frequent errors with subversion repository on fat32 on USB memory stick

Question

I keep a copy of a Subversion Repository on a USB memory stick that is formatted with FAT32.

I am using TortoiseSVN on XP and command line svn 1.6.x on Ubuntu and OSX with this memory stick. I notice that I need to do an svn cleanup just about every time or updates and commits will not work.

I routinely have errors with .lock and *.svn/text-base/** files getting corrupted.

Errors tend to be parameter is incorrect or lock file can not be read

Sometimes svn cleanup works and sometimes chflags -R nouchg *

Is there anything I can do to prevent this?

Edit: This is no longer an problem if you use ExFAT as the file system and a post 1.6 version of subversion.

Answer 1

Just a thought.. check that the SVN version of both clients is the same. Your Tortoise and command line tool may be writing incompatible metadata to the .svn folder. Also you may want to investigate if Tortoise caches any metadata that is not getting written to the stick before you eject it.