subversion 1.7.5 insane upgrade requirement wasting days and days of effort

Upgrading the local version of subversion against a large subversion repository has so far taken three DAYS. It goes through this multi-gigabyte repository in no perceivable order, it goes through every single directory in every single tag and every single branch and refuses to run in any sub-directory. (Even after clearing out some older tags, the tags/ directory is still nearly 8Gb and that doesn't include any binary files.) Each tag within tags/ is 500Mb and contains nearly 6000 sub-directories. Yes, it's large but svn upgrade should still be able to handle it without crippling every machine.

I can't image how svn is going to manage when the server finally gets upgraded. Probably be quicker to dump the entire repo and reimport it.

When I finally give up the will to proceed or simply need to use this LAPTOP for something else, I have to interrupt it with Ctrl-C at which point is starts all over again!

This isn't a slow machine, it's a i5 quad-core T410 with 8Gb of RAM and 1Tb of storage - and svn has made it crawl for days. The only way to pair down the working copy is to delete every tag and branch which means losing data like old build logs and old packages. The repository is this large because it's tracking the development of multiple commercial products which share common code but which also have numerous releases and release updates.

I can't even use svn st on this repo without this completing - I haven't been able to work on this repo since this started. Absolutely insane.

Pondering filing an RC bug on the basis of unjustifiable data loss. We have many machines at work with this repository checked out and if we ever migrate to Wheezy, it's going to mean a WEEK of lost work!!

subversion                    1.7.5-1

So, a warning for anyone else using subversion 1.7.5 with a very large repository: DELETE ALL TAGS and BRANCHES and any other directory anywhere in every single working copy tree on every machine which ever wants to use that copy again before even thinking about upgrading to 1.7.5.

The tags directories don't even need to be upgraded because we only use those to rebuild the code as it was in chroots.

Unspeakably furious about such a completely dumb tool being thrown into the mix DAYS before the Wheezy freeze. Now I have to kill it AGAIN just so that I can suspend the laptop. IDIOTS.