the log without server?

Answer 1

Generally speaking, no: log entries are stored as so-called "Revision Properties" SVN on the server.

You can, however, try to extract log entries from caches of an SVN client you were using -- as far as I know, TortoiseSVN caches log entries somewhere. SmartSVN does that as well.

Answer 2

The log is not stored in local copies : those only store the current copy you're working on (i.e. the last copy you checked out).

So, no, you cannot get the SVN log from a local extraction.