svn: how to ignore folder except two files

Question

How to ignore all subfolders of submissions except one_file?

submissions/
  vt1/
  vt2/
  vt3/
  one_file

one_file is already in the repo, vt folders are not in the repo.

(I was trying all below when outside of the folder submissions)

I tried svn propedit svn:ignore . with the subsequent submissions/vt*. Then did commit, just in case. This still shows all those vt folders when I call svn status (with ? mark on them).

Then I tried the same propedit command but put there submissions. The same result. I also tried submissions/* and ./submissions/*.

Then I tried to add just one of those vt folders (thus not using pattern *). It still shows that subfolder! Things become interesting...

I exhausted all my "logical" ways. Do you know how to do this?

Answer 1

From the book:

When found on a versioned directory, the svn:ignore property is expected to contain a list of newline-delimited file patterns that Subversion should use to determine ignorable objects in that same directory.

You need to set the svn:ignore property on the submissions folder to vt*

From the directory in the working copy which is enclosing the submissions folder, use:

svn propset svn:ignore "vt*" submissions/

Or from the submissions folder itself, use:

svn propset svn:ignore "vt*" .