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Advanced Topicsclient doesn't support https:// will be unable to fetch the external items. Be aware, too,that if you need to reparent your working copy (using svn switch with the --relocateoption), externals definitions will not also be reparented.Subversion 1.5 takes a huge step in relieving these frustrations. As mentioned earlier, theURLs used in the new externals definition format can be relative, and Subversion providessyntax magic for specifying multiple flavors of URL relativity.../Relative to the URL of the directory on which the svn:externals property is set^////Relative to the root of the repository in which the svn:externals property is versionedRelative to the scheme of the URL of the directory on which the svn:externalsproperty is setRelative to the root URL of the server on which the svn:externals property is versionedSo, looking a fourth time at our previous externals definition example, and making use ofthe new absolute URL syntax in various ways, we might now see:$ svn propget svn:externals calc^/sounds third-party/sounds/skinproj@148 third-party/skins//svn.example.com/skin-maker@21 third-party/skins/toolkitThe support that exists for externals definitions in Subversion remains less than ideal,though. An externals definition can point only to directories, not to files. Also, the local subdirectorypart of the definition cannot contain .. parent directory indicators (such as../../skins/myskin). Perhaps most disappointingly, the working copies created viathe externals definition support are still disconnected from the primary working copy (onwhose versioned directories the svn:externals property was actually set). And Subversionstill truly operates only on nondisjoint working copies. So, for example, if you want tocommit changes that you've made in one or more of those external working copies, youmust run svn commit explicitly on those working copies—committing on the primary workingcopy will not recurse into any external ones.We've already mentioned some of the additional shortcomings of the old svn:externalsformat and how the new Subversion 1.5 format improves upon it. But be careful when makinguse of the new format that you don't inadvertently cause problems for other folks accessingyour repository who are using older Subversion clients. While Subversion 1.5 clientswill continue to recognize and support the original externals definition format, older clientswill not be able to correctly parse the new format.Besides the svn checkout, svn update, svn switch, and svn export commands whichactually manage the disjoint (or disconnected) subdirectories into which externals arechecked out, the svn status command also recognizes externals definitions. It displays astatus code of X for the disjoint external subdirectories, and then recurses into those subdirectoriesto display the status of the external items themselves. You can pass the --ignore-externals option to any of these subcommands to disable externals definitionprocessing.Peg and Operative Revisions73